Jets Face Late Rush To Sign Acl Imports

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday January 14, 2009

JAMES GARDINER A-LEAGUE

THE embattled Newcastle Jets have 18 days to find and sign three overseas players or face a potentially embarrassing Asian Champions League campaign.

Still coming to terms with collecting the A-League wooden spoon, the Jets have until the close of the transfer window on January 31 to add some much-needed quality to their squad.

Under ACL regulations, clubs are allowed three foreigners plus another from Asia.

At present the Jets have two imports in Song Jin-hyung and Jesper Hakansson.

Song qualifies as the Asian representative, but the under-performing Hakansson is unlikely to feature in the club's ACL plans.

The Danish midfielder has failed to make an impact in 10 appearances and has been sidelined for the past month with osteitis pubis.

The Jets can sign overseas players after the window shuts if they are off contract, but have until only February 11 to finalise the squad, which can range from 18 to 30 players for the ACL.

Players also must have signed a six-month contract to be eligible for the ACL.

"The ACL starts in eight weeks, but it is less with regards to recruitment," Jets coach Gary van Egmond said.

"We have until the end of January.

"We have signed big Nikolai Topor-Stanley [from Perth], who will do a good job, but he is only one piece of the jigsaw puzzle. We are another five pieces out.

"We need to be very diligent with our recruiting and make sure we bring the right people in."

High-performance manager Ian Crook is in charge of recruitment and has been searching the globe for players since marquee striker Edmundo Zura returned to Ecuador in October.

Despite a string of enquiries, including an attempt to lure Dwight Yorke back to the A-League, nothing has eventuated.

"We should see an Ivory Coast boy here this week," van Egmond said.

"He is a central defender and was a part of the Ivory Coast under-23 squad."

The Jets have also been linked to former Perth Glory and Sydney Olympic midfielder Hiroyuki Ishida.

The 29-year-old winger has been back in Japan three years and had spells with Ventforet Kofu and Sagan Tosu in the Japanese second division.

The fall of the Australian dollar, combined with the fact the contract may be for six months only, has made it hard to attract quality players, particularly attacking players.

"To bring someone in from overseas, their market is so much more inflated the dollar does not help either and they expect big money," van Egmond said.

"A 100,000 euro player may not be as good as what we have here."

The Jets are also in talks with A-League and overseas-based Australian players.

Van Egmond is desperate to assemble the squad as quickly as possible ahead of the ACL opener away to Beijing on March 10.

"Once the [A-League] season has finished you start from scratch and you can go again," the coach said.

"I think it is important to get the squad here for the Asian Champions League together very quickly, to ensure that everyone is together and doing the work right from the get-go."

© 2009 Newcastle Herald

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