Marcus Babbel fires up as Wanderers hit by Olyroos call-ups

Western Sydney coach Markus Babbel has threatened to think twice about promoting young players in the future.

Western Sydney Wanderers coach Markus Babbel. Picture: AAP

Western Sydney coach Markus Babbel has threatened to think twice about promoting young players in the future, launching into the sport’s authorities after losing three of his young guns to the Australian under-23s squad.

Along with Melbourne City and Newcastle Jets, the rejuvenated Wanderers have been hit hard, losing regular first-teamers Keanu Baccus, Abraham Majok and Tass Mourdoukoutas. They will be unavailable for the game against Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.

The Olyroos are in Kuala Lumpur for a week-long camp in which they will play friendlies against a local club side and the Malaysian under-22s before heading to Vietnam for the qualifiers for the AFC under-20s championship.

Olyroos coach Graham Arnold has named 16 A-League players in a 24-man squad. City, the Jets and the Wanderers are providing three players each.

The Wanderers are all but out of finals calculations but Babbel was nonetheless unimpressed with losing players and described the situation as “a disaster”.

“It is difficult because we have lost so many players,” Babbel said yesterday. “We have injuries and now three players with the under-23s. It is a disaster for us.

“We are trying to bring young players through in the league and the thanks (you get) is to take them away from us.

“It is a new experience for me because in Europe this is not possible … you just can’t take away players when there is no international break.”

Babbel appeared serious when he suggested he would assess the situation regarding young talent next season.

“We have brought in good, young players like Tass, Abraham and Keanu and given them plenty of football. They have been getting better and better and have become very important to us,” he said. “But now you think twice next time you want to bring in so many young players because you can’t use them for a period (because of representative duties).

“Then this becomes not a good situation for the clubs or the national team (in the future) because if they are not playing for their clubs then they don’t get experience and then others suffer.”