Hernandez leaves Victory A-League club
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Former A-League player of the year Carlos Hernandez has left Melbourne Victory. New Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has confirmed Costa Rican international Hernandez won’t be re-signed.
Postecoglou wants to free up salary cap space to start the rebuilding at the underperforming club.
The reported $350,000 a season that 30-year-old Hernandez is seeking is seen as too much for a player praised for his brilliance but questioned for his workrate and fitness.
The Victory confirmed Hernandez’s departure in a statement on Wednesday.
“From my point of view, I need to change things here,” Postecoglou told Radio Sports National.
“I want to play a different style of football and, when you look at Carlos, he’s out of contract.
“With the salary cap, I just think we need a little bit more to manoeuvre with. This is my opportunity to change things around.”
Renowned for his long-range thunderbolt goals, Hernandez had been linked with a possible move to Adelaide United, though his salary demands would suggest a move overseas is more likely.
But the news is brighter for Socceroo Harry Kewell, who is understood to be close to agreeing to a rejigged deal to stay at the Victory.
After re-organising the club’s football department, Postecoglou is keen to nail down his foreign signings first, earmarking a central defender and defensive midfielder as priorities to strengthen the squad.
The size of Kewell’s pay packet is also set to determine the level of Victory’s spending on new players.
“We found in Brisbane if you get the right foreigners in the mix, you can certainly make a difference,” Postecoglou said.
“Our first couple of signings will be foreigners.
“That’s where I want to spend the cash first. Then we’ll see what we have for Australian players.”
The Victory have already released goalkeeper Ante Covic and two-time championship hero Grant Brebner – both of whom were veterans out of contract.
But Postecoglou said their release was not necessarily a comment on the players, more about creating the freedom to bring in the right new talent.
“When you’re restricted by salary caps, if you want to make changes, you have to make decisions and release people.
“It’s my opportunity to stamp my authority on the club, and my style on the club and that releases some spots where I can bring some people in.”
© AAP 2013
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The Crowd Says (17) | Page 1 of Comments
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- A-League, Carlos Hernandez, football, Melbourne Victory
May 17th 2012 @ 8:54am
Qantas supports Australian Football said | May 17th 2012 @ 8:54am | Report comment
Wonder if he is going to say in Australia or go to the MSL???
May 17th 2012 @ 9:23am
TomC said | May 17th 2012 @ 9:23am | Report comment
Not really a surprise. Not the kind of play Ange has been using.
MV’s team next season is likely to look quite different.
May 17th 2012 @ 9:36am
Qantas supports Australian Football said | May 17th 2012 @ 9:36am | Report comment
Big surprise to me after Ange stated he was not going to duplicate what he had achieved with the Roar.. But work with the incumbent squad with a few new young signings… I reckon it was a clash of egos for star billing… was it to be Harry or Carlos now we know…
May 17th 2012 @ 4:46pm
philipcoates said | May 17th 2012 @ 4:46pm | Report comment
Maybe not so much a clash of egos but a clash of pay packets. The club had three high paid players – Archie, Carlos and then Harry. Harry’s deal was originally highly incentive based but he’s renegotiating because he wants more guaranteed $$$$. Now the club can only afford two big names – Carlos didn’t want to take a pay cut and Harry is a harder worker.
May 17th 2012 @ 10:16am
Fussball ist unser leben said | May 17th 2012 @ 10:16am | Report comment
Very sad to see him go, but that’s football. Whenever Carlos Hernandez was near the ball, I knew there would be a realistic goal-scoring opportunity within 2-3 moves. He took the HAL to a much higher technical level, which led to all HAL teams looking for gifted-playmakers in the midfield (Flores, Broich, Amini, Rogic, Carle, Ifill, etc. etc.)
Carlos won every major award possible in the HAL whilst playing for MVFC – Premiership, Championship, Johnny Warren Medal, Foreign Player of the Year, Goal of the Year (twice) – and, I was there to watch just about every game he played in Melbourne.
Yes, El Zorro is gone … but, he’ll never be forgotten.
Muchas gracias & adiós mi amigo.
May 17th 2012 @ 10:43am
Nathan of Perth said | May 17th 2012 @ 10:43am | Report comment
Yeah, don’t think he would fit an Ange philosophy. Was a stalwart for the Victory though.
May 17th 2012 @ 10:57am
whiskeymac said | May 17th 2012 @ 10:57am | Report comment
sad way for a popular player to leave – by email in the off season. Bit brutal perhaps, but MV need to refresh and a good coach knows when to move players on – stars especially.
May 17th 2012 @ 11:54am
Clayts said | May 17th 2012 @ 11:54am | Report comment
I reckon it’s pretty disgraceful from MVFC really. Not just for the Victory fans, but fans of A-League, like me, who used to go and watch him play even though I don’t support Victory. A player that has been that instrumental to the team’s success and the success of the A-league in general should have deserved the chance to be given a proper send off by the people that make the game possible – the supporters.
I went to the last Victory-Phoenix game because I had a feeling they might give him the boot. My question is, if we all “pretty much knew he was going”, (and this was pre Ange of course) why wouldn’t the club not take advantage of the fans and do the right thing? Just leaves a bitter taste IMO.
Well done Carlos. Thanks for the memories. I am somewhat glad he wont’ be carving my team up any more though!
May 17th 2012 @ 12:07pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | May 17th 2012 @ 12:07pm | Report comment
MVFC were negotiating with Carlos’s agent right until late last week.
Carlos was in Costa Rica & Richard Wilson (CEO of MVFC) was in Melbourne, Australia. What would have been a more appropriate form of communication? Telephone? Letter? Or did you expect Wilson to hop on a plane to Costa Rica to inform Carlos in person?
Employment offers are nowadays sent by email; there’s nothing unusual about email communication that contract negotiations have expired.
May 17th 2012 @ 12:12pm
Clayts said | May 17th 2012 @ 12:12pm | Report comment
No I wasn’t talking about a different form of communication. Think you might be replying to someone else (whiskeymac ) on that one?
I may be cynical but call me crazy for doubting they were really contemplating having him stay beyond last season. Remember the “wave goodbye” to the coaching bench in the final game he played?
I was more talking about the fact they could have given the fans a chance to farewell him. Thought I made that clear. There is a game against the Greek side this Saturday night is there not? Could he have not played one more game? Surely I’m not alone here
May 17th 2012 @ 12:22pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | May 17th 2012 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
Ok – apologies.
I’d have been disappointed if he was given a farewell b/c I genuinely wanted the club to make every effort to retain him. From what I’ve heard from MVFC-insiders, both parities genuinely wanted Carlos to extend his contract.
But, we have to be practical with the salary cap – is Carlos worth 2-3 other players? In the past, “yes”, but we saw this season that individual brilliance cannot win the title.
May 17th 2012 @ 12:59pm
whiskeymac said | May 17th 2012 @ 12:59pm | Report comment
email is still alittle impersonal – better than sms but not quite as respectful as a telephone call – but thats a moot point. I agree with your post Clayts.
May 17th 2012 @ 1:45pm
philipcoates said | May 17th 2012 @ 1:45pm | Report comment
Clayts, how is it disgraceful of MVFC? What were they supposed to do? It’s impossible to give a player a send-off match unless he is retiring from the game and every one knows that it is the end of his career with the club, or if the player has signed with another club and everyone knows he is going.
Carlos’ contract expired at the end of the season but he couldn’t have a formal send-off game because it wasn’t 100% clear he was going and negotiations had been taking place and were still happening. It is only this week that negotiations have concluded with no agreement so he isn’t coming back.
He can’t have the Olympiacos game as a send off as he’s not been training, he’s overseas apparently and he doesn’t have a contract (which probably also means no insurance to play) and in all likelihood he wouldn’t want to come back for a one-off match with the club.
May 17th 2012 @ 2:12pm
The Cattery said | May 17th 2012 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
A bit over the top calling it disgraceful, I imagine some fans, both MV and neutrals, might be disappointed. He certainly gave us good value.
The Age reports that he was asking for $350,000 – which is hefty in anyone’s language – you can understand with Ange needing to plug holes that he can’t justify that sort of salary – he’d be looking to pick up two good players for that price.
May 17th 2012 @ 1:03pm
whiskeymac said | May 17th 2012 @ 1:03pm | Report comment
whatever happened to Julius Davies for MV?
May 17th 2012 @ 1:05pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | May 17th 2012 @ 1:05pm | Report comment
He’s here in Melbourne & training with the senior squad. Should make an appearance against Olympiakos on Saturday night.
May 19th 2012 @ 7:40pm
AL said | May 19th 2012 @ 7:40pm | Report comment
Understand the salary cap and argument hes so called lazy. BUT ask Sydney FC supporters about that one moment of brilliance from El Zorro that changed and game or won it. No one in the league had the passing skills of El Zorro. I would have gotten ridr of Kewell rather than Zorro.