Wanderers strike 10-year deal to play games at rebuilt Bankwest Stadium from 2019-20 season

Western Sydney Wanderers will be back in Parramatta next season, and for many years to come. And controversial coach Markus Babbel will be coming with them.

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Markus Babbel will lead the overhaul of the Wanderers squad next season, as the club inches closer to its long-awaited return to playing in Parramatta.

Western Sydney chairman Paul Lederer said Babbel remains “without question” the right man for the job, despite a season that has garnered just 17 points from 20 games and will end without finals football for the second campaign in a row.

Lederer insisted he could see green shoots of recovery in the past three games, and said that Babbel should have the opportunity to reshape the squad in his own image after inheriting the vast majority of players from predecessor Josep Gombau.

Western Sydney Wanderers Chairman Paul Lederer announces the new deal with Bankwest Stadium. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

The Wanderers will play at Bankwest Stadium for 10 years.

The club announced a 10-year deal to play at the new Bank West Stadium after three years of displacement, and with the pitch being laid on the new site on the same day, Lederer promised disillusioned supporters that next season would look very different on and off the field.

In particular, the Wanderers chairman expressed delight at the core of players promoted from the club’s youth system.

“Every season you make changes, you make alterations, but the nucleus of the team is fine,” he said. “We have a lot of young players coming through, which is exciting, but nevertheless we are always looking for new talent to make the squad better.

Lederer has given Babbel his confidence. (AAP Image/Danny Casey)

“Without a question, absolutely (Babbel will stay). The team is getting better and better. When you get a manager coming to a new country, a new squad, and let’s face it to players really signed by the previous management.

“He’s putting his stamp on it and getting better and better. He’s getting used to the landscape, getting used to the players, to the surfaces, to a lot of things. It takes time.

“You have to be patient a little bit.”

Lederer insisted Babbel’s regular and sometimes barbed public criticisms of his players were designed only to make them improve.

“He’s 100 per cent supportive of the players,” Lederer said. “He wants some of them to be more proactive, to wake up, that sort of thing.

“That’s his intention. He’s extremely loyal to the players, there’s no issue there.”