The Socceroos midfielder's move to Gold Coast for next season was confirmed on Wednesday, with the 28-year-old to become the highest-paid player in the league.

Verbeek admitted that he would have preferred Culina play in one of the better leagues in Europe, but that his return has as much to do with personal as it was professional reasons.

"I should have preferred him to go to Chelsea and play every game. That's not possible," Verbeek told Fox Sports.

"The most important thing for player with his experience, such a long time in the Netherlands is that he is happy. He is happy and his family are happy. That gets the best out of you. You feel satisfied when you feel respected and that's what he has told me that he expects that at the new club."

While Verbeek has previously said that A-League football is not the best preparation for an elite national team, he feels that Culina's standard of football won't suffer by returning home and he expects him to be a crucial part of Australia's World Cup campaign in South Africa.

"Jason is a fantastic player and I'm sure he'll be ready for 2010," he said.

Meanwhile Verbeek has predicted Mark Viduka could make a Socceroos comeback as early as April, despite the veteran striker suffering another injury.

Viduka has not played for Australia since the 2007 Asian Cup, but Verbeek said that should the Newcastle marksman get over his current groin injury, he would like to have him back for the match against Uzbekistan in Sydney on April 1.

"Coming for the Uzbekistan game at home, it's a nice full week of training, so we focus on that and in the mean time I'm looking to Scott (McDonald) and Josh (Kennedy) because they have done such a great job so far," he said.