Mariners a club divided by Usain Bolt’s contract

It’s beginning to look as if the Central Coast Mariners are a club divided — between the pro-Bolt faction and the no-Bolt bloc.

Who’ll miss out while Usain Bolt gets a Mariners contract? Picture: AFP

It’s beginning to look as if the Central Coast Mariners are a club divided — between the pro-Bolt faction and the no-Bolt bloc.

In the pro-Bolt camp are the board and the management of the club, who are keen to sign sprint legend Usain Bolt to some sort of contract. In fact, they may have already made him an offer. They see dollar signs and spinning turnstiles. Signing Bolt, they believe, will bring the Mariners unprecedented crowds and sponsorship support.

Membership of the no-Bolt camp is not quite so obvious, but there is a good chance that coach Mike Mulvey is in there. The no-Bolters have watched the eight-time Olympic gold medallist at training and in three appearances in trial games and they are not convinced.

No matter how many Olympic medals you have to your name, switching to a completely new sport takes time and you can’t expect to be ready to play at the highest level after a couple of months, the no-Bolters believe.

Bolt’s fitness, his positional play, his touch all need work, they say.

Mulvey clearly has reservations and is completely in the dark about any contract offer made to Bolt.

“I don’t know anything about that,” he said yesterday. “I don’t talk about rumours or anything like that; it’s for a few pay grades above my level.”

And when pressed about whether there was a place for Bolt in his team, he said: “I do appreciate how important this story is for the rest of the world, but you have a look at our front line today and you wonder whether he’d get into any of those positions, wouldn’t you?”

The front line he is talking about is Socceroo Tommy Oar, Scottish international Ross McCormack, and Matt Simon, also a Socceroo and the club’s all-time leading goal scorer. Which one of them would you stand down in favour of a beginner?

But, of course, no matter what Mulvey thinks, the pro-Bolters are the ones with the purse strings. And if they want to sign Bolt, he will be signed.

Which means the club is about to face a situation where the coach has an extremely high-profile player on his list who he might not want. With pressure from management to give him at least some game time.

And what of Bolt’s teammates? How many players who have devoted their lives to the game will be happy to see experienced teammates miss out while Bolt gets a contract?

It’s a recipe for discord and division and the result could be big crowds, big sponsorship dollars … bad results.