Melbourne Victory coach Jim Magilton says he’s unsure whether he deserves to be kept on as coach, but has adamantly denied accusations some of his early decisions put members of the squad offside.
Melbourne Victory coach Jim Magilton says he’s unsure whether he deserves to be kept on as coach, but has adamantly denied accusations some of his early decisions put members of the squad offside.
In an expansive press conference on Thursday morning, Magilton acknowledged a scathing newspaper column that said his record of just one win from 10 games in charge was no reason for the Victory’s board to re-sign the Northern Irishman.
The column went on to say Magilton’s handling of veteran Tom Pondeljak’s exit from the side – where Pondeljak was reportedly asked to finish up six weeks ago so Victory could sign youngster Julius Davies – had led to the coach losing his player’s support.
However, Magilton wasn’t having a bar of it.
“No I don’t,” Magilton declared when asked specifically if he’d lost support at that point in time.
“I think that if you’re going to move forward, things have to be said and whether it’s done publically or privately, it’s down to the discretion of the manager.”
“The players here have been fabulous, there is no issue with the players,” he added.
“Their application and attitude in training every week, every day has been great.”
“You know, again, we are where we are and it doesn’t rest well with anyone at this football club, the players in the side or out of the side.”
“Nobody wants to see us where we are. And, they’ve worked extremely hard as I have and the staff have and it just hasn’t happened for us.”
“I think we’ve reached the point where I think we have to bring in players to make us competitive again, it’s as simple as that.”
Magilton said he hadn’t asked Pondeljak not to train with the club.
“I made the call (on Pondeljak’s future), yes and again it was with great respect to Tommy.”
“Tommy had struggled with injury and we had a conversation.”
“I wanted to give him an opportunity if he wanted to continue playing to go and find another side. It freed up a place on the roster for me and we were desperately trying to get a young player in Julius Davies and that has been caught up in red tape, but it was done with great respect to Tommy Pondeljak and again in recognition of his great service to the football club.”
“Tommy is always welcome back at this football club. He is always been welcome back if he wants to come in to training, that was never, ever an issue or never discussed.”
Magilton said discussions over his future at Victory were ongoing but he wasn’t the best person to answer questions over whether he deserved to stay on after an unflattering series of results since he took over from Mehmet Durakovic.
“With regards to results, no one’s more disappointed than I am,” he said.
“I believe my credentials have been questioned across the board.”
“My CV is what it is. I know I work extremely hard at attaining everything I can do to be a better manager, better coach, pro-licence coach. I’ve taken a number of years to get to that level, I’m always learning, I want to learn, I want to improve.”
“I think the environment here is such that you’re constantly improving with the other guys that are in this building, so I don’t know, obviously I can’t answer that.”
Despite his future not being secure, Magilton said he was rapt to have completed a deal to bring Gold Coast United defender Adama Traore to the club.
And, the coach said he’d be trying a few different things now Victory are out of the finals race, saying goalkeeper Tando Velaphi would make his first Hyundai A-League start for the club in this weekend’s clash against Wellington after a season soured by a stress fracture in his leg.