Stories from Mitchell and Sterjovski pressers

Morning to the blog, guys and gals.

Just a bit of breaking news, Jamie Coyne will not be going to Wellington after he was ruled out with a thigh injury. What makes this even more interesting, was that no one picked on this at yesterday's presser, the assumption was that there were no new injuries.

By the time you read this, Perth Glory will be on a flight for Sydney, as part of their journey to Wellington.

Which meant that yesterday was the last chance for the Perth journos to get their stories on the Glory before Sunday's game.

So today's blog is made up of the most interesting bits from Dave Mitchell and Mile Sterjovski's presser to the media.

The pressers themselves were bloody uncomfortable, with journos having to endure the heat, humidity, flies and a bit of sprinkling of rain as well.

It was a bit of a change for the journos who are used to sitting in the office for most of the day.

Here's today's blog:


---> SO after Sterjovski was selected for the Socceroos, he's almost certainly going to leave the club on loan to help book a spot on the plane to South Africa.

The big question is WHEN will he leave for loan.

Sterjovski wants to leave in March after the finals, but he hasn't ruled out leaving in January either. A couple of months makes a lot of difference, especially with Perth Glory gunning for a finals spot.

This is what he said:

I'd like to be here for the finals, that was my plan all along and I want to finish the season with Perth Glory. But it all depends how things go in the transfer market. It's hard to say what's going to happen.

If in the end we have to leave early, it's going to be very disappointing (but) it's for the Socceroos, it's for the World Cup so it's a huge sacrifice we going to have to make.

Club and country is always going to be a big debate, though for Australian football playing for the Socceroos will always be more important then the A-League.

So know we can assume he's leaving, what can the Glory do about it.

Well, DM wants to know whether the club is allowed to bring in another marquee:

That's one of those quirky rules that we've got to look at. You're only allowed one marquee player but under the circumstances that we've got and Mile does leave, then we'd like to bring someone of the same quality in.

That's something from the FFA we'll have to clarify if Mile does go, that we can replace him and I'm pretty sure because it's benefiting the national team, benefiting the national game, I think that's a rule that if it is a problem, will be overlooked.

There was a ludicrous notion somewhere that the Glory wanted some monetary compensation from the FFA, however, DM never even mentioned the idea of money. All he wants is to temporarily replace Sterjovski.


---> WHILE Sterjovski is relieved, he aslo felt sorry for his teammates Jacob Burns and Chris Coyne.

The other 'Glory Roos' weren't included in the national team squad, and this is what Sterjovski said about it:

I would have liked to have been back in the squad together with Jacob Burns and Chris Coyne.
Unfortunately that didn't happen this time but I'm sure they can come back into the squad in the future.

We are all good mates and I would love for them to be in the squad and I'm sure they'll be back in the squad in the future.

FP reckons that, while it's possible that they could be recalled, due to the amount of competition for their positions, it's probably they won't.

Which begs the question, will they be allowed to go on loan as well?

Well DM reckons they are still in with a shot, so it could be that all three could go on loan, while only one has a realistic shot of making it.


---> MEANWHILE, DM has put this week's game against Wellington into some context, saying he reckons they are a stronger side to when they last played in Round 2 of the A-League.

While most of Thursday's presser was based on Sterjovski and replacing him, DM managed to say a few words about his opponents this week:

When we played them last time I think we were unfortunate to lose there. We hit the bar, we had a goal cleared off the line, and we had numerous chances - we could have very well (won there).

But as a team they have organised themselves, they are much better and they are playing a lot better then when we played them.

It just shows that anyone that wins 6-0, then 3-0 in the last two games is a tough task for us. But that's the mental attitude I'm asking the boys to step up to.

The key is mental attitude, there's nothing wrong with the players' ability, just that they can not sustain for the full game.

Whether they can change their ways remains to be seen.

---


And that's all for today, FP makes a trip down south today, so the Football Perth Blog is coming from Busselton tomorrow.

So until then.