Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell is hopeful Colchester United captain and Qantas Socceroos defender Chris Coyne will have made a decision on his future by the end of the weekend.
Coyne has two seasons remaining on his contract at Colchester but has been told by the club’s manager Phil Lambert he can look at other options, prompting the Glory to offer him a three-year contract last week.
Coyne’s younger brother Jamie also plays at the Glory and is hopeful his brother will join him at Members Equity Stadium, but Mitchell said the elder Coyne had yet to make any decision.
“Yeah it’s just still up in the air really,” Mitchell said at training on Friday.
“We don’t know. He’s got some issues over there at the club and we’ve made an offer and there’s a few other clubs in the mix so as of yet, we don’t know.”
“We’ll just have to wait and see and probably by the end of the weekend, we’ll probably know something.”
Mitchell also said he hadn’t make any decision on the captaincy for this campaign.
But he said last season’s captain Jamie Coyne remained in the mix to lead the side once again despite facing stiff competition from fellow veteran Jamie Harnwell and new arrivals Mile Sterjovski, Jacob Burns and former Blackburn Rovers captain Andy Todd.
“Last year Jamie had the captaincy and it was an up-and-down season for himself and also the club,” Mitchell said.
“So we’re just going to readdress that this year and think of the options we’ve got.”
“We’ve got natural leaders. Jamie did okay last year, and we’ve got Jamie Harnwell as well.”
“You’ve got a few people there that are candidates and if Chris Coyne comes, there’s another candidate as well. So we’ll just wait and see (and) keep that under the hat at the minute,” he said.
Burns is due to have his first training session with the Glory on Monday, along with former Energie Cottbus striker Branko Jelic, who will arrive in Perth this weekend after his Australian work visa was approved.
Sterjovski may also train with the squad on Monday ahead of the Glory playing newly promoted English Premiership side Wolverhampton next Friday night. Wolves will also arrive in Perth on the weekend and are scheduled to train at the WACA ground throughout a 12-day camp in Western Australia.
