Vidmar brushes off Maclaren rumours ahead of crucial WSW clash
Melbourne City coach Aurelio Vidmar says he's yet to hear of any official attempts from overseas to lure captain Jamie Maclaren away from Casey Fields, with his focus on WSW on Friday evening.
As his side prepares for a crucial Unite Round clash with Western Sydney Wanderers, Melbourne City coach Aurelio Vidmar says he is unaware of any official attempts to lure his captain Jamie Maclaren away from Casey Fields.
After the rumour mill previously linked him with a move to Japanese side Fagiano Okayama, a Tuesday evening report suggested that an out-of-contract Maclaren was receiving interest from Japan, China, the Middle East, and the MLS. No specific clubs were mentioned in the report, just that offers between two to four years were on offer and that City were also interested in retaining his services.
With the expiration of his deal six months away, Maclaren is now free to stage discussions with potential landing spots and even sign a pre-contract with a new destination should he so choose. Despite battling injury and proving no more immune to City’s sluggish start to the season than any of his teammates, he has eleven goals in twenty appearances across all competitions this season and has started every A-League Men fixture.
Signed in January 2019 as one of the club’s marquees, the 30-year-old recently scored his 100th league goal for City in just his 125th total appearance and was this season named captain. Born in Melbourne, he and his wife Iva welcomed their first child, a daughter, in September last year.
For his part, Vidmar says that he prefers to leave the rumour mill to City’s director of football Michael Petrillo and football operations manager Pedj Radinovic – trusting them to bring him word of any official offers or moves when they are made.
“I haven't heard anything personally,” said Vidmar. “The club hasn't said anything to me about any of those rumours.
“Unless something officially comes in, that's exactly what that is, rumours.
“I'm not interested in the rumour, I go ahead with the business of leading this group and one day if something does happen, Michael or Pedj -- probably both at the same time -- will come and tell me there's some interest. That's fine and then we'll have to deal with that if that happens.
“But right now, there's absolutely zero that's come to the front desk.”
City will head to Sydney on Friday evening to face Western Sydney as part of the league-wide Unite Round initiative, one of the sides that drew the short straw that was facing off with a Sydney-based opponent for the occasion.
The two teams tied for fourth place on the ladder on 18 points, City will move into second place with a win and Wellington defeat this weekend, as will the Wanderers, who announced on Thursday morning that coach Mark Rudan had spurned overseas interest and signed a three-year contract extension.
Marin Jakoliš will miss the contest and be absent for around four weeks with a hamstring injury sustained in their 2-1 win over Western United last week but fellow winger Andrew Nabbout will return to the side after staging a miraculous recovery from a pre-season Achilles injury initially anticipated to keep him out for the whole campaign.
After limping off last week, Hamza Sakhi, who on Thursday was announced as a permanent signing until the end of the 2024-25 campaign after previously being on-loan, will also be available.
"He will have completed two weeks with the group and is pulling up pretty well,” Vidmar said of Nabbout.
“He's physically in pretty good shape, it's just a lack of game time.
“He should be able to easily do 30 minutes. So we'll see how the game pans out and if there's an opportunity to chuck him on we can do that.
“[Western Sydney are a] tough team. Unite Round, a home game, away. Crucial game for both teams, on the same points [on the table].
“They're a good team. They've got a lot of good strengths, they're really dangerous at set pieces, they're good at building up and getting through lines, definitely well coached for sure and they've got some dangerous players.”
City had also been linked with a loan move that would have reunited them with Celtic winger Marco Tilio, who won’t be available during the Asian Cup and will also be absent for AFC U23 Championship duty later in the season.
But with Mat Leckie also nearing a return from injury, Vidmar believes his side will be well-placed out-wide when the group gets fit.
"We're looking at a couple of things this week. Just a couple of little tweaks, nothing too dramatic, but something that should be part of our strengths, the way we want to play,” said the coach.
“If that goes well, great, and if it doesn't we have options on the bench to change it.
“When everyone is here, we've got plenty. Missing Lecks, missing Nabbout, they're a couple of big outs in that position, so that's why we've had to blood some minutes into guys like Benny Mazzeo. He's done a pretty good job but he's still learning the game and he's still raw.
“If everyone is available, we have enough. Stocks are low when a couple of guys are injured but you could say that for many positions.”