Adelaide United football boss Ante Kovacevic says Marco Kurz will have firepower to compete
ADELAIDE United football manager Ante Kovacevic says club owners will exhaust the club salary cap and aren’t holding back entering the final year of coach Marco Kurz’s contract.
ADELAIDE United’s Director of Football Ante Kovacevic says club owners will exhaust the club salary cap and aren’t holding back entering the final year of gun coach Marco Kurz’s contract.
“I think it is a bit of a false concept. We definitely spend and are competitive,” said Kovacevic of a suggestion the club is financially conservative.
“The only thing we can’t do is spend big on marquees but there is no guarantee of winning anything.”
According to Kovacevic, the identity of club owners isn’t important but commitment to homegrown talent and title contention is.
United will exhaust its annual $3.06 million salary cap and fork out for a specialist left-back to replace Heart of Midlothian acquisition Ben Garuccio. Adelaide is close to completing a deal for a hardened midfielder to succeed German Daniel Adlung. Former Australian youth international and Wellington Phoenix left-back Scott Galloway is trialling with United but no decision on a contract has been made by Kurz.
“People call us tight but we are spending beyond the salary cap. It is business as usual and we’re looking forward to the new season,” Kovacevic said.
“It’s been transparent since the new guys came in. We want to improve on last year.
“We need to find an experienced left-back who will give you 20-odd games a season.”
Adelaide endured a 10-player, post-season exodus headlined by star winger Johan Absalonsen, stopper Ersan Gulum, championship defender Tarek Elrich and Adlung. However, Kurz has 19 players in pre-season training following the arrival of former Fortuna Dusseldorf forward Ken Ilso and Michael Jakobsen from Melbourne City.
“People keep making an issue of it but it’s been that way for 25 years in Australia. Turnover is not something unusual. We were champions two years ago and couldn’t keep players and Melbourne Victory can’t now,” said Kovacevic,
“You always have ambitious players. We are stable in the numbers we have, a good core group and full training squad. We got Craig Goodwin and Jakobsen in early.”
Kurz is off contract at season’s end and attracted interest from Sydney FC before it anointed Steve Corica to follow Socceroos boss Graham Arnold.
Kovacevic indicated it was premature to open new contract discussions with the manager who steered Adelaide to a fifth-placed A-League finish and FFA Cup runner-up in his debut season at Hindmarsh.
“That is probably a conversation for later – we would love to keep him but that is for Marco to decide,” he said.
Adelaide has Senegalese striker Baba Diawara as its marquee man but champion Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City, Sydney FC and Western Sydney can offer huge wages to foreign stars.
Adelaide beat the system with its 2015-16 A-League title but Kovacevic concedes the planets must align to break the title monopoly of Melbourne and Sydney clubs.
“The Melbourne and Sydney clubs will always be there because of the money they spend, seven figures for a marquee, we are nowhere near that,” Kovacevic said.
“We were rather competitive last year and you could argue that if Johan and Baba played more football we would be a top-four team. But you have to make sure you are prepared, have a good culture, fitness, work ethic, have a bit of luck and no injuries, rather than rely on individual talent.”
United’s owners remain unknown outside football administrator Piet van der Pol following a transfer from the consortium headed for eight years by Greg Griffin.
United fans could air issues with prominent, local lawyer Griffin in contrast with the current arrangement.
United’s mission – says Kovacevic – remains consistent.
“It’s to represent the state, young South Australian footballers. We want to continue that with the owners having European expertise and our own academy down the track,” he said.