A-League club-in-waiting Melbourne Heart will move a step closer to securing their inaugural coach after a board meeting on Monday night.
The Heart, set to enter the new league next season, are believed to have assembled a shortlist of overseas-based candidates for the role which will be among the topics discussed by the board.
The club have indicated they are particularly interested in hiring a coach from The Netherlands – keeping in step with Australia’s recent trend of importing expertise from the respected Dutch coaching system.
Ex-Holland and Ajax assistant coach John van’t Schip is the latest to be linked with the role.
New Heart football operations manager John Didulica started in the job on Monday, and admitted the club will step up their planning for entering the league over the next few weeks.
“We’re going to be running through a whole raft of things, and we’ll be putting things together in the next 24 to 48 hours towards getting some things out there and undertaking what will be a very exciting adventure,” Didulica said.
Didulica, a respected former Melbourne Knights and Sydney United NSL player and ex-players’ union boss, brings a wealth of football and legal experience to the new role.
A qualified lawyer from Geelong, Didulica has also had experience as a player agent and most recently worked as Football Federation Australia’s legal counsel.
He starts work at the Heart just days before the A-League’s player recruitment window opens on October 1, which will allow the new Melbourne side to officially start signing players from other clubs.
Didulica will be the prime mover in putting together a group of players capable of hitting the ground running in their inaugural season and challenging the existing Melbourne Victory for Victorian hearts and minds.
Other important matters likely to be addressed soon are the club’s official name – with Melbourne Heart just a working title for the new franchise – and the colours of their jersey.
prowling panther
Roar Rookie
Melbourne Heart is a strange bid. How does it differentiate from victory? Mapping out territory is vitally important in any competition. Maybe its a common name in Europe but wats up with hearts?? I think a league could be more successful if they stuck with animal monikers rather than abstract ideas like victory, glory, fury...
Brian
Guest
Red does seem logical given the amount of Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal & AC Milan supporters they would target. They're strip could be like Milan. Red/Black stripes at home and all white with a dash of red away. The black would differentiate them from Adelaide Utd. Rather than Heart I hope they go for a football name like Utd or Cty. No offence to the Hearts team in Scotland intended.
Westy
Guest
oh yeh i 4got, also there is Sydney and adelaide aswel in the a-league who r also rivals and wear red and blue
Westy
Guest
i believe that melbourne heart's colours should b either red, black and white or just red and black. They should choose this because all great rivalies in football hav red and blue sides, lik Manchester united and city, Everton and Liverpool, Melbourne victory and adelaide united and there r probably more. lets make another great rivalry in the a-league with melbourne victory in blue and melbourne heart or watever they will b called in red.
Rellum
Guest
Great appointments so far. On the colours, there was a rumor going around that the club was going for black with white trim. That would be a mistake for me as it is far to similar to the victory. There must not be many colour schemes left, there is no all white team in the comp yet, red white and blue might work in connecting to the local football fans and there is always pink :)
ABCDEFG
Guest
I'd like blueish purple, like the colors on the facebook logo or just simple black with a bit of white.