Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell has played down the club automatically using any funds from Nikita Rukavytsya’s transfer on acquiring a marquee player for next season.
The Glory agreed on Monday to send Rukavytsya to Dutch club FC Twente for an undisclosed sum.
Mitchell, though, was in no hurry to sign a marquee player for next season, despite losing a striker like Rukavytsya, who scored his 10th goal of the Hyundai A-League season in last weekend’s final-round 4-2 loss to Queensland.
“The club would like to get a marquee player but that is also fraught with danger as well,” Mitchell said following the club’s final training session of the season on Wednesday morning.
“Sydney have proven the case, they’ve had a couple of high-profile players and for whatever reason, they haven’t performed to their expectation, either it be injury or form.”
“Our season’s finished now but a lot of good players become available in two months’ time when you find European clubs are letting players go.”
“Sometimes there’s really good players that pop up later on that you didn’t expect to for whatever reason, like a new manager takes over and he’s been released from the club.”
“So I think it’s important we don’t rush into things although there are people we’ve targeted and we’re moving on with that.”
Mitchell said there are past and present Socceroos’ players he’s interested in bringing to Perth but wouldn’t name anyone specifically.
“There are some players that have played for the Socceroos that I’ve spoken to, there’s quite a few that are interested but again you’ve got to get the nuts and bolts and see if it can happen,” Mitchell said.
“(So we’ll) see who’s available and see if they’re a good player and whether he’s value and he ticks off all the little boxes that the club’s looking for, like personality, character, good player, all those things.”
“If the guy ticks all those boxes, then the owners will come up with some money to get that sort of player in.”
Mitchell said the club would not be rushing out to replace Rukavytsya with another striker, saying the Glory may promote a new forward from within its National Youth League ranks.
Mitchell indicated another forward option could be Dutch former-Ajax player Victor Sikora, who has previously played up front for the Glory and looks almost certain to receive a new contract with the club for next season.
