Victory awaits Langerak clearance as Reds test looms

Arthur Diles says Melbourne Victory are yet to receive the paperwork that would clear Socceroo goalkeeper Mitch Langerak for selection in this weekend's Original Rivalry showdown with Adelaide United.

Though the A-League Men transfer window has opened, Arthur Diles says Melbourne Victory are yet to receive the paperwork that would clear Socceroo goalkeeper Mitch Langerak for selection, casting doubt on his availability for Saturday’s Original Rivalry showdown with Adelaide United.

Langerak, 36, inked an agreement to join Victory through to the end of the 2025-26 A-League Men last August and landed in Melbourne this month after seeing out his commitments with J1 League side Nagoya Grampus. However, while the A-League Men transfer window officially opened on January 16, Diles said on Thursday that the paperwork allowing for his registration had yet to be received by the club, meaning that he was not yet eligible to don the gloves against the Reds. Set to travel to Adelaide on Friday, Victory hopes that the clearance for their new keeper comes through before they need to make a call on bringing him.

Then again, given the sterling play of veteran Jack Duncan this season, any headache around Langerak’s availability may be sparing Diles from an even bigger one associated with trying to select between one the best keepers Australia has produced in decades and a custodian that hasn’t done much meriting his relegation from the number one role.

“We haven’t got official paperwork yet to clear Mitch,” said Diles. “I know the window’s open. But now there’s still paperwork that needs to be sorted between federations. So until we have that, then he's not in contention. Once we have that and the official paperwork ready, then, we'll cross that bridge.

“Once the window opens, it's just a formality, really. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes it might take a day or two. So we're hoping it'll be sorted as soon as possible, but that's out of our control right now. Once we get clarity on that and confirmation, then we can plan with him.

“We’re hoping to have that finalized before travelling, so we don't have to deal with something like that. But we should know in the next 24 hours.

“At this point, we're planning with Jack in goals. For us, it's making sure that, first of all, [Langerak is] available to be part of the squad. That's the first step. And then if he is, that's our first step, and then after that, we see how we go moving forward.”

Yet to win a game since Patrick Kisnorbo’s shock departure last month – a run that has now stretched to five fixtures– and falling out of this season’s top six for the first time over the weekend, Adelaide increasingly shapes as a potentially season-defining clash for Victory. And they’ve already been dealt one blow after Reno Piscopo picked up a knock in their 4-3 loss to Western United that will rule him out.

The Reds, meanwhile, are flying, able to deliver a dagger to their bitter foes in front of what is expected to be a partisan, sold-out crowd and go top of the league if they claim all three points. Diles said that there had been some “honest conversations” amongst his playing group in the aftermath of the defeat to Western and that he was hopeful that these conversations would strengthen their position moving forward.

“Adelaide is in the position that they're in because they're a quality side,” said Diles. “They've earned that right to be there. They play some good football and they've had some decent results.

“But in saying that, we know what needs to be done to beat them. As a group, we're looking within our own four walls and making sure that we get ourselves right, first and foremost. We need to start putting together two good halves of football, not just one. And we know that once we do that we'll be in a very good position.”

Langerak’s arrival from Japan comes at the same time another of Victory’s favourite sons heads the other way, right-back Jason Geria playing his last game for the club against Western before jetting out to commence preparations for the 2025 J1 League season with Albirex Niigata.

Questions, however, continue to linger over the circumstances of his exit. Sources have told JDL Media and it has been reported on A-League Off Air and For Vucks Sake that despite being contracted to the end of next season, Geria’s move to Niigata wasn’t accompanied by any kind of transfer windfall heading the other way. Firm details of the deal have been few and far between, both in Japan and Australia, with a Victory spokesperson saying that “terms of his departure are confidential” last week and Victory director of football John Didulica unavailable for questions on Thursday.

“That's not something that's in my workspace,” Diles said. “Jason is gone now, the deal's been done with whoever's involved in that.

“My focus is solely on the playing group at hand, who we can bring in and making sure that as a group, we're stronger this Saturday than we were last weekend. That's the most important thing right now and our focus.

“We know we're going to have a lot of travelling fans in Adelaide, and we want to put in a performance that they're all very, very proud of.”

With Geria gone, Olyroo defender Josh Rawlins shapes as a likely starter against Adelaide, the 20-year-old signed in the offseason with a vision that he, eventually, would step into a starting role at AAMI Park, be it in the middle or on the right of the backline. However, there’s no telling just how long he’ll keep his place if he does start, given reports have linked Victory with a pursuit of Socceroo defenders Miloš Degenek and Thomas Deng, who can both play on the right and centrally.

A free agent after leaving Serbian powers FK Crvena zvezda, Western Sydney Wanderers have also been touted as a potential destination for Degenek, who was raised in the Sydney suburb of Campsie. But amidst his desire to remain in Europe, Serbian outlet Mozzart Sport has reported that SuperLiga side FK TSC are leading the race for his signature and that there is additional interest from Hungarian side Debreceni VSC. Those same reports suggested that Miloš Ninković, now part of the Wanderers coaching staff, has made a personal pitch to Degenek.

Available on a free transfer after leaving Niigata, News Corp and Total A-Leagues have reported that Deng is also the subject of courtship from both the Wanderers and Victory, the 27-year-old having previously spent five years at Victory before departing for J1 League powers Urawa Red Diamonds.

Diles has previously said the club would consider both internal and external options to replace Geria, as of Thursday, said that there was “no real progress” on either front yet.

“At the moment, we're looking,” he said. “We're looking everywhere, both internally and externally. We'll continue to do that until we find a suitable replacement.

“We're not just going to knee-jerk and sign someone for the sake of signing them. We have to be very careful with the players that we bring in.

And to cap it all off, Diles status itself continues to be the subject of conjecture. An influential Victory supporter podcast that has previously broken news surrounding the club, the For Vucks Sake Twitter account posted in the aftermath of the loss to Western that Diles had signed a two-year as coach of the side but that the deal hadn’t been announced due to the five-game winless run. It repeated the report on its January 14 episode.

Beyond strongly backing him to step in and succeed following Kisnorbo’s shock exit, scant details of Victory’s plans for the coaching role have been shared by club officials in the month since the change; it yet to be shared if the plan is for Diles to be replaced by an incoming manager, for him to see out the season, or if he’s been upgraded to a multi-year deal.

Pressed specifically if he had signed a two-year deal to lead the club, Diles gave a simple “no.” That came after a longer reply to a question querying his status.

“The current status is that I was put in this position and accepted this position to take the team from the departure of Patrick,” said the coach. “That's been a week-to-week proposition and we've just been looking at it game by game.

“Until anything else is arranged or sorted, then nothing else really needs to be discussed.

Right now, that's the situation. It's week to week. Once there is clarity on that or a decision, then I'm sure I'll know first, and then once I know, I'm sure you guys will know as well.

“At this point, it's just business as usual. I was asked and put in this position to lead the team moving forward. And like I said from the beginning, for however long that is -- at this point, it's been week to week -- we're just getting on with the job. The show goes on.”