Melbourne City’s director of football Michael Petrillo revealed the Isuzu UTE A-League team are set to sign another player, maybe even two before the start of season 2024-25.
City have been busy in the off-season after sneaking into the top six last season before losing to rivals Melbourne Victory in an Elimination Final.
So far, Aurelio Vidmar’s City have brought in Kai Trewin from Brisbane Roar, Marco Tilio (on loan from Celtic), Argentinian defender German Ferreyra and Austrian midfielder Andreas Kuen while also giving scholarship deals to academy graduates Jayden Necovski, Medin Memeti, Harry Shillington, Lawrence Wong and Peter Antoniou.
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It comes following the departure of the Isuzu UTE A-League’s all-time leading goalscorer and captain Jamie Maclaren, as well as star Tolgay Arslan, Curtis Good, Terry Antonis, Leo Natel, Marin Jakolis, Jordan Hall and Vicente Fernandez.
With at least one more signing on the radar, Petrillo explained City’s approach to re-shaping their squad.
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“We want to lower the age profile because we had quite an older team last season,” Petrillo said in an interview with Suited & Booted TV while reflecting on an inconsistent 2023-24 campaign.
“A lot of players over 30. We still have a few players over 30 but we’ve been able to recruit players – Kai Trewin is 23, Ferreya is 28, Andreas is 29 and will bring in another player some time in the next week who is in the age profile of around 28.
“We still have another player to come in. Maybe two, but definitely one.
“So all of them have been under the age of 30 so our age profile now is a lot younger and we’ve had seven scholarship players to that group. The oldest is 19 and the youngest is Jayden, who just turned 16.
“We wanted to add that youthful enthusiasm to the squad because young players are hungry and want to be successful. The late to mid-20s is probably peak for players so we brought in four players in that category.”
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