Victory Fans Hail Mehm Sacking

Adam Tennenini, head of the blue and white brigade, said the writing had been on the wall for some time. He was even surprised the club took this long to make the decision.

“Watching the last game [against Central Coast] was like watching a bloody test match cricket game, it went on for so long and was so hard to watch,” he told au.foufourtwo.com.

“The general consensus was a loss of direction in the team, a change was imminent and it happened. So from our perspective we’re pretty happy.”

Victory have lost three games on the trot including the Melbourne derby on December 23, the New Year's Eve clash with Roar and Wednesday night's 2-0 reversal in Gosford.

However one former Socceroo star says the pressure of harnessing a high profile squad didn’t help the young coach’s chances of success.

Oscar Crino, a Melbourne Victory fan and star in the Socceroos team of the 1980s, told au.fourfourtwo.com that for Durakovic, it was a tough job for his first up assignment in the A-League.

“It’s hard to implement your own ideas because a lot of players have their own views and the managing of these types of views," he said.

“You have to be careful when dealing with those types of players."

That said, Tennenini refused to point fingers at the board for the appointment of Durakovic in the first place and for the recent sacking of football director Francis Awaritefe.

He said it was a learning curve for everyone at the club under the new leadership of Chairman Anthony di Pietro.

And he urged the club to go for a big name coach – possibly one from overseas – to take the biggest club in the A-League into the future.

“I think Musky [Kevin Muscat] should remain as number two. In terms of a new coach it’d just be a case of seeing who’s out there,” said Tennenini.

The club legend and current number two takes the team tomorrow night against Newcastle Jets.

However media reports that Ron Smith, the former AIS and FFA technical boss, is also now on board within the club’s coaching staff are incorrect.

It remains to be seen how soon a new coach will come or if indeed Muscat gets the role on an interim basis and the new boss takes over in pre-season ahead of season eight.

“If you did a straw poll of the Victory supporters, I’d say 99 per cent would like to see a big name coach at the club," added Tennenini.

“It’s no secret we’re the biggest club in the country so it sort of goes hand in hand… I think we’ll see a big name coach at the club sooner rather than later.”

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