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.
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