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Coyne leaves Glory guessing

Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell hopes to know by Monday whether the A-League club has been successful in luring Socceroos defender Chris Coyne.

The Glory have offered Coyne a three-year deal but are yet to hear back from the 30-year-old, who is contracted to English club Colchester United but has been given permission to look elsewhere.

Coyne, the older brother of Glory captain Jamie Coyne, has fielded offers from several A-League clubs but is also weighing up options in England, Asia and the Middle East.

“That’s just still in the air really, we dont know,” Mitchell said.

“He’s got some issues over there at the club and we’ve made an offer and there’s a few other clubs in the mix so as of yet we don’t know.

“But we’ll just have to wait and see and probably by the end of the weekend we’ll probably know something.”

Meanwhile, Jamie Coyne is no certainty to captain the Glory for the upcoming season.

“Last year Jamie had the captaincy and it was an up and down season for himself and also the club so I was just going to re-address that this year and think of what options we’ve got,” Mitchell said.

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“We’ve got natural leaders. Jamie did OK last year but we’ve got Jamie Harnwell as well, you’ve got Andy Todd, Jacob Burns.

“So you’ve got a few people there that are candidates, and if Chris Coyne comes, there’s another candidate as well.

“So we’ll just wait and see, keep that under the hat at the minute.”

Mitchell said he would take a cautious approach with former Blackburn and Derby County defender Todd, who only landed in Perth on Monday.

The 34-year-old is expected to play for a half in Perth’s clash with Premier League newcomers Wolverhampton on July 10.

“He just arrived the other day and just getting on his feet now, so the big picture is the start of the season,” Mitchell said.

“We dont want to rush him into things but certainly those games (against Wolverhampton and Fulham) he’ll take part in them, that’s for sure.

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“We’ll monitor him more next week and see how he feels and see how he’s coping.”

Socceroo Jacob Burns will start training with the Glory from Monday while former Bundesliga striker Branko Jelic is expected to join his new team-mates early next week after getting his visa application approved.

Mile Sterjovski, who played with Todd at Derby last season, is expected to link up with the Glory on Wednesday.

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