The Western Sydney Wanderers have released Marko Rudan as head coach of the club.

The club agreed to a mutual termination, with Rudan speaking about needing to spend more time with his family, with his mother suffering from brain cancer.

“I would like to thank Chairman Mr Paul Lederer, CEO Scott Hudson and the Board for giving me the opportunity to lead this great club. Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, I need to end my association with the club,” said Rudan.

“The club is in a healthy position, although we fell short of playing in the Finals this season, I am proud of all the hard work by the players, support staff and executive of the club. 

“A special mention should go to the NPL space with both our senior and Under 20’s currently in first place. The young players have stepped up this season and the future is looking extremely exciting.

“I will be spending my time in the near future being close to my family as we are going through a difficult time as my mother’s brain cancer has come back. 

“I wish to bring awareness to the Brain Cancer Foundation – ‘www.curebraincancer.org.au’. This illness has affected our family deeply.

“Thank you to all the players, staff, executive and fans of Western Sydney Wanderers.”

Despite having one of the highest earning squads filled with high end European talent Rudan's failure to produce anything resembling consistent high level football saw the team crash into the bottom half of the table. A 4-1 loss in another derby, a 3-1 defeat against last placed Western United, the record defeat 7-0 against Melbourne City and losing to Brisbane Roar, Sydney FC and Melbourne City in the final weeks of the season meant their fate was no longer in their hands despite the final round 4-3 comeback win, as Melbourne City beat Western United 1-0 to take the last finals position. After three years in charge Rudan has done little to improve the Wanderers situation beyond getting the club back into the A-League Finals once, last year, for one game, a dreadful 2-1 loss in a Sydney Derby.

The last year of his tenure was filled with controversy. His rants against the A-League leadership and Football Australia's referees earned him a measure of respect from the clubs supporters but a two game touchline ban from the governing body, and any respect given for bringing up those issues was irrelevant to the most important elements of his role, the results on the field which continued to be poor.

Melbourne Victory and Macarthur FC have gone from bottom two at the end of last season to top 4. Wellington went from 6th to a top 2 position and were a chance of winning the league. The Mariners went from last place in 19/20 to a Grand Final win in 2022/23 and a Premiership & AFC 2nd Tier title this season. WSW have gone from 4th last year to 7th place, with zero real improvement shown. It simply isn't good enough.

His sacking continues the coaching merry-go-round of the post-Popovic era, with Rudan's sacking another in a litany that included Hayden Foxe's short lived time as an interim coach, Gombau's 6 month stint that ended with the club picking player power over Gombau, Markus Babbel's 2 years where he won just 10 games out of 41, Jean-Paul de Marigny being signed up full time then discarded like trash in pre-season so Lederer could poach Welshman Carl Robinson where Robinson's talent for verbal bullshit wasn't matched with a similar ability in football tactics.

Rudan's high point this season was the opening 6 rounds where the team went unbeaten but a 4-3 loss against Melbourne Victory at home was the end of that run. The statistic that fits his tenure at the club the most is his failure to ever win 3 A-League games in a row with the Wanderers. Yes there were some unbeaten runs beyond that, but to be unable to put together a winning streak more than a couple of games long after 3 seasons showed he simply didn't have what it took to be a success.

In important matches he failed to get the job done, like against Melbourne City in the final game of the 2022/23 Season. With the Wanderers at 2-2 needing just the draw to secure 3rd place and a home final against the 6th placed Wellington, he couldn't get his team to stop throwing themselves forward in stoppage time trying to win the game. They lost the ball and conceded a winner to Marco Tilio in the 93rd minute that setup the finals Sydney Derby defeat.

Rudan ends his time at the Wanderers with 71 games in charge over 3 seasons, 26 wins, 18 draws and 27 losses for a 36% win-rate, a number that puts him around the same level of quality as Carl Robinson, Mike Mulvey, Phil Moss, Miron Bleiberg, Ricki Herbert and David Mitchell.

Rumours are swirling as to who will be the next man to take the poison chalice of the Red & Black, with Nick Montgomery the leading name so far. Montgomery was the man who lead the Mariners to that Grand Final win in 2022/23 in his 5th season there, before leaving to Scotland. That Scottish job lasted only one season as he was sacked by Scottish Premiership club Hibernian after they were stuck in mid-table obscurity & dropped out of the European qualification places. Other names bandied about have been a return to the Wanderers for Tony Popovic, whose contract demands have stalled negotiations at Melbourne Victory despite his top 4 finish and potential Grand Final appearance this season, and Patrick Kisnorbo the former Melbourne City coach who recently left French club Troyes.

The Western Sydney Wanderers are now relying on Melbourne City failing to defeat Western United on Sunday as they turned a 2 goal deficit around to take an astonishing 4-3 win against Melbourne Victory in Melbourne tonight.

Marko Rudan made a raft of changes. Marcus Antonsson's horrid run of form that has left him goal-less stretching back to the 1st of January saw him not make the trip to Melbourne, Aidan Simmons was dropped to the bench, Alex Bonetig & Sonny Kittel were also left out entirely with Kittel hurt. Coming in were the returns of Nicolas Milanovic & Lachlan Brook from international duty with Dylan Scicluna at right fullback.

Zac Sapsford opened up the game by striking the first shot in anger after just 10 seconds, the young gun winning a corner from the save by Izzo. The corner was picked up at the near post by the Victory defence and the second ball fired well over the bar by Oscar Preistman.

The Wanderers shot themselves in the foot in the 4th minute, a horrible back pass from Milanovic on the half-way line that bisected the central defensive pair and allowed Bruno Fornaroli on a run into the area. His first touch was wide and heavy but he recovered for a cutback to Zinedine Machach, and his finish was an unusual strike directly into the ground with the ball then looping over Lawrence Thomas in the same fashion a deflection from a boot coming across to block might, a shot that apparently made popular by Mesut Ozil in the late 2010's.

Victory doubled their lead in the 15th minute, Marcelo misplaced a simple ball out of defence, Traore's low cross made it's way through to Daniel Arzani and he blasted a left foot strike past the blocking defenders and beat Thomas as he couldn't come back toward his near post in time to make a save.

Lachlan Brook pulled a goal back in the 19th minute, a move that begun with erstwhile central defender charging forward, finding Brook who lifted the ball in the air with his first touch and his second was a smashing volley on his left past Paul Izzo.

Milanovic found himself with a tap-in to level the match in the 34th minute, a right side raid with Scicluna, Marcelo and Dylan Pierias contributing to a move that ended with Milanovic in acres of space as the defence didn't react quick enough to stop his 9th goal of the A-League season.

Fornaroli was denied minutes after the leveller. Machach and Arzani combined with Fornaroli's run resulting in him flicking the ball toward goal. Thomas got a piece of the shot and turned quickly to gather as it spun on the line but not over.

A breathless first half ended with a penalty shout on Jack Clisby, he looked to be dragged down by his defender but Melbourne were rescued by an offside flag. VAR didn't bother looking into it further despite a replay showing that he could very well have been played on by an interior defender before being pulled down before the ball even reached him. For such a critical moment in a critical match, it just compounds the view that the VAR doesn't take it's duty as seriously as it should, and is another example of it going against the Wanderers. Tony Popovic made two changes at the break, Roly Bonevacia and Chris Ikonomidis taken off after their minimal contributions, Ryan Teague & Nishan Velupillay on in their stead.

There was another controversial moment as Marcelo appeared to be punched in the chest by Machach, who went down in a heap. He won a foul but nothing more, and VAR didn't intervene again.

The Wanderers chances of playing finals went from bad to worse as Arzani popped up with a double. He was left in an acre of space on the edge of the area, as the Wanderers defence failed to anticipate the ball being moved on by Machach. Arzani was given enough time to aim his shot on his left that banged off the foot of one of the Wanderers and flew past Thomas into the back of the net.

The typical hour mark substitutes came with young tyros Aydan Hammond and Marcus Younis entering for Milanovic and Pierias. Melbourne continued their unsporting behaviour with Fornaroli delaying a throw in by getting in the face of Scicluna. Marcelo had a trio of chances from corners, from either side of the pitch but ultimately directed in a non-threatening manner.

With 20 to go Brook & Sapsford left the park for a young & old duo of players at either end of their careers. 20 year old Nathaniel Blair came on for his 6th A-League game, while 39 year old Milos Ninkovic arrived for his 446th senior league appearance, to go with his 100+ continental & cup games and his 28 caps for Serbia. Victory also had a player making his last league appearance, Leigh Broxham who made his 385th A-League appearance to extend his lead as the A-League player with the most games played.

The 72nd minute the Wanderers made it all square again in an unusual fashion. A hopeful long ball into the box found the head of Younis, knocking it down for Blair who was about to smash it past Izzo only to be cut down from behind in what would have been a red card & penalty. Instead the referee played an advantage, allowing Hammond to run onto the ball, shoot and hit either Roderick Miranda or Blair who was lying in an offside position or both of them. The VAR checked and allowed the goal to stand after deciding it had only hit Miranda and making it 3-3 with the Wanderers needing to chase a winner to have a hope of playing in the finals. 

The final roll of the dice for Marko Rudan was bringing on Aidan Simmons for Jack Clisby, with Tony Popovic using his last substitute choice of Ben Folami for Machach.

Oscar Priestman turned what could have been a second yellow & red card into scoring an unlikely goal to give Western Sydney the lead. In the defensive end he was probably heading for an early shower for a clear second bookable offence only for Alireza to give him a reprieve by allowing an advantage for Fornaroli to shoot and miss. He then went up the other end, got on the end of a weak clearance, beat one defender to cut back onto his right, to shoot and get a lucky deflection that launched the ball over the desperate fingertip save attempt of Izzo. It was Priestman's first ever A-League goal and it gave the side something to hold on for the final minutes of stoppage time.

Lawrence Thomas made himself a hero when the defence opened up for Fornaroli to make a run in on goal, the cover defence of Scicluna did just enough to put off the golden boot chasing striker, and his low shot struck the left leg of Thomas, sending the keeper crashing to the turf with an apparent injury after colliding with Scicluna, but after a short period of treatment Thomas got back to his feet to stop Blair having to take the goalkeepers shirt as the team had no more subs to play barring a head injury replacement.

Victory ended up having 9 minutes of stoppage time but apart from the Fornaroli chance they were unable to find any more threats on goal. The win secured the Wanderers a final chance to make the finals, as Melbourne City now require a win against Western United on Sunday that would put them in the finals and knock the Wanderers out.

Even if the result doesn't go the way it needs, this match has perhaps shown a route forward, with the younger players like Priestman, Sapsford and later on Hammond, Younis and Blair showing they can match it in the A-League and showing more fight and determination than many of the expensive foreigners like Kittel and Antonsson have this season.

The Wanderers have completed the A-League regular season. If Melbourne City fail to defeat Western United then the Wanderers will play Melbourne Victory in Week 1 of the finals in Melbourne. If Melbourne City win, the season is over for the Wanderers.

Sunday Addendum - Unfortunately for the Wanderers their season has come to a close. Melbourne City defeated Western United by 1-0, putting them in 6th place with WSW completing the season in 7th and out of the finals positions.