AUSTRALIAN football fans should be applauding Gold Coast United's determination to hold on to players like Shane Smeltz and Adam Griffiths.

Enforcing such contracts is the only way we'll ever stop A-League clubs from routinely flogging our nation's best players abroad.

If Smeltz had flown off to Turkey after winning the Johnny Warren medal on Monday night, he would have been following a well-worn route overseas. Former medal-winner Nick Carle left for Turkey before ending up in the English Championship, while last year's winner Joel North is currently on his way to Beijing.

How long do we want to remain a football factory for our World Cup competitors?

On Tuesday morning, FourFourTwo exclusively reported that the Nix had "signed off on paperwork" to sell Smeltz to the Turks. I'd barely finished reading that story when Gold Coast United told me Clive Palmer had talked to Shane the night before, and the star striker was still happily on his way to the Gold Coast.

Personally, I wasn't taking too much notice of the story. The Turks had already tried to snare Smeltz a few weeks earlier, and had been knocked back. Asian clubs chasing Adam Griffiths had also been knocked back. It was blindingly obvious that Clive Palmer was simply not interested in selling his contracted players to anyone, at any price.

Nevertheless, there was Mike Cockerill in the Sydney Morning Herald reporting the deal as a fait accompli. Was I missing something? Was Smeltz himself pushing for a move abroad?

Phoenix CEO Tony Pignata certainly thought so.

"Shane definitely wants to go," Pignata told Cockerill."I was happy to do the paperwork for him. I was in contact with Shane yesterday afternoon just going through the bits and pieces. As far as I'm concerned, Shane will go."

Oh really? So where were the quotes from the player? Well, apparently he was "uncontactable today, his phone switched off".

So what about his agent, Leo Karis? Well, apparently the Nix deal was made by "a Turkish agent acting for the Ankara club".

"I'm not sure whether Shane had advised his agent or not," said Pignata. "I rang Leo yesterday afternoon to let him know what was going on."

And what about the player's contract with the Gold Coast? Well, said Tony, that "will be up to the FFA."

It wasn't long before FourFourTwo had Leo Karis on the line:

"I'm always looking for profitable opportunities for my clients," said Leo, "But I did not feel comfortable with this situation."

Comfortable? What did that mean? Had he been seriously considering the offer? Did he even know what was happening?

"Shane has a contract with Gold Coast United starting in April 2009 and he intends to join them at that time," added Karis. "That is the end of the matter. Of course if Real Madrid were to come in June or July and offer to buy Shane, and if they go through the proper channels, and GC United were consulted and Shane was keen, then we would consider it. But for the moment, Shane is going to Gold Coast United."

For the moment? What did that mean?

I am guessing Karis finally got hold of Smeltz on the phone shortly afterwards. Or maybe he had a quick chat with Clive Palmer. At any rate, he was sounding a lot clearer by the time he talked to AAP on Tuesday night.

"Wellington have been participating with an agent who is not authorised to represent Shane in a bid to cash in on the player before his contract expires, unbeknown to me or the Gold Coast. I have a binding contract to say I am Shane Smeltz's agent and no-one else can represent him. He doesn't want to go to Turkey and will be a Gold Coast player next season."

So finally the whole silly thing was over, right?

Well, not quite. Next morning, Mike Cockerill was still pedalling his story.

'Wellington maintain they are within their rights to do the deal as Smeltz's contract does not expire until April 1, with chief executive Tony Pignata saying: "The deal happened in a rush but we have agreed to release him. We don't receive a big fee but Shane wanted this, it's a great move for him and a great move for his family. We called Miron as a courtesy to let him know what was happening." '

It was left to Smeltz himself to kill of the story once and for all, with these comments to a Gold Coast newspaper.

"As far as I'm concerned nothing has changed and I'm coming back to a place I still consider home. I believe this is all just talk and I plan to play a big part in a successful side and hopefully make a little piece of history. It's something I've been thinking about for a while and I'm excited."

So what happened?

Did Smeltz really talk to Pignata about the deal, and indicate an interest? And if so, could you blame him? If someone was waving a million dollars under my nose, I'd at least want to see a deal on paper (and talk to the people holding my contract) before I said no.

In any case, the whole thing was another storm in a teacup, just like the Adam-Griffiths-to-Seoul story a few weeks earlier.

The bottom line is that Smeltz and other Gold Coast players are simply not for sale. And that is good for the A-League.

Finally we have a club that can afford to hold onto players, even if they are not allowed to pay them what they are worth because of salary cap restrictions. That just confirms what a fantastic job Miron Bleiberg did  in the first place, capturing players like Smeltz and Griffiths months ago.

Like I said on my blog a few months back, HAL 2.0 is already here. Other A-League clubs won't be competitive in coming seasons if they just want to turn young kids into gold and then sell them off.

Instead of searching for deals abroad, they will have to hold onto their talented players, and maybe even search for investors instead.

That's gotta be good news for everybody, except perhaps a few cynical old club CEOs.