High-flying City know overseas interest could come for ALW squad

Melbourne City are no strangers to losing players overseas - it's something the club takes pride in. But ALW boss Michael Matricciani is hopeful he can keep his group together for a little while yet.

It’s the footballing version of suffering from success; that tipping point wherein a club's on-field accomplishments become notable enough that their players, coaches, and staff come onto the radar of suitors abroad, eager to add them to their ranks. But with the A-League Women one of the leagues around the world not marking the opening of a transfer window in the coming weeks – several more, including the English WSL, set to commence on January 1 – Melbourne City coach Michael Matricciani is hopeful that whispers of overseas interest in members of his squad don’t turn into anything concrete. At least, not yet.

Because two points clear atop the A-League Women and still yet to taste defeat two months into the season, things are going pretty well for City at the moment. After heading into the half-time break trailing Wellington, two goals in two minutes helped lift City to a come-from-behind-win that maintained their unblemished start to 2024-25 on Saturday afternoon, bringing up their sixth win in the season’s opening eight weeks and keeping them in front of Brisbane Roar in their efforts to secure back-to-back premierships.

Coming off a short turnaround, a stern test against Central Coast awaits them on New Year’s Eve before they head to Sydney five days later – the Mariners and the Sky Blues the only two sides to take points off City so far this season. A blockbuster clash with the Roar then awaits at AAMI Park the following week, not only a potential one-against-two affair but perhaps a grand final preview. It’ll be a big few weeks, a challenging few weeks, weeks that will likely give City, and league observers, a pretty good idea about the state of the race for silverware this season.

But City knows better than most that it's not only domestic opponents that can throw speed bumps onto a road to silverware. Last season, they were one of only two clubs to sell a player abroad and twice broke the A-League Women’s outbound transfer record in doing so, first when Matildas utility Kaitlyn Torpey moved to NWSL side San Diego Wave and then when Canadian international Lysianne Proulx moved to expansion NWSL outfit Bay FC. And while Dario Vidošić, who himself moved to WSL side Brighton during the offseason, and his side were able to overcome these losses and steal the Premiership away from Sydney FC on the last day of the season, the moves undoubtedly added a degree of difficulty to their efforts.

And while Vidošić’s replacement Matricciani knows players moving on is a fact of life in football and he wants to see his players move on to bigger and better things, he’s hopeful that it won’t be until the offseason that he’s confronted with replacing poached talent.

“On a personal note, I hope [players won’t leave midseason,” he laughed. “That's probably a bit selfish of me. But for the team and for individuals, more importantly, if there's a good offer that comes to the club and the player wants to leave and wants to challenge themselves in a higher league, then obviously they'll have my blessing. Because I think it's excellent for the individual to progress their career. So let’s see.

“ I've heard some whispers already that some players are getting some interest, so let's see what happens.

“[There are] definitely no negotiations but you're hearing whispers and rumours all the time in the football environment.

“On a personal note, it's not ideal, but I think we have a very strong squad that will be able to cope with whatever happens. And we always wish the players well if they move on.”

Just as they were last season when they brought in Brazilian shot-stopper Barbera, City would be restricted to signing players who were free agents at the time the most recent transfer window closed – November 26 – if they were to seek replacements for any departing players. And while Matricciani again reiterated that he was confident in his side’s depth, he also acknowledged that it was his and the football department’s job to do their due diligence.

“We do have an idea and a bit of a list of players that we could look at,” he said. “If a foreigner leaves, for example, we may be able to bring in another foreigner. If an Aussie leaves, then maybe, there are Aussies that are around that we might be able to help bolster the squad.”

One area of immediate concern for City, however, or at least a potential concern, is conceding first. In half their games this season the defending premiers have found themselves into a deficit they needed to rally back from, Saturday’s win over Wellington joining a 4-2 win over Canberra, a 1-1 draw with Sydney, and their season-opening 5-2 win against Perth as games where they rallied back to secure a result.

Now obviously, being able to engineer a comeback is a skill in and of itself, something that you’d much rather possess than not. But at the same time, ask most coaches and they’d tell you that they’d simply prefer not to need to exercise this skill in the first place. And City’s gaffer doesn’t feel like that much needs to change to make this the case for his side.

“We always take the positives out of everything,” Matricciani said. “We have a really strong squad [and] I think our base fitness level and medical staff have done an outstanding job throughout the preseason. From the first third of the season, I don't think much needs to change. I think there are little details that we're always trying to improve. But for me, it's not a structural thing.

“Every time we've been down, it's not because the opposition has had five chances to our one chance. It's normally slightly the opposite where maybe they've had one or two chances and we've had three or four, but we find ourselves 1-0 down.

“Central Coast earlier on in the season, when it was 2-2, was an even match. I think it could have gone either way. And obviously, the match we played against Sydney FC and we drew 1-1, that was a very even match could have gone either way, in my opinion. Apart from that, I think the other matches we were better.

“So not too much needs to change. We have our tactical plan that we're continuing to evolve and improve on. But all in all, I think things are going quite well for us.”

City will be without the services of Serbian international TJ Vlajnic for their trip to Gosford after the veteran leader suffered a hamstring injury against Wellington, with the hope that recent scans will confirm she will only need to spend a short spell on the sidelines. Holly McNamara, meanwhile, got through more than half an hour against the Nix as she continues her return from an ACL tear and Matricciani said he would continue to slowly build the Matildas’ loads before inserting her back into the starting XI.

“I would say mid-January, we’re probably feeling that's maybe a time she might be ready for a start,” said the coach. “She's missed a lot of football and we're trying to build up her base.

“What she's giving us off the bench is outstanding [and] we do have the ability to build some load into her -- she's coming along quite nicely.

“I would say come maybe the Brisbane or Western United game mid-January is when she'll probably be ready to put her hand up to play 60, 70 minutes from the start.”

Header Image: Melbourne City