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Adelaide United Director of Football, Bruce Djite, revealed Carl Veart was given carte blanche in choosing who he wanted to serve as his assistant coach.
That man is inaugural A-League Reds captain and icon Ross Aloisi, who reunites with the Club for the next two seasons.
Djite believed it was extremely important Veart got to select his second in command, before stating Aloisi will be an excellent addition to the coaching staff.
“I always think the Head Coach should have an overwhelming say who their assistant is and who they work with,” Djite explained to reporters at a press conference at Coopers Stadium on Tuesday.
“Carl made it abundantly clear that Ross was his number one pick.
“From there I contacted Ross, when I first came Ross was captain so it was a bit of a role reversal.
“But it was great to speak to Ross again, I was keen to get him back in as well, the whole Club was supportive of it.
“And in my role it’s really just to support Carl and give him the best tools he can to be as successful as possible.
“It’s great to have them both back here at Coopers Stadium. They trust each other one hundred percent and they’ve got a long-standing relationship and I think it’s a good mix, it’s a good match.”
Djite was asked about the recent departures of key players from the Reds and said he understands the fans’ concerns, but admitted the reality is in a global sport the best players will always garner interest from abroad.
However, he revealed there will be some new signings announced in the coming days.
“The best players will always leave and there’s always a bit of consternation when they do leave,” he admitted.
“Having such a busy transfer deadline period, there might be a little bit of indigestion in terms of all these players going, who’s going to come in and all the rest.”
“But we look forward to making some signing announcements in the coming days as well.
“So there will be some players coming in obviously and like Carl said we’ll continue to look.
“And I think if you’re a young Australian player for me where else would you rather be, we’re not selling players here there and everywhere.
“We’re talking about players going to Europe, so getting the opportunity to play A-League football, getting the opportunity to go to Europe.
“This is what the club is about, this is what we’ve said for the last 18 to 24 months and this is what we’ve proven to be doing.”
Djite dismissed suggestions that the Club will never be able to retain players for a long enough time to ever break club records in the future, for instance around goals and appearances.
He stated when building a squad there must be a balance of youth and experience for it to be successful.
“There are some players who will always play A-League,” he continued.
“And there’s some players who just want to play A-League, and they’re good, solid A-League players and that’s fantastic.
“If we can get those sort of players, mix them in with some young players and some experienced players.
“It’s not just about putting Adelaide United in a box of, ‘they’re just young players and they sell players’ – it’s not about that.”
“There’s no point having a team full of young players if there’s no experienced players for them to learn off.
“There’s no point having a team full of foreigners when there’s no local flavour to it, so yes we want players to come here with the ambitions to go overseas and have that burning desire within.
“But similarly, there’s nothing wrong with having a burning desire to be the best Adelaide United player in the history, to achieve the most caps or score the most goals for Adelaide United.
“They’re all legitimate goals and we’ve got to find a mix of talent because we don’t want a massive turnover of players every year.”
