Victory coach Kevin Muscat says it’s time A-League recognised international breaks

MELBOURNE Victory coach Kevin Muscat says more consideration needs to be given to recognising international breaks in the A-League.

With revelations this week that star striker Besart Berisha is set to play for Kosovo, Victory faces a huge drain of its attacking stocks for its March 25 trip to fellow title-chaser Brisbane.

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Berisha, attacking midfielder James Troisi (Socceroos) and winger Marco Rojas (New Zealand) all appear likely to be called up for international duty, while Jai Ingham is also an outside chance to receive an All Whites call.

Berisha, 31, had been tied to Albania — which he represented 17 times — but with Kosovo recently recognised by FIFA, the striker has been given dispensation to switch allegiances.

Having previously turned down calls from Albania to instead focus on his A-League career, Muscat said he could not begrudge his player heeding the call if selected.

“The international windows haven’t been recognised in the A-League right from the beginning, so there’s nothing different from that perspective,” Muscat said.


Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat with Melbourne Victory's Besart Berisha after the win. Picture: George Salpigtidis
“Are we heading down the path that they should start to be respected? Because it affects not only players that you’ve currently got but it affects future signings because it limits you to extent.

“That’s probably a discussion for another day. At this point in time we’ll just wait and see what players we have selected.”

Second-placed Victory takes on cellar dweller Adelaide United at AAMI Park on Saturday night.

The Reds have been hit by injury and are also backing up from Wednesday night’s 3-0 Asian Champions League loss to Gamba Osaka.

But Muscat said no Victory player should head to the ground tonight just expecting to win.

“It’s a trap for fools, isn’t it? We’re certainly not taking that approach,” he said.

“Adelaide were good last week. Yes, they’ve had a midweek game and they’ve had some injuries. There’s a bit of an unknown about what team they’re going to put out.

“But that’s why we’ve really focused on ourselves. From a mindset perspective, we’ve really got to be switched on.”

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/a-league/teams/victory/victory-coach-kevin-muscat-says-its-time-aleague-recognised-international-breaks/news-story/f98700bf182f71c568b17a471a1afb94

Bit late Kev

Gallops just signed off on another 6 years of this

I have trouble seeing it changing for the next 6 seasons.

FFA don't consider it that important. How much less would Foxtel actually give them?

its time victory started paying transfer fees and stopped leeching off the rest of the league

Youre either fishing or are that fuckong daft, mv are the only club to pay a transfer fee for a player. City havent . Oh gtw man city paid the transfer for caceres not melb city

how much have u paid a leagues clubs for the players u poach?

Adelaide  say hi .

we gave them mauk and garuccio. should cover more than what we took.  also dekker?

Well you broke one of FFA's league laws, there can't be transfers between clubs.
Players can be released and if it so happens the club he goes to releases a player and you sign him, it's a happy coincidence.

It's suddenly important to Musky because it involves his players.

Hard to pick the biggest whinger, Arnie or Musky.

Easy to pick the biggest winner this year!!!!

Love you Arnie, enjoy eating our dusk.

I'm not sure you read the article at all... 

Behind that, he's a perpetual whinger

They were saying on the commentary last night that the Phoenix could be without 12 players for the next international window, that just makes a joke of the fixture.

Maybe you should have more Australian players

I agree with the point about recognising international dates.

On the other hand I don't like it when coaches complain they lose their best players for international duty. I think that is part and parcel of having a squad. The entire squad is the team. Not just the first eleven. If the club is doing things right in the development of young players, it creates an opportunity for someone to step into the vacuum.

In the ACL Roar's young players, Crestani, Calletti and D'Agostino, have been fabulous replacements in the ACL for experienced team-mates.

This is a valid point.

Roar, Jets and CCM usually have a high component of Aussies in their teams ATM. I really dislike relying on too many  foreigners in any HAL team for success. It is like buying success, or coaching by personnel and recruitment, not value adding to the cattle a team has.

No I was talking to Ryan not Kevin.

Look I'm a fan of giving it to Muscat as much as the next bloke, but how anyone can disagree with him here is ridiculous. I still can't believe we don't take breaks for international dates. Just smacks of unprofessionalism. 

From a selfish point of view I like that we don't honour international dates as young players get a chance for a couple of rounds that they otherwise would never have got, especially at anti-youth clubs like MV.

And that's why they are shit.

lolwut - half of your franchise is fucking ex-Vuck youth that didn't make the grade after being given a litany of chances.

Nice goal from Galloway this arvo, but.