Perth Glory chief executive Paul Kelly says the club will continue to support Mile Sterjovski, Chris Coyne and Jacob Burns gain selection in the Socceroos World Cup squad.
Perth Glory chief executive Paul Kelly says the club will continue to support Mile Sterjovski, Chris Coyne and Jacob Burns gain selection in the Socceroos World Cup squad.
Sterjovski is being courted by Chinese Super League club Shandong Luneng – on a loan deal – and the Glory will not stand in his way of playing regular Football in the lead up to South Africa.
Along with Coyne and Burns, the trio would love to stay in Perth for the possibility of finals and Kelly says they-re torn by the delicate situation but the Glory will back whatever decision they make.
“We’ve gone through the last few weeks where there’s been apprehension about what’s happening with the boys. They are committed to the club, their preference is to stay until the end of the season and we’ve had a tentative offer from Mile from China,” he said.
“There is discussions on-going at the moment, but his preference is to play until the end of the season. These guys want to play in the World Cup so that was the agreement at the start of the season and we’re now pushing for that.
“Things could still happen by the end of the transfer deadline for these guys, but their preference is to play out the A-League season. Whatever decision they make we will support them in it. They want to play in the greatest event on Earth, which is the World Cup, and we will support that.”
Adriano Pellegrino has also turned down an overseas offer to remain with the Glory until season’s end and Kelly has been impressed by the commitment of all his players to score wins over Adelaide and Wellington since the 6-2 loss in Melbourne.
“Adriano has come out publicly and said that he’s not going and he did have an offer to go away. His commitment is very strong and that’s the character around this club at the moment. There is a commitment that this team has for their football and they ought to be applauded for that.”
Kelly also said the club will be defending a melee charge arising from Friday-s win over Wellington.
“We’ve been cited by the FFA for an occurrence on Friday night which involved Naum Sekulovski, a Wellington player and several players from both sides. They have given us until Thursday close of business to reply and we will be feverishly defending any charges in relation to that,” he said.
“A melee is not the right word to use, but it’s the interpretation of what that word means. It’s a riotous fight or crowd according to the Collins English dictionary. I’ve had a look at it yesterday, we’ll look at it more today and the indications are that our players were non-aggressive and went in to diffuse the situation.”
And as for Tando Velaphi-s penalty save against Eugene Dadi.
“Save of the season, its got to be! The mental strain he was under against Dadi and he stood up. By the way Jacob told him to stand up and it was an exceptional save,” Kelly said.
