Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou is eager to move swiftly on the club’s uncontracted members with player of the season Ante Covic unlikely to earn a new deal.
Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou is eager to move swiftly on the club’s uncontracted members with player of the season Ante Covic unlikely to earn a new deal.
The goalkeeper is one of a handful of Victory players out of contract, along with Costa Rican Carlos Hernandez, and with two fellow shot-stoppers already locked in (Tando Velaphi and Lawrence Thomas), Covic’s time may be up despite being the club’s most consistent performer this season.
“Uncontracted players we’ll make decisions over in the next few weeks but the reality of it is that the club has two contracted goalkeepers and I don’t think we’ll be fitting in a third,” Postecoglou said in the midst of his first training session at the club.
“We’ve got plenty of time, you go into a new job you obviously have to assess what’s there and some of the players are locked in but I think looking at it from a quick summary, there is enough flexibility for me to do what I want to do.”
Postecoglou said he had not yet contacted Hernandez but did intimate he would like to have room to move in the salary cap in order to bring in some fresh faces.
“He’s (Hernandez) one of the ones we need to make a decision on, there were some initial discussions around his commercial arrangements, I’ll have a look at that,” Postecoglou said.
“We work around the salary cap so I’ve got to be able to make sure I want to do what I want to do in terms of recruiting before we lock away too much of the salary cap.”
With the final two years of Harry Kewell’s conditional deal set to be triggered, as Postecoglou indicated on SBS’s The World Game on Monday, that suggests both Covic and Hernandez could be on their way out.
“We’ve got to start working pretty quickly, we’re doing a fair bit of work just making sure strategically we’re in a good place,” Postecoglou added.
“So obviously the players out of contract (we need to be) making some decisions on them pretty quickly and also the ones we want to bring in.
“I’m pretty anxious to get things locked away pretty quickly before the end of the month so that’ll mean a fair bit of work between now and then to get in the ones we want and make sure the squad and staffing is all organised by the end of the month.”
After a long pause the former Roar coach described Gold Coast starlet Ben Halloran as a potential target but ruled out signing Qantas Socceroo veteran Scott Chipperfield, who is set to return to the Hyundai A-League after 11 seasons and seven titles with Swiss club FC Basel.
“… No priorities (in terms of targeting players), just we want to bring in good players, he’s (Halloran) a good player so he’s definitely somebody we’ll look at but there’s a number we’re looking at, at the moment.
“In terms of the targets, there’s a few that I’ve identified and would like to bring in but when you’re in this sort of game, I don’t really like to talk about them until they’re over the line.
“But I would think there will be a few announcements within the next two weeks.
“Scotty will be great for the A-League, hopefully he does come back probably not for us. I’ve tended with my recruiting to go for guys who, for want of a better word, are a bit younger in terms of the kind of game we want to play.
“There’s a fair bit of experience at the club anyway so I don’t think that’s the area we’re really lacking in, particularly in his position, we’ll be looking at other positions.”
Postecoglou said initial training sessions and the May 19 friendly with Olympiacos would be good chances to cast his eye over some of the squad’s younger members while ruling Kewell and captain Adrian Leijer out of the clash.
“This next three weeks gives me an opportunity to have a good look at some of the young ones who were in the youth team last year or on the fringes of the first team to see if anyone stands out.
“Really this Olympiacos game will give me a chance to have a look at some of the other (players) maybe I wouldn’t have had a chance to look at.”
