Brisbane Roar head coach Ruben Zadkovich has confirmed there’s truth to the rumours that striker Thomas Waddingham is on the verge of securing an overseas transfer.
Waddingham, 19, was a second-half substitute in Brisbane’s 1-0 loss to Newcastle Jets in midweek and was left out of Zadkovich’s squad entirely for Saturday’s defeat to Melbourne City by the same margin.
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Zadkovich’s decision to use his star striker sparingly in Brisbane’s last two Isuzu UTE A-League fixtures has only fuelled rumours of a potential transfer, with several UK clubs linked to the young striker in recent days including Portsmouth, Sheffield Wednesday, Queens Park Rangers and Middlesbrough.
After Saturday’s 1-0 loss to City, Zadkovich was asked whether Waddingham’s absence from the matchday squad was due to the transfer interest.
“Yeah it is, those rumours are true,” Zadkovich said. “Like I’ve been saying for a few weeks, there’s been a lot of interest around Tommy – and rightly so.
“I’m not going to talk about the inner workings of that deal, but let’s just say it’s a positive for Tommy and his career, and it’s a positive for our club financially.”
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Asked then to respond to reports that Portsmouth was the front-runner for Waddingham’s signature, Zadkovich responded: “Look, there’s been a couple of offers to be honest and until it’s concrete, I’m not really going to comment on who that is.”
Waddingham made his Isuzu UTE A-League debut for Brisbane in October, 2023 and in his 34 league games for the club, has scored 11 goals. The 19-year-old’s 11-goal Isuzu UTE A-League haul is the second-most of any teenager in the competition’s history behind former Adelaide United star Nestory Irankunda (16).
Zadkovich said an expected transfer fee for Waddingham would be used at least in part to reinforce his squad in the upcoming transfer window.
“The sale of Thomas Waddingham – that doesn’t happen by chance,” he said. “That happens by backing one of our own young scholars through a difficult period of this rebuild and watching him go score, lead the line and shoulder the responsibility.
“Another positive that we’ve actually got a sale, it progresses the club forward and progresses his career.
“Until that deal is done, we don’t know exactly what that looks like but obviously, if it’s good business for us then we can use it to try and strengthen our men’s team.”
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The opening of the transfer window will not only allow Zadkovich and the Roar to pursue new targets, but it will also facilitate the return of Henry Hore following a six-month loan at K League 1 side, Gangwon FC.
“Henry Hore coming back in, like I keep saying, he was our best player last year in terms of goal involvements, assists, and goals scored, the equal-leading goalscorer,” Zadkovich said. “If you take that out of any team they’re going to struggle a bit.
“Again it’s something we had to do. We had to let him go on loan for financial reasons. He’s not a player I was happy to get rid of, so I’m happy he comes back into the fray, he’ll be a big addition.
“Then obviously we want to make additions to the squad that can help us on the pitch with results. It would be very naive of us to look short-term players and whatever is available. It’s still got to be the right fit for us long-term. But we want to make additions, we want to strengthen in every window and we’ll look to do that.”
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