A little over a year ago, Mark Milligan made a potentially risky choice to return from playing in Japan, to join Melbourne Victory in the hope of resurrecting his Socceroos aspirations.
We can be fairly certain that he sought council from Holger Osieck beforehand and, unlike what would probably have been the response from his predecessor Pim Verbeek, it seems more likely than not that Holger encouraged the move.
Milligan’s playing situation in Japan had become far from ideal. His club JEF United Chiba, playing in the Japanese second division offered him reasonably regular game time, but in more of a utility role, one he clearly stated at the time which he did not like.
Then came the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor fallout. The result was that both the J-League and second division were shut down for some months.
Despite not being directly affected by the disaster, it would have been a very frightening experience for Milligan and his young family and must have made him realise that it was time to begin looking elsewhere, especially if he was to realise his dream of playing his way into the Socceroo starting line-up before the 2014 World Cup.
Initially he put his toe back into A-League waters with a loan period at Melbourne Victory, a club then dealing with its 2011-2012 ‘Annulus Horribilus’ and desperately needing to shore up a very leaky defence.
It was not a happy time for the club and it must not have filled Milligan with great confidence to consider a more permanent move, especially based on what he was seeing on and off the field with Victory.
This period also coincided with what is generally regarded as the low point of the existence of the A-League; a failed World Cup bid, the Gold Coast United debacle, falling crowds and the FFA under attack from multiple directions. There must have seemed a great many reasons for Milligan to look anywhere but homewards to play.
However, just after his loan period at Victory, Milligan was given his Soccerooo chance against Japan in Brisbane, even if it was a bench replacement for an injured Mark Bresciano.
The opportunity was fleeting and although his subsequent sending off was a poor call by the Saudi referee, it seemed Milligan might have missed his best chance to impress.
So when Ange Postecoglou came knocking just a few months later it would have taken a considerable leap of faith for Milligan to sign up for a club that had only just finished its most over-hyped and under-achieved season.
Of course the attraction would have been, to some extent, the promise of what Ange could bring to the club and I am sure Milligan was drawn to the possibility of what Victory could be, rather than what it had most recently been.
Milligan’s reward for his calculated gamble has paid off in spades; a successful season with the Victory, cementing his place in the core of centre midfield but with licence to push forward and shoot for goal when the opportunity arises.
Milligan seemed to be instantly at one with the close-passing, fast breaking style of play that Ange brought to the club.
And so it was almost exactly 12 months after Milligan’s missed opportunity that he won his chance to redeem himself by playing in the return World Cup fixture against Japan. By playing regularly for Ange’s Victory, he had run himself into the sort of form that made it hard for Holger not to pick him again.
Winning a starting berth and then holding on to it over the 90 minutes that followed, it seems certain that Osieck had at last found the ideal defensive midfield foil to his more creatively focussed counterpart Bresciano.
The two World Cup ties that followed against Jordan and Iraq, where he held his position ahead of the injury recovered (and Premier League bound) Mile Jedinak, sealed the deal, and for now at least Osiek has found the Socceroos ideal midfield engine room.
So what does Milligan’s experience mean to other fringe Socceroos, including those who might have slipped off the radar, or others who for whatever reason, were never really on the radar? Players such as Matthew Spiranovic, Carl Valeri, David Carney, Alex Brosque, Erik Paartalu, Robert Cornthwaite, Aziz Behich and James Troisi, perhaps?
There are likely a great many others who also believe rightly or wrongly that if they were only given a chance to play regularly in a quality team under the regularly watchful eye of their national coach, they might just be able to get one of the 22 precious ‘golden tickets’ to South America.
One might also add to that list the currently club-less Socceroo Captain Lucas Neill and leading Socceroo Luke Wilkshire (seemingly out of favour at his current club Dynamo Moscow).
You could even add Bresciano to the second list; a season in the A-League may serve him much better in most ways (other than financial) than another year wasting his skills in an inferior Gulf league. And let’s not forget to mention this is a dream that no less the Harry Kewell is aiming to make a reality by joining Melbourne Heart.
The problem that many of these and other Socceroo aspirants have in this year leading into the World Cup, is that they are often playing sporadically in teams coached by those who have no interest in whether that player is a potential World Cup aspirant.
Of course we are not talking about those who are well entrenched in the starting line-ups of their clubs such as Tim Cahill, Sasa Ogenovski, Matty McKay and James Holland. And youngsters such as Robbie Kruse, Tom Rogic, Matthew Leckie and Tommy Oar are all far better off developing where they are and no-one would suggest they would be better served back home.
However, this is not the case for those playing at overseas clubs where they might or might not start a game depending on the quality of the rest of the team-sheet, or who happens to be coaching this month.
This is the hard reality of international club football. Can great players disappear off the Socceroo radar just because they get stuck behind a coach that plays them sporadically, or plays them in the wrong position? Too right; just ask Milligan.
But if the Australian players mentioned above and others want to fight their way into the Socceroo team to Rio, they need to do one of two things. Either be confident, determined and skillful enough to win their way into the team they are with (and hope they manage to get noticed), or strongly consider doing what Milligan did.
There is no doubt the A-League is maturing fast; clubs are appointing coaches who will play fast, modern, creatively focused attacking football. Even just three years ago, Postecoglou was unique in the way he wanted his team to play, whereas now, as we head towards season 2013-2014, there is barely a single A-League coach not starting to think outside of the ‘route one’ box.
We even have an A-League season that is being tailored to finish later to sync perfectly with players preparing to go to Rio. As we saw over the past two years, A-League teams are training and playing almost at European tempo but importantly without the massive number of (European season) games to play, giving plenty of time for recuperation and injury recovery.
Add that to the reality that a Spiranovic, Wilkshire or a Valeri is very likely to be seen as an on-field leader and an almost certain starter in any A-League team and you have an almost ‘perfect storm’ of opportunity for them to book their place on the plane to Rio.
When Milligan transferred to Melbourne Victory, many would have viewed his move as one where he was trying to move forward by going backwards, such was the way the A-League was then thought of.
The fact that this most certainly would not be the case now, says much about how far Australian football has moved forward in just the past 12 months.
It will be interesting to see over the next weeks and months how many expatriate Australian players take the leap of faith and come home to chase their World Cup dream; taking what might be called ‘the Milligan option’.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Was Olyroos captain as well...has the experience at national level.
wotdoo
Guest
Milligan for next national captain. Was voted captain of players team of the year by other players in the leauge so that shows his leadership qualities
Brendo
Guest
Jukes The problem we have is that as a Country our current culture is weighted too far towards players development and not enough towards Club needs. I agree it should be a middle ground but I believe it should be club first player second. These guys sign a contract and clubs shoudl receive fair value if another club wnats them released from it. Franko You don't think clubs look at all options around obtaining a fair deal? It's naive to believe that they don't consider sell on clauses. Also remember the old maxim. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Same goes for transfer fees. Also you forgot the final option E) Celtic up their offer after CCM make it clear there offer is too low to offer the inducement for them to sell a valued player. Selling a player should always be about Value. If Celtic offer $500K with 1 year left on the contract is that worth more to CCM than retaining the player for 1 year and letting him move on a free. Each club should do their own calculations on a players value and base their decision on that NOT on whether the player wants a move.
Andy
Guest
Where did the idea that they are going well below their market value come from though? These players are going at often more than what they are worth because A League clubs are skilled at getting decent deals. Letme put it like this, SeamusColman cost £60K and was far more advaned than anyone coming out of the A League. It took him 2 seasos to crack Eertons starting lineup. How many players in the A Leaue do yo see doing this? How many are being sold for similar fees? Don't let the ridiculous fee goig for some players distort their atual values. Not all clubs re throwing money down the gurglar on players who are not that good. Our players are strting to go to decent leagues, and they're starting to make an impact but the league has a long way to go. There are still plenty of good value players going for the $1 million mark who are leps and bounds ahead of our players (no disrespect to our guys).
Franko
Guest
Maybe I didn’t make it very clear. Say Rogic is still a Mariners player but Celtic are interested in him. Say Celtic offer $500k and CCM don’t want to let him go for under $1m. Celtic won’t offer $1m because they know Tom is desperate to go. CCM say, ok, buy him for $500k upfront now, but when you sell him, we get a 10% of the next fee. He plays so well at Celtic that Liverpool, Everton etc. are interested in him. They buy him for $8m (Everton paid double this for Fellani, Swansea paid Celtic £6 million for Ki Sung Yeung) CCM get 10% taking their overall fee for Rogic to $1.3M. Tom got his dream move, CCM got their money, we all made profits, we are all smiling. The alternatives are this: A)Tom runs out his contract and leaves on a free, B) CCM hold out for more $$$ and he never goes (See the Jim Tsekenis reference) C) Tom forces the Celtic transfer and CCM only get $500k Or D) The deal works as explained above but it doesn’t work out at Celtic for Tom so he returns to CCM after 2 years warming the bench, but at least CCM got $500k for a guy who was overrated anyway. Make more sense now? It’s all about clauses and knock ons. Don’t get hung up on the initial fee.
Griffo
Roar Guru
With 15 A-League players in the U20 squad, the potential is there to build a squad around them for EAFF, and add in some older, fringe home-based Socceroos like Vidosic as you say, even Milligan... ...if you wanted to be radical, let Okon coach the EAFF side under Holger's watch... ...but still a good opportunity nonetheless to gel together a Socceroos-next for WC and Asian Cup. Agree on De Silva getting at least training squad experience. Never know, he might be that good and impress in the training for EAFF that he gets a run in the Socceroos at 16!
Griffo
Roar Guru
For the younger brigade some interesting comments from TWG site today: http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/1157292/Young-Socceroos-embracing-favouritism Further encouragement for the younger players to stay if they are getting regular gametime? Encouragement for those in their prime to return home and join an A-League team?
Rusty0256
Guest
Damn, I double checked that and still got it wrong!
Griffo
Roar Guru
Towser, agree strongly on the younger players staying here longer. A long while back I did a comparison between Amini and Kagawa from an age perspective, both who went on to Dortmund from their national leagues. This isn't saying they are both as good as each other or cut from the same cloth. But there were a lot of parallels at similar ages between the two, but from memory what stuck out was that Kagawa went to Dortmund at a later age than Amini. While Kagawa had more experience and development in his own national league behind him and made the starting squad for Dortmund in his first year, Amini signed much earlier, was on loan back at the Mariners for another season, and is developing in second teams sometimes from the bench at a younger age than Kagawa was when he signed. Contrast this with Arnold indicating some of his early twenty-somethings have learnt all they could here after the Grand Final. As the A-League grows, coaches are better trained, are training squads with better methods, are looking to find, develop and play younger players, are looking to do better with less (like the Portugese league), and are looking to re-design team tactics to overcome the tactics and systems employed at other A-League clubs as well as to innovate and move ahead of the pack - basically the environment here in Australia is changing and blazing ahead that younger players will see (and be advised) that their development into early twenties is best done here, and that dominating here (and even putting in good U20 WC performance) will set them up well for the big teams that will come knocking...
PeterK
Guest
A great view, and I believe an accurate one. I guess you meant Annus Horribilis -- an Annulus is a ring!
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
I think Devere's problems are injury related rather than where he plays. He has missed a lot of games and a few times he was injured right before he was due to join a SOcceroos camp. That said there are a few Australian players like Matt Simon who have complained about the medical treatment they get/got at their Korean clubs and having to play injured so he might have had less problems if he stayed in Australia or went somewhere else.
Jukes
Guest
Is it out of place to get Da Silva at least on the train on squad. He maybe only 16 but you can clearly see he is our best player in the u20's. So while you call out Brillante which isnt a bad thing, you could also argue the case for DaSilva. What a talent. I hope this is the sort of talent we see regularly coming out of junior teams. Amazing stuff.
Davo
Guest
Fantastic article and bang on the money. Players who are taking the easy cash in the Middle East are falling out of favour with the national team while players who are performing in the A-League are being chosen. This is exactly what we want. Just look at Luke DeVere. If he had of stuck around he would have been playing for the socceroos by now. But he left for the Korean league and has been forgotten, like so many more.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
The EAFF Cup offers those in Australia/China/Korea/Japan a chance to pull on the green & gold and showcase their wares to the gaffer. Certainly anyone looking for a chance at Brazil, such as Spiranovic, would have an incentive to get onto that squad. Playing the A-League increases the chances dramatically. Just ask Vidosic. Incidentally it will be interesting to see if any of the U20's get a call-up (I'd love to see at least two or three in the mix). Spiranovic may be looking for a spot however Brilliante hasn't done his chances any harm at all with his outstanding performance against Colombia.
pete4
Guest
Interesting to see if Matt Spiranovic ends up joining Melbourne Victory http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/274876,spiranovic-set-for-victory-move.aspx
nordster
Guest
Good read, like your point about some of these players coming back to Oz to be 'on-field leaders'....not just the more experienced ones either. The next batch of promising aussies need to be somewhere where they are top of the pile. The hal offers that much more than throwing the dice on an overseas move. Only issue with coming back is the worry of lying dormant from league football for so many months of the year.
Jukes
Guest
I think their needs to be some middle ground here Brendo. You dont want to piss players off either. Contract negotiations are a two way street here. Its not all about the player and its not all about the club either. This is why open dialogue is important. If I knew that my club was going to take a hardline stance then guess what I wont sign my contract and I will just leave for a club on a free transfer.
Brendo
Guest
Jukes You said "I cant see anything wrong with a club being upfront with the player from the outset and letting them know when the time comes and a big club comes knocking then the club wont stay in the way" This is exactly the wrong message that players are getting here in Australia. The message should be "A transfer to an international club will only occur while you are in contract if it is beneficial to the club" We need to start sending the message to players that their needs come second to the club needs, only then we will stop this nonsense of players saying that club is standing in their way and forcing clubs to accept second best. It happened again recently with Antonis, where the media and a lot of the clubs own supporters were condemning the club for standing their ground around the transfer conditions. There is just too much expectation here in Aus that players will be released if a international club comes knocking.
Jukes
Guest
You know what Qantas this is the beauty of our league right now. It is on the rise and with so many things to look out for on the horizon. Its only going to get better and better. When once it wasnt viewed as a serious option, it is gaining credibility. I think the next few seasons are going to be some of the most exciting for Australian football. I cant wait actually.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Millsy is playing two different roles in Australian Football with club and country.. For his club he is an attacking midfielder, whereas for his country he is playing a destroyer's role. He has been brilliant in both, but I wouldn't get too carried away thinking he would slot into a club like Man U, Chelsea, or Liverpool, sorry no. Therefore, I think he should forget about going overseas and stay in the HAL---playing for Melb Vic, a club that is on par with any lower-middle European club now. If he goes to Europe he could end up doing a Brett Holman, being freezed out of his European club, only to end up in the United Emirates. Australian Players please don't underestimate our Australian Football League, it's definitely on the rise.