No Victory moves on Viduka €” yet
The Age
Friday September 18, 2009
IT'S BARELY seven days since Mark Viduka, through his agent, announced that he was turning his back on Europe and planning to return to Australia.Since the news came out there has been a frenzy of interest in the former Socceroo captain's future, although, in typical style, he has said little.Always possessed of something of a capricious streak, Viduka has, whether by accident or design, allowed the speculation to run unchallenged.Melbourne Victory, his home-town club, is the team at the centre of much of the discussion, especially given its ties with the biggest name player the city has produced.Three years ago Viduka was named Victory's "international ambassador" €” a grand sounding title that seemed to signify little.Until now, when Geoff Lord, the club's chairman, played up the association Viduka already has with the club and offered the view that Victory would like to hire him in some capacity.Victory coach Ernie Merrick is no fan of media speculation but until either Victory definitely rules out an approach for Viduka, or the player or his agent definitively says he is not interested in playing in the A-League then rumour and innuendo about the big man's destiny will continue.It is interesting to guess what impact the talk about Viduka €” the sort of money he would command, the kind of effect he could have €” might have on the rest of the players, especially marquee striker Archie Thompson.Certainly Merrick yesterday attempted to talk up Thompson when, inevitably, he was asked about Viduka and whether he was a target.Merrick had a carefully prepared answer ready €” in fact he solicited media to ask questions about Viduka €” which suggested that while he was a great admirer of the former Melbourne Knights man it would probably be just too hard to fit him into the club's current wages structure and squad."I would really like to set the record straight on Mark Viduka. Firstly Mark has never said that he will play football in Australia and we have not said anything other than the same as any other A-League team would say €” that he would be a great player to have in our team," Merrick said."Having said that the opportunity to have Mark Viduka in our side is extremely remote given that we have a salary cap and given that we have a marquee player. Archie Thompson is committed to 2011. He is playing some of his best football. He has scored three goals in the last four games, so we are pretty happy where we are at."The rest is all media speculation. We don't comment on transfers and contracts. We are happy with the side we have got and Archie has been tremendous for us and will continue to be."Merrick did not rule out a possible guest stint."You are getting into hypotheticals now," he said."It's never really been a policy. We have never felt the need to have someone in the short term. If the need arose and the finances arose and the situation arose, then I think we would look at it the same as everyone else."
© 2009 The Age
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