Adelaide United FC Chairman Greg Griffin says he is surprised by the sudden resignation of Coach John Kosmina.
Adelaide United FC Chairman Greg Griffin says he is surprised by the sudden resignation of Coach John Kosmina.
Addressing a media swarm on Monday afternoon, Griffin had the following to say following the announcement of Kosmina-s decision to part ways with the club.
“I received an email from John Kosmina this morning advising that he has resigned as the head coach of Adelaide United. It came as a complete surprise to me. Quite frankly the club is amazed. We-ve met already and appointed Michael Valkanis as the interim coach and we will review that as the weeks go on. I-m very surprised the way the story has unfolded. I would have thought if John had an issue he could have come and seen me. He-s chosen to resign so we move on.
On the 18th of December he went to a board meeting. He asked whether he could have an extension to his contract for two years and better money. We said we-d look at it, we-ve got a board meeting on the 12th of February and between now and the 12th there would have been a series of discussions with him as to what his expectations were, his salary terms, what our views were, how we saw the whole thing going forward, so as far as we were concerned, we had a process in place that he agreed with and took no issue with, so to say that we are amazed by an alleged lack of trust is very significant.”
“In dressing rooms you always have players that are happy and players who aren-t. I would have thought what we gave John was great support because we backed him in respect of the decision he made in respect of those players (Sergio van Dijk and Zenon Caravella), so I would have thought he should have taken that as an endorsement, and to take it as some lack of endorsement beggars belief in my opinion.
The playing group is absolutely set, we were actually waiting to hear from John whether he wanted some foreign players during the January transfer window and I was hoping to meet up with him this week to find out what his expectations in that regard were, because he earlier said that he didn-t want anyone. We wanted to clarify that and that if he did want a foreign player, what sort of player do you want us to look for. Quite frankly, he-s now out of the picture and we-ll have those discussions with the football department.”
“Up until two days ago, we were second. We were very content where we stood on the ladder – no ifs, no buts, so was he being criticized where we stood….no. Michael Valkanis has never been spoken to about being the head coach of the Adelaide United Football Club. For whoever put that anonymously on a website has caused great discontent with those affected. The two affected are John Kosmina and Michael Valkanis…it-s equally insulting to Valkanis because assistant coaches who undermine senior coaches rarely get jobs. We-d told Kossie it simply was not true and I thought that was a dead issue. I personally have views about assistant coaches taking over from the head coach. It-s a board decision and I-ve consulted with all of the board members this morning and we-ve agreed that Michael is the interim coach and that-s exactly what it is because we need to start training and getting ready for a big match on Sunday and then we-ll play it day by day. I think Kosmina had every level of comfort that a coach midway through a contract is entitled to.”
“I think there will be a Melbourne Cup field of people wanting to coach Adelaide United. Without doubt it has got the highest profile of any Australian club in Asia. If we advertise this position, which I suspect in due course we will, I think we-ll get outstanding applicants.”
“The timing is not perfect but having said that, football clubs are about doing their job. There are 21 players that are contracted, who are all professionals and they will play the next two games, which are huge for us, and they-ll be judged by their performance. They know it and I-ve personally got great confidence in that playing squad to come back and show what they can do.”
“We (the Board) are completely committed to this club. We-ve got a very good quad, we-ve got five kids 19 and under, so the future is very rosy. It-s unfortunate that where we should be, getting very confident and enthusiastic, that today has been a blip but we just have to move on, which we will.”
“Kosmina was given a proper and fair and reasonable reassurance which he agreed to. This would have been considered so I don-t know what else people would expect you to do…he-s acted in an entirely precipitous way and the club has acted in an entirely sensible, commercial and reasonable way.”
“It-s a clean page tomorrow morning when we sit down and work out how we go forward.”
