Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell is hopeful Colchester United captain and Socceroos’ defender Chris Coyne will have made a decision on his future by the end of the weekend.
Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell is hopeful Colchester United captain and Socceroos’ defender Chris Coyne will have made a decision on his future by the end of the weekend.
Coyne has two seasons remaining on his contract at Colchester but has been told by manager Phil Lambert he can look at other options elevating Glory-s interest in the defender.
Coyne’s younger brother, Jamie also plays at the Glory and is hopeful his brother will join him at Members Equity Stadium, but Mitchell said the elder Coyne had yet to make any decision.
“Yeah it’s just still up in the air really,” Mitchell said at training on Friday.
“We don’t know. He’s got some issues over there at the club and we’ve made an offer and there’s a few other clubs in the mix so as of yet, we don’t know.
“We’ll just have to wait and see and probably by the end of the weekend, we’ll know something.”
Mitchell also said he hadn’t made any decision on the captaincy for this campaign.
Last season’s captain Jamie Coyne remained in the mix to lead the side once again despite facing stiff competition from a host of experienced recent arrivals including Socceroos Mile Sterjovski and Jacob Burns and former Blackburn Rovers captain Andy Todd.
“Last year Jamie had the captaincy and it was an up and down season for himself and also the club but I thought he did ok,” Mitchell said.
“I haven-t given the captaincy too much thought as yet but we-re fortunate to have a strong group of players and natural leaders in the group.
“There are probably a few strong candidates already and if Chris Coyne comes, there’s another one as well, so we’ll just wait and see. I-ll keep that under my hat at the minute,” he said.
The majority of Perth-s squad will be assembled in Western Australia ahead of the club-s matches against English Premier League sides Wolverhampton and Fulham.
The remaining players yet to land in the state, Sterjovski and striker Branko Jelic, will arrive over the weekend and are due to train with their new team mates on Monday.
