Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat revealed on Thursday that James Troisi is “not on the radar” for a return to AAMI Park for the upcoming A-League season.
Troisi played 35 matches in all competitions on loan at Victory last season, scoring 15 goals, and was vital in the club’s run to the Hyundai A-League semi-finals, where they lost to eventual champions Brisbane Roar 1-0.
That impressive campaign saw the 26-year-old attacker, who is on the books at Serie A giants Juventus, claim a spot in the Socceroos’ World Cup squad, coming off the bench against Chile and Spain.
Troisi is surplus to requirements at Juventus, having never made a senior appearance for the Turin-based club, and the Australia international has been linked with moves to Victory, Western Sydney Wanderers and Adelaide United in the A-League, plus Belgian club Zulte Waregem.
But Muscat has now distanced the Big V from Troisi.
“It’s not on the radar,” Victory’s boss said.
“You know, we’ve never really spoken about anyone’s contractual situation, so I’m not going to go into speaking about James, but that chapter’s probably one too far at the moment for us.”
In the lead-up to the 2014-15 campaign, Muscat claimed he was interested in signing a midfielder, defender and left-sided forward, having already secured the signature of marquee striker Besart Berisha midway through last season.
Victory have signed Socceroos defensive midfielder Carl Valeri and former VfB Stuttgart central defender Mathieu Delpierre to fill two of those slots, and Troisi had seemingly been the target to fill the third.
But having watched his team win all five pre-season friendlies so far, plus their FFA Cup round of 32 tie versus Bayswater City, Muscat indicated some of his younger players may be putting their hand up to make a mark up front this term.
“We’ve had eight weeks of pre-season and some players have really left a good impression, from the players we’ve retained from last season, so things might change,” he said.
Muscat added, however, that Victory still have space for two more players in their squad, although he insisted he was after quality and not quantity.
“We’re still active [in the transfer market], we still want to add to the squad,” the 41-year-old said.
“Obviously, at this stage…we’re going to make sure that if we do bring anyone in, it’s going to add to serious value to the team.”
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