| PHOTO: Jim Webster |
John Aloisi confirmed this afternoon that the Melbourne Heart have received offers for the sought after Aziz Behich.
Turkish side Bursaspor has been linked with the recently capped Socceroo, but Aloisi doesn’t want to lose the attacking fullback, at least not in the Janaury transfer window.
“I know there’s been some offers, but [if it’s] up to me, Aziz is not going until the end of the season,” Aloisi told the press before flying to Sydney.
The Heart coach understands he doesn’t make the final call, but believes the 22-year-old is too important to lose.
“I don’t make the final decision. If the club gets a massive offer, that’s a different story.
“At the moment I don’t want to lose another player, we’ve lost quite a few players this season already and at the moment Aziz is too important for us to lose now.”
Aloisi and Heart aren’t looking to bring anyone else in, although if Behich was to move on then Aloisi might be forced to.
“We’re not looking, but if something else comes up then we need to replace someone then we will try,” the ex-Socceroo said.
Behich will miss this weekend’s game with the Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday night through suspension, but Aloisi revealed ex-Socceroo Vince Grella and Eli Babalj could be involved. Babalj, however, still needs International Clearance from FFA and may not recover from a long flight from Serbia.
“Vinnie (Vince Grella) will play a part, he’s pulled up well from training, he’s looking fit, he’s actually looking really good in training.
“With Eli (Babalj) we’ll just have to wait and see how he feels from the long flight, but he’ll be flying to Sydney and we’ll make a decision in Sydney. ”
But neither Grella nor Babalj are expected to start since they both haven’t had much game time recently.
Fred is also out for up to three weeks with a quad injury, so Nick Kalmar is likely to start, while Sam Mitchinson is expected to start in place of Behich.
Aloisi is excited to have Babalj back at Melbourne Heart and believes it’s a great opportunity for the 20-year-old to get his career back on track.
“He (Eli Babalj) wants to play football, he wants to win games, score goals and he wasn’t playing over there (Serbia) for whatever reason and he wants his career to get back on track and I think it’s a good opportunity for him because if he plays well here I’m sure he’ll be in the National Team and his career can kick off again,” Aloisi said of the AIS graduate.
Aloisi considers this weekend’s Western Sydney clash to be a good test for his side.
“It’s a good test for us because we haven’t won away from home since the beginning of the season at Victory and we want to put that right because we believe we are a side that could challenge.
“They’re a good side. They’ve proved to everyone that they’re organized and they’ve been on a great run of late and that’s why they’re sitting in fourth position. But we’re confident in the way we’ve been playing too in the last month so we’re looking forward to the game.
“We just want to keep our winning streak that we’ve had the last month and build for a good end to the season.”
