Aloisi in talks with Western United on future, but focused on Auckland
As he prepares his side for a potentially defining fortnight against Auckland and Adelaide, Western United boss John Aloisi has confirmed he’s speaking to the club about his status beyond 2024-25.
As he prepares his side for a potentially defining fortnight against league-leaders Auckland FC and Adelaide United, Western United coach John Aloisi has confirmed he’s speaking to the club about his status beyond the 2024-25 campaign.
Coming off a season in which they finished second-bottom of the A-League Men and shaping to field one of the league’s youngest sides yet again, little was expected from United this season — most best-case pre-season predictions having them battling for finals football. That could still happen, of course, given that they sit just two points clear of seventh-placed Melbourne City, but right now, Aloisi’s unit is defying these forecasts to sit third on the table, the improvement from their young group more widespread and arriving faster than anticipated.
Seven points back of league-leaders Auckland and five-back of the second-placed Reds, United will be afforded the chance to host the league leaders in proverbial six-pointers across the coming fortnight, with Steve Corica’s side the first to visit this Saturday. The last time the two sides met, of course, United triumphed 4-0 in New Zealand, hanging the expansion side with their first-ever loss and announcing their intentions in 2024-25.
In the background of all this, though, is Aloisi’s status. After leading United to a title in his first year at the club, the now 49-year-old signed a contract extension towards the end of the 2022-23 campaign, professing his belief in the United project as he inked a deal that would take him through to the end of this season. The club has moved its purpose-built training facility at Ironbark Fields in the subsequent years and has emerged as one of the best young sides in the league. They are, however, also yet to break ground on their promised stadium and their youth movement, while reaping obvious benefits, has largely been enforced by broader league-wide austerity.
“I am speaking to the club,” Aloisi said. “My contract is up, but at the moment, I'm not too worried about it. I'm happy with the situation at the moment; we're looking to keep on building.
“There's a lot to it. It's not as straightforward as just re-signing. There are things that you want to make sure that are in place.
“But at the moment, my main focus is just on making sure that we continue to do well and develop these players. That's why we're able to have this season so far is that we created that foundation last season, and we'll be doing the same for next season.
“So whenever there are talks of players, retaining players or bringing new players in, I'm well and truly part of that.”
One of the players who will be around at least until the end of the season is Noah Botić. The young striker was the subject of significant interest from overseas clubs during the midseason transfer window — United receiving at least one official bid from an Eerste Divisie promotion hopeful for his services — but ultimately, he remained in Tarneit, where he just overtook Aleksandar Prijović as the club’s second all-time leading goalscorer.
With eight goals and four assists to his name this season – averaging a goal involvement every 87 minutes – Botić is having his best season as a professional in 2024-25, increasingly generating buzz as a potential call-up for Tony Popovic’s squad for World Cup qualifiers against Indonesia and China in March. United, however, can’t afford to celebrate seeing off offers deemed insufficient for the striker just yet, with the 23-year-old out-of-contract at the end of the season and, ostensibly, free right now to sign a pre-contract with a club to join as a free agent.
“I'm not sure how close we were to losing him,” Aloisi said of Botić. “I know there was a lot of talk about a few clubs that were coming in for him; I spoke to him a couple of times about just focusing on what he's doing here, and the other stuff will play out -- it's part of being a professional footballer, of being a striker that's in form, you're going to get clubs that are interested.
“We would love to have him sign on. I still have the belief that Noah having a good year this season and next, and then hopefully going to a World Cup with the Socceroos. I think that would be a great time for him to make that next step overseas. At the end of the day, he has to make decisions with his family about when he feels the time is right, but that's my thoughts about it.
“But at the moment, he's just going to be fully focused on playing week in and week out with us and trying to keep his form up. [Focused on] improving all the time, which has always been his way of being, his way of playing and training. He just wants to keep on improving.”
United will be without the services of Angus Thurgate for the visit from Auckland after the midfielder was suspended for yellow-card accumulation, while James Donachie, though resuming training with the side, remains “a little bit away”. Everyone else, though, is fit per Aloisi, with the returning Seb Pasquali one of the possible options to replace Thurgate in the middle of the park.
“We're looking forward to it,” Aloisi said of Auckland’s visit. “It's a good challenge for us. We're excited about playing Auckland, who are top of the table.
“They've been doing really well – like last time we played against them. We were really excited [then] because we wanted to become that first team to beat them. They recovered really well after that game and ended up going on another good run. So it will be a tough game for us.”