Central Coast boss Paul Okon has confirmed Irish striker Roy O’Donovan has played his last game for the A-League side.
The Irish striker scored 11 goals for the Mariners in his second season at the club earning interest from across the league.
Rivals Newcastle Jets and Western Sydney have been linked with the 31-year-old and while Okon wouldn’t reveal where he’d be playing next year, he said it wouldn’t be in Gosford.
“It’s already signed, sealed and delivered unfortunately,” he said.
“We wish Roy well. He’s been great value for us
“He’s a goalscorer and whichever team has him next season will be very lucky.”
It will be all change at the A-League minnows in the off-season, with more than half of Okon’s squad out of contract.
Talented goalkeeper Paul Izzo is understood to be heading home to South Australia to play for Adelaide United, while Fabio Ferreira has been linked with Western Sydney.
Others will be let go or have decided to go.
Okon – who will head to Europe on a scouting mission before the new season begins in October – has vowed to bring in fresh talent that will fit into the club’s attacking ethos.
“We don’t have the resources of other clubs so we need to spend our money wisely which I’m quite confident we’ll do,” he said after their season-ending 1-0 defeat at Melbourne Victory.
“We need to strengthen everywhere. We have potentially five visa spots available.
“We’ll make sure that we find players that will fit into the way we play.
“We’re onto that at the moment and with smart recruiting we can look forward to next year and really give it a crack to make finals.”
Last year’s wooden spooners don’t know their final finishing position yet but have grown their points tally from 13 to 23 in Okon’s first season.
He pledged to make the hard calls to swell that number next season.
“The ones that are out of contract or haven’t committed somewhere else and we haven’t signed yet – those discussions will take place now,” he said.
“Tough decisions will be made purely on what’s best for the football club.”
FootOverHand
Guest
It's because for the last few years of soccer Australia the NSL was a basket case, then there was no national league for a while and then the HAL started. HAL clubs have only just started to introduce academies or NPL teams, we are having to get through that lull, before football started to heal itself. The NPL/grassroots are to far away in quality from the HAL now, that it is almost irrelevant, a second national division where the top NSL clubs play each other is so important now, to raise the standards and have the top clubs outside of the HAL playing each other and pushing each other. The FFA cup has been a success in that regard, but it's not enough, only a few games a year. Coaching courses are still quite expensive and inaccessible to some, If mum or dad start coaching their kids team, it's unlikely they are going to pay a few thousand to do a coaching course, or travel a few hundred Km's. There is very little funding for football from our government, especially when you consider participation rates and the global reach of football. It was ludicrous seeing our prime minister take the AFL to China, I mean their head of state is a football nut.
j binnie
Guest
Once again we have a coach going into print and telling us indirectly that our "conveyor belt" of talent is not yet producing the standard of footballer required for our top competition. For someone with direct contact to our youth football in recent years it is sad to hear Paul Okon admit that he has "5 visa spots available" and that he is going to go overseas in an attempt to fill them with players"that can fit into the way we play". When will we wake up to the fact that there is something wrong with our "education system" at grassroots level. I can clearly remember Mike Mulvey making an almost identical statement when he was coaching at Roar and that was 4 years ago. To the best of my knowledge,Mike's trip did not uncover any "football pearls" for Roar the following year. Cheers jb.
pacman
Guest
Hope they do well next season. The A-League needs at least one provincial team to be successful, in order to encourage future expansion not being confined to capital cities.
FootOverHand
Guest
Mariners aren't too far off being a good team, if they get some new signings right, they will look good next year, they played pretty well away to the victory.