Six weeks ago, for my Half-Time Orange column at The World Game, I commended Ljubo Milicevic and the Newcastle Jets for coming together.
A club in strife had itself a rock around which it could build its defence for the Asian Champions League campaign.
A player in strife had a new club around which he could resurrect his stalled career.
“Congratulations to Milicevic on his new challenge and congratulations to Newcastle for having the courage to take him on. Both will be amply rewarded for their fortitude,” I huffed.
So much for that. It all appears to have fallen in a sorry heap, Milicevic and Jets coach Gary van Egmond coming to verbal blows in a training-ground spat and the player purportedly prepared to leave the club.
All Jets CEO John Tsatsimas will say on the matter is: “I’m aware there was an exchange.”
Yet Newcastle Herald scribe James Gardiner, who covers the Jets for the paper and attends many of the club’s training sessions, has coloured in some of the sketchy details, hinting in his column that Milicevic told his manager to “fuck off”.
Gardiner wrote a column on Wednesday that suggested Milicevic had far from tamed his notoriously prickly personality in moving to the Hunter; in fact he’d gotten worse.
“[I’ve] witnessed several heated exchanges between the former Melbourne Victory centre-back and teammates, coaching staff and even administrative staff,” he wrote. “Lauded for his leadership qualities, Milicevic has always been a man of strong opinions and is rarely afraid to express them. One player, who did not want to be named, admitted that Milicevic’s constant haranguing of teammates was ‘doing our heads in’.
The rift in the ranks couldn’t come at a worse time for the Jets, with goalkeeper Ante Covic leaving the club last week for Swedish side Elfsborg and spraying club owner Con Constantine on his way out, and young defender Ben Kantarovski in line for a stunning transfer to Bayern Munich. The club’s next two Asian Champions League matches are home-and-away against Japanese club Nagoya Grampus, their toughest group opponent, on April 7 and 22.
You might have your own ideas on Gary van Egmond’s performance as a manager over the past six months, on and off the pitch, but Dutchy is, for the time being at least, the boss of the Newcastle Jets and that’s that.
No room for ambiguity here.
So if the insinuation made by Gardiner is correct that Milicevic told him to “fuck off” then, short of a full apology, the player’s position at the club is likely untenable and casts a very dark cloud over his future career as a professional footballer – at least in Australia.
Who would take him on now after having such spectacular public bust-ups at two A-League clubs in a row?
What’s worse in the Jets’ case, though, over Milicevic’s problems at Victory is that he came to the club promising a clean slate and extolling the qualities of the side under Van Egmond.
“I’m excited about being back to club football and in particular the Newcastle Jets because under Gary van Egmond it’s the style of football I like to play,” he said at the time.
“They like to play possession football from the back and it suits the systems I’ve played overseas. I’m looking forward to going to a club where I’m needed and wanted and it will be a great challenge to go straight into Asian Champions League.”
A great challenge indeed. One that at this stage Milicevic appears to have failed to meet.
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