The Young Socceroos were the feel-good story of the recent AFC U/19 tournament in China. They reached the final with some swashbuckling display before losing 3-2 to DPR Korea in the finale. 

Tournament Golden Boot Kerem Bulut with seven goals, winger Tommy Oar, midfielder Ben Kantarovski and playmaker Mustafa Amini all shone in a side that played positive, exciting football.

But at today's announcement of the Socceroo squad to play Egypt on November 17, Osieck was quick to stress that one good tournament doesn’t make a senior national team player and explained why Oar had been left out of the Egypt squad.

"Looking at the group, Tommy is definitely the one leading the pace there," he said. "The reason why I didn't call him in was another agreement with his club [Utrecht].

"We don't want to overstress it and he still has to find his spot at the club. So we agreed not to call him in for every single event on our schedule. And I think it's a reasonable agreement.

“They [Young Socceroo stars] are definitely on the radar but first of all they have to establish themselves on the Young Socceroos level. But probably on the next level with the Olyroos.

“The problem very often is that young players are put on a pedestal after one or two good games. And it takes quite a lot more to establish oneself on the top level of football, and we should recognize that.

“We don’t do the players good if we already make them big heroes, or big stars. It’s not a good idea. First they have to prove on the level some kind of consistency and then if they are ready to step up."

Another to catch the eye was Reds flyer Matt Leckie but his recent knee injury was all but ruled out of contention by Osieck.

Osieck said he was not a fan of rushing into calling up Young Socceroo stars.

“Because these days the development of players is often influence by people who talk them better than who they are," he said.

“And that’s a problem and I know what it means  for a young player to step up to the top level. Therefore we should consider it like a process. A process of maturing.

“You can only pick an apple from a tree if it’s ripe.”

Osieck added that AEK Athens striker Nathan Burns was in his plans for the Cairo game but is suffering from an injury while Hertha Berlin winger Nikita Rukyvytsya it was also rested despite coming back recently for his Bundesliga2 side.

He added: “And [James] Troisi is another young guy I would like to mention. He’s out for a couple of months which is bad because he had a promising start to the season.”