Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar has heaped further expectation upon Gold Coast United, declaring the A-League tyros will have underachieved if they do not win the league by 15 points.
At the end of a week in which the verbal barbs have flown thick and fast between the clubs, Vidmar also said Gold Coast coach Miron Bleiberg’s assessment of the Reds boss as “Mr Average” was a slight on all the league’s other coaches.
But it was his declaration of what Gold Coast should achieve this season with the squad they’ve assembled that raised most eyebrows on the eve of the Friday night match between the clubs at Hindmarsh Stadium.
“They should win the league, they should win the league by 15 points,” Vidmar said on Thursday.
“If they don’t win the league by 15 points there’s something wrong.
“I think the beauty of forming a new team in the A-League is you can sit back and watch what all the other clubs have done over the last three, four years, and when you’ve got open slather you can do what you like.
“You’ve got time to pick the best players.
“The A-League today is completely different to what it was four years ago.”
Bleiberg has painted himself as a defender of beautiful football while criticising other managers for their likely attempts to stifle the expansive game of his expensive players.
However Vidmar argued every club had to find a style to suit the players they had at their disposal, and that it would not always be open or attacking out of necessity.
“If the comments that were mentioned a few days ago were true, it doesn’t affect me one bit, but it’s denigrating the other coaches, because Mr Average coach is not just me, it’s every other coach in the A-League,” Vidmar said.
“Whether he said that or not I’m not too sure, if he is having a go it’s at everyone, not just me.
“Everyone wants to play a nice, attacking brand of football, but you also need the players.
“They’ve certainly got those types of players who can do that.
“We’re a little bit different, so we’ll play to our strengths, and I’m very confident in our team and our group that we can get results.”
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