Perth Glory midfielder Adriano Pellegrino believes the club will be able to rapidly integrate its new players into the team ahead of the new Hyundai A-League season.
Having finished seventh in 2008-09, coach Dave Mitchell has embarked on an ambitious pre-season recruiting drive that’s netted Socceroos Mile Sterjovski (from Derby County) and Jacob Burns (Unirea Urziceni), along with former Blackburn captain Andy Todd (Derby County) and striker Branko Jelic (Eintracht Frankfurt).
There are also reports in the The West Australian that the club is on the verge of offering another Socceroo, Colchester’s Chris Coyne, a three-year contract, allowing him to team up once again with brother Jamie after 13 years playing abroad.
Coyne, 30, has two years to run on his current contract at Colchester but has reportedly been told by manager Phil Lambert he’s free to look at other options.
Despite none of the new recruits being available to train with the Glory as yet, Pellegrino doesn’t believe they will have any trouble gelling with the rest of the squad when they do arrive in Western Australia.
“The new players are fit and well because they’ve been training with their club sides and with the Socceroos,” Pellegrino said.
“So coming in, they’ve still got their four weeks training (with Perth) plus another couple of weeks before the season starts up and I think that’s ample time for them to come over and start playing.”
“Those boys are experienced boys and they’ll guide us in the right way and with our coaching staff behind us, it will all fall into line very well.”
Pellegrino said rather than playing down expectations of a maiden Hyundai A-League finals appearance this season, the players needed to embrace the pressure and thrive on it.
“You can just feel around town that the supporters are really looking for a big season,” Pellegrino said.
“There’s always expectation going into the season. Everyone knows part of playing soccer is expectations and you thrive on it, so I just can’t wait for the season to get under way.”
The Glory start their season on August 6 with an away clash against last year’s beaten grand finalist Adelaide United. Before that, the club will play two high-profile friendlies against English Premier League sides Wolverhampton (July 10) and Fulham (July 15).
