Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell has closed the door on former Uruguayan striker Alvaro Recoba playing for the club this season.
Mitchell had already confirmed Recoba’s representatives had approached the Glory but the coach said a reported asking price of $2 million dollars for a marquee player was too high.
Marquee players are paid outside of a Hyundai A-League club’s regular salary cap of $2.1 million dollars, meaning his salary would almost have been equivalent to the rest of the squad’s.
“I think he’s priced himself out of the market,” was Mitchell’s assessment of the former Inter Milan hit man, who now plays for Greek club Panionios.
“He’s a fantastic player. Australia, Uruguay and him in particular have a history so I think it would have been an interesting signing.”
“But there’s other players out there that I want to come to Australia that are probably better priced and better value which we want to look at.”
“Obviously he was of interest but there’s other good players out there and that’s what we’ll be looking for now,” he said.
One of those players is former Blackburn captain Andy Todd, who is currently in Perth, completing a medical at the club on Thursday afternoon after being let go by his current club Derby County.
Mitchell said the club will have further discussions with Todd on Friday and is hopeful of signing the defender over the weekend.
Another player hopeful of returning to Australia is former Millwall and Piacenza midfielder Daniel Severino, who’s been trialling with the Glory this week after cutting short his contract at Maltese club Sliema Wanderers.
“He’s looking very good,” was Glory midfielder Adriano Pellegrino’s assessment of Severino, who previously had an unsuccessful trial at Sydney FC before moving to Sliema, only to get limited game time.
“He’s looking very sharp and I think they’re going to make a decision on him soon but he’s impressed, he’s very good and he’s got a great left foot.”
“But it’s just up to the coaching staff to decide on what other options there are, what other players there are to come in.”
“I guess it’s hard with the salary cap as well, you’ve got to try and fit everyone in so it’s just up to the coaching staff to decide on what’s the best option at the moment.”
The Glory has already signed fringe Socceroos’ midfielder Jacob Burns and Mitchell will continue to try courting fellow Australian player Mile Sterjovski to the club after he was also let go by Derby County. Former Energie Cottbus striker Branko Jelic has also been linked to the Glory.
