Aloisi backs Foxe's head coaching bonafides, vows to stick with United
Western United boss John Aloisi has backed assistant Hayden Foxe to take the next step in his career but, having suffered through this season, denied he's set to leave before he can taste the rewards.
Amidst reports that both are on the radar for A-League Men coaching roles, Western United boss John Aloisi has backed assistant Hayden Foxe to take the next step in his career but denied he’s set to leave Tarneit.
Never able to recover from their horror opening start to the campaign, the men of United ended their 2023-24 in eleventh-place on the table on Sunday, Jamie Maclaren’s 19th-minute strike ensuring that Melbourne City took out a 1-0 win that punched their ticket to finals football and ended the playoff hopes of Western Sydney.
An 11-time Socceroo, Foxe has been an assistant to Aloisi at United since 2021, helping them to a maiden A-League Men title after previous stints as an assistant at Perth Glory, Western Sydney and Melbourne Heart.
Reports have linked the 46-year-old with the Victory job — where Popovic is out of contract at the end of the season — in recent days and, as a former Glory player and coach who also played with the club’s new Football Director Stan Lazaridis for both club and country, a move out West has been floated.
For now, however, Aloisi is unaware of anything that would put him in the market for new assistance just yet.
“[Foxe] hasn't indicated that he wants to move,” said Aloisi. “I'm sure that if there's a head coaching role that comes about, he'll ask me what my opinion is of that club, of the way that they want to move forward.
“I'll never hold him back or any staff member back if they want to leave and progress their career but at the moment, there's been no approach from anyone so I don't need to discuss it with him. We're preparing for next season as a coaching staff and as a club.
“There's a lot of work to do. This is the busy period now coming up in terms of retaining players, letting players go, trying to bring other players in so we're all part of those discussions.”
United have a longstanding policy of allowing coaches to pursue opportunities stretching back to the days of former coach Marko Rudan. They have already this season seen one member of their staff move overseas in the form of Vincenzo Ierardo, who joined Kevin Muscat’s staff at Shanghai Port.
And Aloisi has little doubt that Fox, who went five games unbeaten as a caretaker at Western Sydney between the departure of Tony Popovic and the appointment of Josep Gombau at the start of the 2017-18 season, is more than capable of leading a club.
“He was ready 10 years ago,” said Aloisi. “Hayden could be a head coach no problem. I've got no worries about that.
“If it's the right opportunity for him and he wants to take it, I'm sure he will do an amazing job wherever he goes.”
As for himself, Aloisi has been consistently backed by the United brass throughout this challenging season.
Sentiment exists amongst club powerbrokers that the coach, who retains significant goodwill from his 2021-22 title, was put in an almost impossible position by the significant turnover in the squad and the nomadic existence it endured across the opening months of a season, with a belief existing that he deserved a full season with a stable home base at Ironbark Fields.
And while whispers have also linked him with a potential move away from United this season, again possibly to Perth, Aloisi moved to shut those down on Sunday.
“Someone was telling me there was interest elsewhere, but I don't know where that came from,” he said. “But no, I'm locked in. I'm here another year.
“I'd be silly to leave after going through what we've just gone through this season. I don't want other people to reap the rewards that we've worked for. I want to reap those rewards.”