Leeds Comes First: Venables
The Age
Saturday July 27, 2002
New Leeds United manager Terry Venables doesn't want it, but he can see a head-on clash with Socceroo boss Frank Farina looming over player releases unless FIFA moves quickly to harmonise the international calender.
Venables knows exactly what it feels like to be sitting in Farina's seat, having coached the Australian team in its ultimately fruitless tilt at the 1998 World Cup finals.
And while that means he has sympathy for the current incumbent's plight, that doesn't mean he will feel obliged to release his Australian stars on demand - even though Farina has recently declared he will call up his top players for matches irrespective of who the opposition is.
Barring injury or illness, Leeds' big-name duo of Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell would be certain inclusions in a first-choice Socceroo squad, while the team's other Australians - midfield utility Jacob Burns, promising young defender Shane Cansdell-Sherriff (already a veteran of the under-17 and under-20 world championships) and Danny Milosovic (goalkeeper in the 2000 Olympics team) would be hopeful of forcing their way into the top Australian 22 as Farina rebuilds his squad for the next World Cup campaign.
"It would be a bit of a problem if all of them were required," Venables joked at a Melbourne news conference yesterday, before adding: ``I don't think it would be easy to release players like Harry and Mark Viduka.
"Nothing changes.The problem is always going to be, as it was when I was here . . . (Australia has) so many players overseas and they have to travel around Europe to succeed; its always a problem.
"What's got to happen is every country in the world's got to get in line with each other. I've been both sides of the fence and I sympathise. It's wherever you've got your shoes - that's what matters to you mostly, whether you're an international manager of a club manager."
Venables argues - like so many before him - that international fixtures, whether they are qualifiers for the European championship or World Cup, South American competitions or critical fixtures in Asia or North America, should be played on or about the same dates.
While Australia, because of the diaspora of its talent, suffers more than most, even countries like Argentina and Brazil have had difficulties getting releases for players from some European clubs.
"Why should certain countries play in different times which makes it difficult?" Venables said.
"If we play at that particular time (during scheduled international breaks), everyone goes at the same time and no one's upset. It's a constant fight and the ones that suffer a lot of the time are the players in the middle. There's no winners in that situation - if it's Leeds United, Australia or Harry."
He was noncommittal over intense speculation that the number of Socceroos at Elland Road could swell to six with the arrival of Brett Emerton from Dutch UEFA Cup winner Feyenoord in an $18 million deal.
Venables gave Emerton his senior Socceroo debut when the player was still a teenager, but would not be drawn on whether he could be a replacement for Lee Bowyer, whose proposed transfer to Liverpool broke down earlier this week. Bowyer flew to Australia alone and linked up with the Leeds squad in time for training yesterday.
"I have a list of players I'm interested in. Sometimes (the news media) get it right, sometimes they get it wrong. But I like the player," Venables said of Emerton.
Speaking of his time as Australia's coach, Venables said he had been tempted to stay on after the World Cup nightmare against Iran in 1997. What had prevented him was the lack of meaningful action that confronted every Socceroo coach when he was not involved in the 12-month period leading up to a World Cup qualifying campaign.
The former England boss said he regarded his time with Australia as "unfinished business", having decided ``you can't go four years with nothing - it's a waste of everyone's time".
For the game here to progress, he said, it needed large injections of capital. ``It needs finance, like all these things. But its not a matter of putting money into a big black hole so it's gone. It's about major companies putting in major funding and enjoying some success."
© 2002 The Age