Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell is hopeful departing forward Adrian Trinidad may return to play in the Hyundai A-League once again, after being released by Perth last Monday evening.
Trinidad, the centre of a diving controversy during the year, suffered an injury-disrupted season, his 15 appearances for the club often limited to bit parts, coming off the bench for the last five minutes.
“This was a frustrating year for Adrian,” Mitchell said. “He had the opportunity to come and play in Australia and he knew it was going to be a challenge for him.”
“If it wasn’t for his injury and not settling in quick enough, he would have had more of a big say in our season and that was a bit unfortunate for him and us.”
“(So) he wanted to go back to Argentina and then re-stock and find out where he’s going to go.”
“He thought about maybe going back to Indonesia but he liked Australia … and when the season starts here again there might be an opportunity back here for him again, who knows.”
The skilful Trinidad had shaped as a major player for the Glory this year, having scored the club’s first goal of the season in a man-of-the-match display against Newcastle in Round 2.
The 26-year-old also showed off all his tricks putting Melbourne to the sword in December as he created two goals for Eugene Dadi in the 3-1 result before a crude tackle just before half-time hurt his ankle and he struggled with the injury for the remainder of the campaign.
Mitchell, though, was not ruling out asking Trinidad to return to Perth.
“We haven’t filled all our foreigners up,” Mitchell said. “He’s fit enough, so it could well be.”
“But I think there’s more a sense that he wanted to go back to Argentina, take stock where he is and then move on from there.”
