It's adiós at Victory

There has been a noticeable lack of signings by Melbourne Victory during the off season to date. Certainly Victory has been focussed on their AFC Champions League campaign but I am sure Gary Cole has been working hard behind the scenes to turnaround the poor season from last year.

So who exactly do we expect to be exiting the team and what areas might we expect to see new faces next year.

Adrian Caceres has accepted terms with Central Coast Mariners. It seems the Victory were unwilling or unable to match the Mariners offer to Caceres. Caceres is most likely the biggest loss of the players exiting the team. In the last half of the season he had established himself as starter within the team and with three goals from eleven starts provided a third striking option to Ernie Merrick.

It appears that Melbourne has decided not to offer Daniel Piorkowski a renewal of his contract. His continuing injury issues may have contributed to the decision and Victory may feel they can utilize his salary to attract a more consistent defender. I must say I think this is a good decision by Melbourne. With Steven Pace showing signs of being a decent signing and Sebastian Ryall developing nicely I feel Melbourne can afford to let Piorkowski go.

Leandro Love will almost certainly not be offered an extension to his loan deal. The Brazilian has failed to fire since arriving at Melbourne. It could be argued that for the vast majority of the time he spent on the field he was played out of position (Most of his fifteen appearances were more as a left sided winger than a true striker). However I think his biggest undoing is that he appears to be more comfortable running at defences rather than receiving the ball with his back to the goals or his aerial ability. This is a area Melbourne must address in the off season.

Kaz Patafta’s future at the club is still up in the air. Patafta himself has declared that his priority is his contract with Portugal side Benfica. The fact that he has been hardly used at Melbourne (starting only two games) his future at Benfica must be under serious doubt. If Benfica do release him from the contract he is still no certainly to remain with Victory. Newcastle United has shown interest and Patafta may believe that he has more opportunity for a starting position there than at Melbourne.

Nathan Elasi has only been contracted to June of this year and so Melbourne also need to decide whether to offer him a longer term deal. We haven’t seen Elasi in a match yet (though it has been reported that he impressed in the recent Adelaide friendly) so it is difficult to ascertain his future chances. Certainly he will be offered a youth contract if Melbourne feel he is not ready for a professional contract but Elasi may feel that he can do better elsewhere.

In addition there must be some doubt over the future of Joseph Keenan, originally left out of the Champions League Squad as Melbourne could only name three international players he was again overlooked when Brebner withdrew due to injury. If Melbourne does keep him (which I suspect they won’t) he has a lot to prove. He does have a year left on his contract however.


With a likely four-five players exiting Melbourne will need to look carefully at their recruitment. Tom Pondeljak has joined from Central Coast already and will provide a great deal of experience though at his age injuries will be a concern. Billy Celeski although inconsistent has added a new dimension on the right.

With Love almost certain to go and Keenan a chance there will be one to two international places on the squad available. Rumours of a Costa Rican striker waiting for a visa to trail at Victory have been reported and the Melbourne Forums have been alive with reports from Costa Rica of deal that is pretty much done with a defensive midfielder by the name of Pupy Ramierz. Could it be possible that the spine of Melbourne in 2009 will be all Costa Ricans.

Width is still a major concern at Melbourne and a natural left footed midfielder is needed to replace Caceres. Evan Berger doesn’t appear to be developing quickly enough to fill that role so hopefully Gary Cole has his eye on someone.

Melbourne biggest need at the moment is a third striker who can challenge Thompson and Allsopp for a place in the starting line-up. With the FFA announcing the Youth Marquee initiative Melbourne has effectively been handed another $150,000 to spend on a striker (Ward will almost certainly be Melbourne’s youth Marquee and his salary excluded from the cap).

Hopefully the picture will become clear in the next two months.