Melbourne Victory’s attempt to lure Mark Milligan back foiled

MELBOURNE Victory tried a sensational January swoop for former skipper Mark Milligan to replace the injured Carl Valeri.

Victory foiled in attempt to lure back Milligan

MELBOURNE Victory tried a sensational January swoop for former skipper Mark Milligan to replace Carl Valeri.

Victory coach Kevin Muscat contacted Milligan three weeks ago to lure him back and despite being a regular with his UAE club the Socceroo entertained the idea, but it was knocked on the head by Baniyas.

Milligan was sold to the Middle East for $1.2m only eight months ago, and just a month after winning the Joe Marston medal as the man of the match in the 3-0 grand final win over Sydney FC.

Kevin Muscat attempted to lure Mark Milligan back the Melbourne.

“They had a crack but it was an unrealistic approach,’’ Farah said.

“The investment that Baniyas put in the player was considerable and they honour the player as a footballer and they value his contribution to the club so it was never something they were interested in entertaining.’’

Classy Iranian captain, defensive midfielder Andranik Teymourian (97 caps for Iran) and hard-nosed Japanese defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka (43 caps for Japan) were among the players Victory was understood to be chasing.

They could’ve filled the ‘+1’ Asian visa spot available in the Asian Champions League squad and FFA would have strongly considered them as guest player options enabling them to play in the A-League.

Several other lower profile Asian players were offered up to Victory, but they wouldn’t have qualified for the guest rule and hence only been available for the six ACL games.

While Victory has until Wednesday to sign an Asian, Victory coach Kevin Muscat on Wednesday revealed that he won’t be making any additions to his squad, though Victory’s football department were actively searching in the January transfer window.

Carl Valeri has spent an extended period on the sideline. Picture: George Salpigtidis

Milligan, who signed a lucrative two-year deal with Baniyas, could have slotted in as an injury-replacement for Valeri, the man who replaced him as captain.

Victory still has the option of signing an injury-replacement, though they are limited to an uncontracted Australian as the A-League transfer window closed last week.

Victory explored ways of signing attacker James Troisi, but salary cap restrictions meant they could only offer him a fraction of his wage demands.

They made a late play for Socceroos defender Alex Wilkinson and defender-midfielder Osama Malik, who both opted to sign for cross-town rivals Melbourne City, with Wilkinson set to debut in tomorrow night’s derby.

Hume City winger Jai Ingham was the only mid-season addition to the squad.