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It’s hard to imagine how much more parlous a position the Newcastle Jets could be in, now with high performance manager Ian Crook being appointed the new first-team coach at Norwich City in England and Joel Griffiths, the club’s marquee player and “jewel in the crown”, declaring publicly that he’s interested in joining his brother Ryan at Chinese Super League club Beijing Guoan.
Club owner Con Constantine, fresh from threatening to throw Squadron members off the balcony of his box at EnergyAustralia Stadium, has said Griffiths is not for sale, while Griffiths has rejoindered by suggesting if Constantine doesn’t want to let him go, “we might have to renegotiate my contract”.
Just when it was being hoped last weekend’s win over Perth was the start of something positive for the beleaguered Jets, the portents are getting worse, and they come at the worst possible time: just weeks away from commencing their maiden Asian Champions League campaign.
Already this season the Jets have lost Edmundo Zura, Jade North, Adam Griffiths and James Holland, with Mark Milligan expected to follow. This on top of losing Stuart Musialik, Andrew Durante, Tim Brown, Milton Rodriguez, Vaughan Coveny and Nick Carle in previous seasons.
It would be surprising if the spirits of those players who remain has been unaffected by this disruption – or by coach Gary van Egmond’s eccentric handling of players such as Kaz Patafta, Jesse Pinto and Jesper Hakansson.
Losing Griffiths would be a mortal blow to the Jets, but the greatest damage may be done by the departure of Crook.
There have been whisperings around the traps that Constantine wanted Crook to mastermind the Jets’ ACL campaign, that he was a better identifier of young talent than the coach under him, and Van Egmond himself has said publicly that Crook, with his Japanese experience, was “going to be a huge well of information for us” in Asia.
So now what?
The Jets are looking shot to bits already for the ACL – and they haven’t even kicked a ball in anger.
The only positives from what has been one of the worst seasons of any club in A-League history has been the emergence of Tarek Elrich and Matthew Thompson as Socceroos, the rise of Ben Kantarovski, and the imminent arrival of Socceroos defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley from Perth Glory.
Pretty slim pickings for a club that was the toast of the A-League in seasons two and three. Van Egmond’s reputation has taken a tumble and the previously untouchable Constantine himself is looking more and more vulnerable, with calls from some quarters for him to sell the club.
With Crook now gone and his position vacant, what the Jets need most urgently is someone who can quickly turn their fortunes around and make a decent fist of their shot at glory in the ACL.
I’ve made my views known recently on that score on The World Game and if you can think of a better idea, I’d love to hear it.
As I’m sure Con Constantine would.
His empire is crumbling before his eyes and something has to be done – and now – to stop it.
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