FIVE Socceroos got homesick one day, over the oceans far away...
Pim Verbeek said "Tut! Tut! Tut!" and only one Socceroo came back.
Thanks to Pim Verbeek (and a 0-1 shocker against Kuwait) none of our current Socceroos will be following Jason Culina home to the A-League next season.
After flirting with interest from the Gold Coast, NQ and the Jets, 33-year-old Scott Chipperfield is now talking about maybe joining a new South Coast FC team one day. (Interestingly, Chippers is now banging in goals for Basel, just like Sterjovski did for Derby after declining a return down under - maybe a fresh outlook is good for tired legs, hmmn? )
31-year-old Lucas Neill also insists he is keen to come home, but not just yet.
"It'd probably be shortly after the World Cup, whether its immediately after or one season further on," he said.
"I know I'm not going to be able to play forever in England and the Premier League. But also I don't want to leave it too late. I want to be able to come back and still be respected."
Neill is interested in one day headlining a West Sydney A-League bid. And so is 30-year-old Harry Kewell. It's interesting to speculate that Harry and Lucas might one day line up together against Chippers and Timmy Cahill, who is also firmly behind a South Coast FC bid.
''I'm in this project for the long haul," says Cahill. "I want to be part of the club in a meaningful way on the field, too. I want to come home when I still have something left to give as a player. That's also very important to me."
Many other Socceroos - like 36-year-old Schwarzer, Coyne, Grella and Steffanuto - have also spoken fondly about coming home. But not until after the World Cup.
And then there's the 33-year-old Dukester, who might come back to the A-League, or maybe the Melbourne Knights, or maybe just ride off into a Croatian sunset instead.
So let's look ahead a bit, shall we?
Next year's World Cup ends in July. Quite a few Socceroos will be looking to finish their 09/10 seasons in Europe, head off to the World Cup, and then come straight home to a new A-League contract in Australia.
Assuming the boys do well in South Africa, the timing will be perfect, at least from a marketing point of view. A veritable flood of marquees coming home to grace the A-League after their heroic exploits abroad. Right?
But what happens if our squad fails to win a game in South Africa? I know - it's unimaginable! But so are 0-1 losses at home to Kuwait...
Of course, Pim Verbeek would be dismissed (along with Graham Arnold, one can only hope) and never spoken of again. Analysts trying to work out what went wrong would then start to wonder if maybe our squad was just a bit too old, or if we lacked depth.
And then, when they look to the next generation of Socceroos for 2014, who will they see?
Nobody.
No disrespect to brilliant talents like Nikita, Djite, Federici or Zullo, but are these guys really going to reach the dizzying career heights of Kewell, Viduka, Cahill, Moore and Schwarzer? Some of them hopefully will step up to the mark. But how many? And will they ever gel as a team like our current squad?
Win, lose or draw in South Africa, we Aussies will soon realise that the end of the next World Cup marks the end of a magical Socceroos era.
Maybe then we will realise how important it is to have a strong domestic league, and for senior players to come home and help cultivate young talent before they are too old.
And maybe then we will look back at Pim Verbeek's recent comments and wonder why on earth our national coach was ever telling our best players to stay abroad, even for just one year.
++++
Does anyone remember the excitement when John Aloisi came home to play for Central Coast? There's no denying Aloisi made a big impact on the growth of the A-League in his first year back. We can only speculate what impact he might have made if he'd left it a year later.
In 2007, when 35-year-old Paul Okon retired due to persistent injuries after leading the Newcastle Jets to a grand final against Adelaide, he said: "The sad thing was that I didn't get back the year before when the A-League started."
After the last World Cup, Stan Lazaridis, Tony Popovic, Ante Covic and Craig Moore all came home. Other national team players who've joined the A-League include Ljubo Milicevic, Danny Tiatto, Hayden Foxe, Paul Agostino, Ahmad Elrich and Stephen Laybutt.
Again without dissing the talent of those fine players, the only one of them who has really made a sustained marquee impact on the A-League is Craig Moore. And I don't think he's ever regretted his decision to come back when he did.
Sure, this whole story about Pim's comments disparaging the domestic game has been done to death, and it's now clear that his warnings have been heeded by the overseas players. So we'll just have to wait and see how things turn out.
But I for one am delighted to think that we Gold Coast fans will soon be watching Jason Culina rip up the turf at Skilled Park week in, week out. And if his form does suffer before the World Cup, I'll eat my shorts.
++++
One former Socceroo who WILL be coming home this season - and maybe even regaining his national team shirt - is Gold Coast's striker-in-waiting Joel Porter.
Porter made four Socceroos appearances in 2002, when he moved to Sydney Olympic after scoring 24 goals in 56 appearances with the Melbourne Knights. He has already notched up 18 goals for the season with UK Division One team Hartlepool, beating his previous best tally of 16 goals in 2005.
The 'Pools sit just below mid-table with eight games left this season, still not quite clear of relegation zone. After a shock loss to bottom-placed Cheltenham, they face fourth-placed Millwall this weekend. Porter, whose season has been plagued with niggling injuries, including Achilles tendonitis and a thigh strain, will be hoping his partnership with new striker Keigan Parker finally starts to gel.
++++
I'll sign off with a quote from Robbie Fowler, dismissing criticism of his move to North Queensland:
"I'm not bothered if the people in England think this is the right move for me or not. To be honest, I couldn't care less. My family is happy about it, and that means I'm happy about it. In my eyes, it's the right move - and that's all that matters."
Sure, you say, but Robbie hasn't got a World Cup role waiting for him next year. Well, who knows? Stranger things have happened.
