A-League January 2014 Transfer Window

With only ten rounds left in the 2013/14 A-League regular season, clubs have been making big moves to place themselves in position to reach the finals. With nine of the league’s ten clubs within a single point of the finals after seventeen rounds, and Melbourne Heart finally starting to climb slowly up the ladder from the bottom rung, moves made in the transfer window are even more important than in previous seasons.

While there were certainly players coming in earlier in the transfer window, most notably Tom Rogic’s loan to Melbourne Victory, many of the moves before February were outgoing transfers. Kwame Yeboah, Michael McGlinchey, Brett Emerton, Mitch Nichols, Tiago Calvano, Trent Sainsbury and Daniel McBreen all departed before the latest crop of signings were brought in. Yet as those familiar faces depart, a group featuring a heavy dose of A-League and Socceroos experience will fill some of the gaps.

The A-League’s reigning Golden Boot winner is returning to China as Daniel McBreen has made a permanent move back to Shanghai SIPG. The 36-year-old spent thirteen games with the team also known as East Asia, scoring three times in a loan from Central Coast Mariners between June and October 2013. Now, apparently with input from fans, McBreen has reached a new deal for the 2014 Chinese Super League season.

McBreen is taking the opportunity for one more big move, according to a Mariners release:

Central Coast Mariners are losing yet another piece from their championship season, this time with Trent Sainsbury moving to the Eredivisie. The 22-year-old defender will move to Dutch side PEC Zwolle after spending the past three-and-a-half years in Gosford. Sainsbury’s move is immediate, coming on the final day of the European January transfer window.

Zwolle, who are ninth in the eighteen-team Dutch first division, get one of the A-League’s brightest prospects, while Central Coast expect to replace Sainsbury shortly. The Mariners Medal winner for 2012/13 explained the move in a club press release:

Tiago Calvano has been released from his Sydney FC contract with immediate effect, per a club press release. According to the Sydney Morning Herald’s Dominic Bossi, Tiago will be headed to the North American Soccer League, the second tier in the United States. The 32-year-old Brazilian, who previously played with Newcastle Jets, as well as Fortuna Düsseldorf and BSC Young Boys, was suspended for eight games this season by the A-League for making contact with a referee. That suspension, levied in November, prevented Tiago from playing again for Sydney.

The club release quotes Tiago on his departure:

Trouble is brewing between Adelaide United, Brisbane Roar and Steven Luštica. With the 22-year-old midfielder apparently set to sign an extension with the Reds, Luštica was approached by Brisbane and now wants to move back to the club where he featured a dozen times last season. Adelaide is uninterested in such a move and is currently refusing to release the player. Luštica has played in fifteen games for the Reds this season.

Outlined in a ‘Club Statement Regarding Steven Luštica,’ the United media department explained:

Three years after leaving, Jean Carlos Solórzano is back with Brisbane Roar. The 26-year-old Costa Rican has rejoined the Roar for the rest of the 2013/14 season, according to a Roar press release. Solórzano was a key part of Brisbane’s first A-League championship team in 2010/11, scoring eleven times in twenty-five matches while on loan from Costa Rican side LD Alajuelense. The 5’11” striker who goes by Nico also played for Melbourne Victory in 2011/12.

Said manager Mike Mulvey of the return of the double winner:

Perth Glory remain active in the January transfer window as they claimed Lithuanian international Darvydas Šernas on loan for the remainder of the season. The Glory will have the option to make the move permanent at the conclusion of 2013/14. Šernas, a 29-year-old forward, currently plays at Turkish Süper Lig side Gaziantepspor after previously playing in Lithuania, Russia and Poland. He has 35 caps with Lithuania and has scored five times, including three goals in Euro 2012 qualifying and one last March in 2014 World Cup qualifying.

Manager Kenny Lowe briefly described Sernas in a club press release:

Twenty-three months after leaving the A-League for China, Rostyn Griffiths is back, this time with Perth Glory. The 25-year-old holding midfielder spent two years with Guangzhou R&F, featuring 34 times, but returned home to Western Australia two weeks ago to begin training with the Glory. According to a club press release, Griffiths is under contract through the 2014/15 season.

The 6’1” Griffiths has played previously at Adelaide United, as an injury replacement, North Queensland Fury and most recently Central Coast Mariners, appearing 71 times in the A-League between 2009 and 2012. When he left the Mariners after a premiership season, his transfer fee to Guangzhou R&F was reportedly the highest ever for an A-League player at AU $1.3m.

A day after Melbourne Victory confirmed that an overseas club had tabled an offer for Mark Milligan, the club announced that the offer had been withdrawn and that Milligan would not be leaving.

The Victory, who have made waves by signing starlet Tom Rogic on loan and selling Mitch Nichols to Cerezo Osaka, created the A-League’s biggest news of the January transfer window yesterday in announcing the recruitment of Brisbane Roar striker Bersart Berisha. Retaining Milligan will help Kevin Muscat maintain a healthy level of the club’s current identity while the other moves are clearly adjusting the composition of the roster to fit his own profile rather than necessarily copying his predecessor, Ange Postecoglou.

The A-League’s top striker is on the move with Melbourne Victory as his destination at the conclusion of this season. Besart Berisha, who moved to Brisbane Roar ahead of the 2011/12 season and won the championship that season, has scored 41 goals in 65 games. The Victory, who have had a busy week already, will welcome Berisha as an International Marquee for the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons.

According to a Victory press release, Berisha will move to Melbourne in July. Kevin Muscat was quoted in the release, saying:

Perth Glory have added a midfielder today in signing Nebojsa Marinkovic. The 27-year-old Serbian, who came up with Partizan, has been playing in Israel at three different clubs since 2010 and now joins the Glory with a contract that extends through the 2014/15 season. With Ryo Nagai released last week, the Glory had room on the roster and in visa positions to welcome Marinkovic from Hapoel Haifa.

Interim manager Kenny Lowe described Marinkovic in a club press release:

Tom Rogic’s arrival, via loan from Celtic, is only initially to last through May and Mitch Nichols has now moved to Cerezo Osaka, as has been rumored over the past weeks. The identity of the Victory is now quite different from the start of the season when Nichols was newly signed, Milligan confirmed as remaining at the club and Ange Postecoglou the manager.

Milligan turned down a previous offer from Baniyas in June 2013, citing family stability and a keen interest in continuing to work with Postecoglou for a second season in Melbourne. Milligan was awarded the captaincy and the Victory held off bids from Crystal Palace to keep the Socceroos midfielder in the fold. But now with Postecoglou gone and the team changing around him, big money from the UAE may seem more desirable than it did seven months ago.

Mitch Nichols will join Graham Arnold and Michael McGlinchey in the J-League in 2014 as the 24-year-old has agreed to move to Cerezo Osaka from Melbourne Victory. Nichols, who has been the subject of J-League rumors for more than a month and a bid from Cerezo in December, did not make the trip to Wellington with the Victory last weekend and will fly to Osaka for a medical.

Cerezo manager Rado Popovic has been very public with his desire to recruit Nichols, noting that he has coveted the Victory attacker since the two crossed paths in the 2012 Champions League. At the time, Popovic was coaching FC Tokyo and Nichols was still at Brisbane Roar. Now that Cerezo have their man, the Victory will be looking to replace Nichols before the end of the January transfer window.

After a protracted process that included the possibility of a move to Vegalta Sendai, Central Coast Mariners or Sydney FC, Tom Rogic has returned to the A-League at Melbourne Victory. The 21-year-old attacker is on loan through the end of May from Scottish Premier League giants Celtic and will be counted on to help the Victory secure a good finals position and reach the group stage of the Asian Champions League.

Said Victory manager Kevin Muscat in a club press release:

Dylan Macallister is leaving Melbourne Heart and is headed to Asia the club announced on Friday via email press release. The 31-year-old forward scored the winner in the season-opening Melbourne Derby in 2012/13 but has only appeared in twenty-one matches over a year-and-a-half for the Heart. Most recently, Macallister was sent off at Perth Glory after picking up two yellow cards in eleven substitute minutes on January 10.

Heart Football Operations General Manager John Diduca explained the move:

Serbian midfielder Milos Dimitrijevic has joined Sydney FC for the remainder of the 2013/14 season. The 29-year-old has been training with the Sky Blues and today joins the club on a full-time basis. A former Nantes, Chievo (as pictured) and Red Star Belgrade player, Dimitrijevic has been out of contract since April after spending the past decade in the top divisions of France, where he has dual citizenship, Italy and Serbia. The club announced the signing via press release on Friday.

Sydney’s new signing expressed delight in completing the move and in doing so at a club featuring other prominent Serbians:

Said Emerton, of his lengthy and prestigious career:

David Gallop, the FFA’s CEO, added his own comments about Emerton’s career:

Across the A-League, players have been signing extensions to remain at their current clubs for another year or two. While a handful of the re-signings have been long-time A-League veterans, many more of the new deals involve keeping youngsters in the league. Perth Glory and Wellington Phoenix, in particular, have been active, though several clubs have made sure to lock up players around whom they would like to build future teams or eventually sell on for potential profit.

There may be bigger announcements on the way, like the rumored signing of Tom Rogic by half the league’s clubs, or more signings like Joel Griffiths and Ryan Griffiths, but the business of the A-League remains development and sale. Keeping players like Awer Mabil, Dimitri Petratos and Brandon O’Neill is good business for the clubs and the league.

Joel Griffiths is coming back to Newcastle. The star striker is now 34 years old but is still scoring goals after yet another spell in China. Griffiths, who won the A-League’s golden boot and the Johnny Warren Medal in the Jets’ championship season of 2007/08 spent eight games with Sydney FC last season.

Griffiths, who will be under contract at Newcastle through the end of the 2013/14 season, explained the move in a club press release, with an eye toward reassuring fans he won’t bolt at the earliest big money offer:

Carlos Hernandez is staying in Wellington. The Phoenix announced, via press release, that the 31-year-old Costa Rican would remain with the club for an additional year. This after the star midfielder was reported to be frustrated in New Zealand just weeks ago. But now, with his family joining him in Wellington, Hernandez has pledged his future to Ernie Merrick and the Phoenix.

Hernandez’s quotes filled the release, with the Costa Rican explaining:

Former Sydney FC defender Antony Golec is about to be a former Adelaide United defender, as well. The 23-year-old will, assuming he passes his medical, be joining Chinese Super League side Liaoning Whowin. Golec, who moved to Adelaide in 2011, has made just 28 appearances with the Reds and was looking for a new opportunity.

Michael Petrillo, who was busy today also making an announcement regarding Ryan Griffiths, described Golec’s intent and the club’s willingness to let him move on in a club press release:

Kwame Yeboah is the latest prodigy to leave the A-League for the Bundesliga. The 19-year-old is currently in Germany, completing a medical so he can join Borussia Mönchengladbach in the January transfer window. Though he will miss Brisbane’s Friday night game against Newcastle Jets at Suncorp Stadium, he’ll be back in Australia for the Roar’s Boxing Day match at Sydney FC.

Brisbane Football Director Ken Stead explained the move in a club press release: