Curious case of Juric and his Wanderers future

Australia striker Tomi Juric announced on social media the must-win AFC Champions League encounter against Guangzhou Evergrande in China tonight will be his final game for Western Sydney Wanderers but the club has questioned the validity of the statement.

Western Sydney Wanderers' Tomi Juric

Tomi Juric's time at the Wanderers is coming to an end (AAP) Source: AAP

The 23 year-old wrote on Facebook early Tuesday, after reports in recent months that he had rejected a big money offer from Shanghai Shenhua and more recently Italian champion Juventus, that he was exiting the A-League side.
Juric FB
After that, departing Wanderers defender Antony Golec - who is Perth Glory bound - posted on Facebook that the Guangzhou game would be the final outing for the club for Juric and himself.
Golec
However, late on Tuesday the Wanderers released a statement that read: "Western Sydney Wanderers FC won't comment on Tomi Juric transfer speculation, but confirmed the Socceroo striker does not have a Facebook account."

A club official told the official website: "We don’t comment on player speculation.

"All I can confirm is that it is not Tomi’s page as he does not have one."

The World Game understands Juric has fielded numerous offers from Europe and that he is yet to have a firm offer from the Wanderers as his current contract is due to expire.

Since Juric joined the Wanderers in May 2013 he has played in a losing A-League grand final side, won the ACL in November 2014 and established himself as a Socceroos player - winning the AFC Asian Cup in January in which he supplied the assist for the matchwinner in the final.

Juric scored four times in 14 A-League games for the Wanderers this season as it finished ninth.

Meanwhile, Wanderers defender Matthew Spiranovic insists his side remains as confident as ever ahead of its monumental task to keep its ACL title defence alive.

The anderers sit bottom of their group heading into the game against Group H winner Guangzhou, after the 2-1 loss at home to Kashima Antlers a fortnight ago left their campaign in tatters.

To progress to the knockout stages, Wanderers must now beat the Chinese powerhouse on Tuesday and hope the match between Kashima and FC Seoul ends in a draw.

Spiranovic believes, despite the uphill battle they face, the players' confidence hasn't waned.

"We have all the belief in the world that we can get the result that we need tomorrow," he said on Monday.

"Hopefully we get a bit of luck and the other result goes our way as well.

"Obviously we'd prefer to have it totally in our hands.

"But it will come down to the final game now so we just have to focus on the things we can control and get three points."

Western Sydney will have to do it without striker Kerem Bulut, defender Yusuke Tanaka and midfielder Kearyn Baccus who are all suspended.

Wanderers may have beaten Guangzhou in the semis last year on their way to claiming the silverware but last time they met the Chinese Super League side, managed by Italian FIFA World Cup-winner Fabio Cannavaro, they were beaten 3-2.

Brazilian Ricardo Goulart, the ACL's leading goal scorer, did all of the damage netting a hat-trick.

But with the likes of fellow Brazilian striker Elkeson and a host of Chinese internationals like Gao Lin, Spiranovic knows they'll have their work cut out.

"We can't just identify one player because they've got quality all over the park," he said.

"Their foreign players do stand out and they pay a lot of money for those players, so they do add a lot of quality so we'll have to be very wary of them."

Wanderers endured a nightmare A-League season finishing ninth with just four wins from 27 outings.

Losing the ACL crown would no doubt add insult to injury but Spiranovic says that's not what's motivating them.

"I don't feel like we're not going into this game feeling we have something to lose," he said.

"Things didn't work out the way we hoped in the A-League but being defending champions in Asia gives us a lot of belief and confidence.

"We did the job here last year and we know we can do it again."


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4 min read
Published 4 May 2015 6:59pm
Updated 5 May 2015 4:55pm
Source: SBS

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