Kayannie #002

What I don’t understand is why Australia has not tried a little bit harder to tie down the youngsters who will be the future of Australian football. I understand that Graham Arnold was hardly the ideal person to be in charge of an under 8’s team let alone our National team but I cant even pass this off as him being a complete and utter moron.

Player drain to other countries has always been a problem for Australian football and unless we make more of an effort to retain our players this will only get worse. Yes the quality of our football has increased and we made only our second World Cup ever in 2006 but if England or Germany or Croatia or Serbia came calling would you say no? To countries that make the World Cup and Euro tournaments regularly? I think not.

Bruce Djité is the A-league’s leading goal scorer and a phenomenal talent. Sure he has said that he only wants to play for Australia but how long is it going to be before we give him his first cap so that he no longer has the option of the United States, Togo and Ivory Coast? Maybe this sounds a little greedy but these boys are our future. Danny Vukovic, Tando Velaphi, Tarek Elrich, Matt Spiranovic, Nikita Rukavytsya, Spase Dilevski, Ersan Gülüm and Dario Vidosic are all young, talented players and are all eligible to play for other national teams.

Then take a look at the players who have left us. Anthony Šerić made three World Cup squads for Croatia including their 3rd place in 1998, Josip Šimunić made two and Joey Didulica one… Tony Dorigo came fourth with England in 1990 and Saša Ilić who has represented Serbia. And then there was Labinot Haliti who I was very much looking forward to seeing don the green and gold who has said Albania is the only one for him. Clearly there is a problem.

So does someone within the coaching structure for the national team keep track of these kids we have? Do they look to the future and see that these boys are our future? Do they see that if we don’t take an interest in these players somebody else will? I don’t think they do. But they should. The games we play need to give these kids their first caps because we don’t want to lose them. We can’t afford to.

Kayannie