Adelaide United have shown their faith in coach Rini Coolen by offering the Dutchman a four-year extension to his contract.
Coolen has impressed in his first year in charge of the Reds, leading them into the finals despite having only six weeks to work with his new team ahead of the campaign.
The club’s new ownership consortium said they keen to ensure Coolen’s long-term future remains in the City of Churches, and he now has a contract through to 2015.
“When we first assumed ownership of the club, one of our priorities was to put in place the extension of Rini’s contract. We were extremely impressed with what he had done on the field, and his plans off the field,” Adelaide United Chairman Greg Griffin said.
“From his experience Rini has a great knowledge of the game, I think he has a lot to give us in terms of coaching methods and development, and he-s very much on the same page as us in terms of developing the right culture to take this club forward.”
Griffin said the length of the contract was sign of the commitment the club had to building a culture of success.
“We decided to make it a four year deal because in essence many of Rini-s plans require time, particularly in respect of our junior development program and elite junior athlete programming,” Griffin said.
“It needs time to put into place so that you can actually get the benefit of the work, so a one or two year deal would have meant that the junior program would have been greatly devalued.”
“What we want to see is a very effective and high class junior development program that feeds young South Australians into a Reds shirt.”
Coolen said he was delighted to continue his association with the club and was passionate about growing South Australian football.
“I am thankful to the people that helped bring me out to Australia and from the time the new owners came in, they have given me fantastic support and I am extremely grateful for the faith they have shown in me,” Coolen said.
“Looking at the great support this team has from its fans, I can see that Adelaide United is going places and being able to be part of it is something I am really excited about.”
“We spoke about it (a new deal) a couple of months ago and took the time to arrange it. Finally the deal is done and I’m very happy because when the new owners came in, I found out that they were looking forward at the big picture and it was in the same line of thoughts of how I prefer to work,” Coolen said.
“We have already made a lot of good steps this year and there are still a lot of steps to go for the future. For that we need more time and that-s what they gave me. It gave me a lot of confidence when the club asked me to do this for so many years and I’m happy to do it.”
