Muscat, 34, has extended his contract with the club until 2009 and signed on for a new role as an assistant coach at the club.

Victory coach Ernie Merrick said the appointment was recognition of Muscat’s efforts over the past two seasons, highlighted by his development of younger players.

“He’s done his coaching course and it’s great that we’ve got Kevin on board officially as an assistant coach as well as a player and captain,” Merrick said.

“It doesn’t change his role, because he’s been doing this since he’s been at the club. It’s just to acknowledge he’s been doing a lot of leadership work and a lot of one-on-one coaching.

“He spent a lot of time with Adrian Leijer, who’s now at Fulham, he spends a lot of time with Leigh Broxham and now with the youngsters Kaz Patafta, Evan Berger and Sebastian Ryall coming on board, he’s a sort of mentor and an individual coach to these boys.”

Muscat recently completed the inaugural B Certificate coaching course as part of Football Federation Australia’s new coach educational structure and will now remain with Victory until the end of the A-League 2008/09 season.

He revealed the coaching role did not give him any special privileges for team selection...and he's in no rush to take over from Ernie Merrick anytime soon.

“I’m optimistic about the whole thing and excited. Not too much is actually going to change for me personally,” Muscat said.

“I’m fully focused on playing football. I’m enjoying it more than ever at the moment and we’ve got a great squad predominantly made up of youngsters, which certainly excites me.”

Victory also revealed the club has now signed up more than 19,000 members, and expects to head into the first home game of the season with 20,000-plus members.

“We’re hoping we can get over 20,000 members by this game and we’re pretty excited about getting all of our supporters to Telstra Dome for a cracker of a game against Perth,” Merrick added.

Victory defender Ljubo Milicevic will miss the match and the next 4-6 weeks after scans yesterday revealed a tear of the medial ligament in his left knee.

But the prognosis for Archie Thompson was better, with the dynamic striker resuming training after being cleared of any structural damage to his knee.

“It could’ve been worse,” Merrick said. “Ljubo’s very resilient, he’s walking around unhindered today, so it might be closer to four weeks, rather than the six. We’re positive about it and that’s our only injury.”

Victory will host its first home match of the Hyundai A-League 2007/08 season against Perth Glory at Telstra Dome this Saturday (kick off 7:00pm).

Tickets are available through ticketmaster.com.au, by calling 136 100 or from any Ticketmaster outlet.