Melbourne Victory’s Billy Celeski challenges Adelaide United’s Sasa Ognenovski in the A-League football final match, at the Telstra Dome, in Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009. Victory beat United 1-0. AAP Image/Martin Philbey
The A-League finals could be tarnished this season by the departure of a string of Socceroos wannabees seeking January loans to enhance their World Cup prospects.
Perth Glory owner Tony Sage admitted he’s prepared to let his fringe Socceroos trio, Chris Coyne, Mile Sterjovski and Jacob Burns, head off in January to further their World Cup hopes.
And Sydney FC’s in-form Simon Colosimo was questioned about a similar move too and admitted if Pim Verbeek indicated he was close to a recall, he’d look for a January loan.
Sage said: “Do you think if we denied these boys the opportunity, they’d be happy to keep playing with Perth Glory? I don’t think so.”
The Glory owner added, “There’s no use taking this any further if Pim doesn’t want to use them.”
Since their respective returns to the A-League, all three of the Perth Glory’s Socceroos have been overlooked by Verbeek.
But a recall is not completely out of the question, especially for Coyne, considering Australia’s uncertain options at the back.
Interestingly, Sage added, “We’ve been well aware of this situation for a long time, we’ve been talking to lots of clubs in Asia, and if it means letting the players go before the finals, then, absolutely, we’ll be doing that.”
What is most curious about that comment is that last season, loan moves by Australian players were made into Asia later than January.
Sydney FC’s Mark Bridge was loaned to Tianjin Teda in February, Brisbane Roar’s Matt McKay to Changchun Yatai in March and Joel Griffiths to Beijing Guoan in March too.
Indeed, the Chinese Super League typically kicks off in mid-to-late March, thus the reason why the transfer window remains open. The same can be said for Korea’s K-League and Japan’s J.League, too.
The A-League regular season ends on February 14 and the finals will run until mid-March, with the Grand Final set for March 20.
So why does is seem the ball is in a different court this season?
Why all of a sudden must these players move in January rather than later, when it’s more convenient for them, especially considering these Asian clubs wouldn’t have started their seasons yet?
Pippinu
Roar Guru
Two points: 1. Two major bits of silverware are available at the moment: the premiership and the championship - one or the other gets you ACL qualification - whether the premiership or the championship is more important will be determined by the public over a lengthy period. 2. Many other soccer leagues around the world are either comtemplating some form of finals (including the Premiership), or have introduced for relegation/promotion battles. If anything, Australia has shown itself to be way ahead of the world (yet again). When it comes to sports administration - don't worry - very few countries in the world can hold a candle to Australia.
Robb
Guest
I think this pretty much sums up the arrogance of Soccer fans - that they can impose their ideals on us.
gazz
Roar Pro
agga, that's just it mate. i thought the same thing, but all of Tony Sage's talk has been about moving in January. same with colosimo and craig moore. although nothing from GCU on culina moving in january. its peculiar for those reasons. surely Sage could organise something after the a-league finals rather than before, thus ruining glory's hopes. its bizarre in my mind.
albe
Guest
umm, you're talking about rugby league and AFL, not football. Fair enough, if thats how those sports want to do things. But its not the norm in world football. Thats the 'fantasy world' i live in, lol...
dasilva
Guest
I think you need to move in January if you are going to a European club. However if its an Asian club then there's no reason why the players can't move after the final series.
cab711
Guest
Grand Finals are shit, when we have 12 teams in the HAL I would like to see the season finish with the club with most points taking the trophy.
agga78
Guest
They don't need to move in January to get a loan move, that would be for a transfer to another team, it can be set up with Perth loaning the players from March to May 2010, You can loan players at anytime.
Chris
Guest
What fantasy world are you living in. As much as the FFA would love the "Premiership" (aka minor Premiership to Australians) to be as important as the Championship (aka Premiership to Australians) it just isn't going to happen. In this country the team that wins the Grand Final are the Premiers/Champions - the regular season means nothing! Imagine St George/Kilda saying "ah well - we won the regular season".
albe
Guest
The league Premiership is the big title to win ... the Championship (GF) is the consolation prize of Australian football. All the players and the clubs know this. The Finals are basically a Cup competition. It'd be ideal to have the full-strength squad. But its more important for these guys to get a solid go at selection for South Africa, than playing in a cup tournament.
cab711
Guest
If Collosimo, and Brosque left at the beginning of next year that would destroy Sydney FCs grand final chances. I could say the same thing about Perth. Thats a lot of muscle loss in defence, midfield and attack. Did anybody realise in order to get contracts with big name euro clubs you have to have a certain quota of national team games?