“I did not go to Auckland City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Central Coast Mariners and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Harry Steele has let it be known that he does not like the way Central Coast Mariners are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
32 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Central Coast Mariners has to find a result from somewhere.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Central Coast Mariners have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Reno Piscopo
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The fee is $290.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Perth Glory drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Ben Mewett is 19, and Central Coast Mariners have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.