Robbie Slater talks to Wanderers coach Marko Rudan about Milos Ninkovic, attacking play and reviving the club

MR: The furthest thing from my mind was coaching at that time. I was back in Sydney, the family was settled and happy. Got back to doing things I love doing with family and friends, playing a bit of golf, and I never watched one A-League game during that time.

RS: Any reason?

MR: I watched football, but I watched European football. I wanted to study what new managers were doing, different techniques and strategies, because the game evolves very quickly.

When the call came I was on a golf course. It was John Tsatsimas (the Wanderers CEO). I text him back to say I’ll call you when I’m done. The text back was, ‘You better call right now, because we want you at the Wanderers’.

It’s one of the four big clubs in the country. I wanted to build my career to get there one day. I went to (chairman and owner) Paul Lederer’s house. I said I don’t want to be a statistic at this club. I value what I do, take it seriously, don’t want to be another coach that comes here and isn’t able to implement the vision or the principles and the things I attach to a club like this.

RS: So you wanted to be involved in the academy, the whole thing?

MR: Everything. I wanted to make a mark on a lot of things on the football club. It pains me to see some of the academy players that hadn’t taken off, weren’t up to the level they should be. When I got here, about six of those academy players hadn’t experienced playing finals football.

As good as they may have been, they hadn’t experienced what big games were. That’s what you experience every week in European football, and for me, it should be about getting them ready for European football. We see a lot of kids go now and they are back within six months to a year. That is not how we need to condition them. There’s four components – tactical, technical, mental and physical.

Paul said to me, ‘You go and do what you need, you’ll have the final say on everything’.

RS: That’s a big thing.

MR: I know it works two ways. If it doesn‘t work out, it’s completely on me. I work best when I have complete trust from my bosses.

RS: You came in last season, but got to start fresh this campaign with 17 new players. There was a coup in getting Milos Ninkovic from Sydney FC. How did that play out, and how important was it?

MR: I knew there was a big job ahead, with not just 17 new players, but a new staff. I got my brother-in-law Eddy (Bosnar) involved because he played overseas for 16 years. I know him inside out, and he’s a success because of building a business from nothing. He deals with the agents so I can concentrate on coaching.

We finished training one day, Eddy rings me and asks, ‘Would you sign Milos Ninkovic?’ I did a double take and said, ‘You taking the piss?’

I didn’t want to disrespect Sydney FC, three of my best years as a footballer were there. I told Eddy unless you are 100 per cent clear he’s not wanted, that’s the first hurdle. I had a three-hour conversation with Milos. I was sold. He was so driven to win and succeed. He was hurt by what happened to him (at Sydney), he felt he should have been given more respect. I had a great three years there, in the Hall of Fame, but Milos is a proper legend of the club. I told him, ‘Do you understand what you’re doing?’

He was open to not starting games, starting some others. The work he does with the younger players is important as well.

RS: How important?

MR: The best marquee I played with was Dwight Yorke. He showed me what a true marquee was, after every training session he would take all the youngsters to do extras for an hour, every day. Shooting, holding the ball up, crosses. That is what I wanted. I say to the foreign players you have a role and responsibility to be the best person who creates a fantastic culture. I needed great role models for all of this to work, Milos ticks a huge box with that. He’s been unbelievable.

RS: Early in the season, it looked like you wanted to build from being hard to beat. You’ve added layers as a real attacking threat. How did that process work?

MR: When I came here, from a football perspective, this team conceded a lot of goals. This year there was a clear plan. What you said is totally true, we were hard to beat. A large part of pre-season was defensive structure, and it didn’t waver from the first day of pre-season because I knew we’d build and build as a team with the ball.

RS: You look so fluid now, scoring goals as well as having the best defensive record in the competition. How?

MR: I like to play a good brand of football, and now we are closer to that end point, which culminated in a performance against Wellington (in round 25, Wanderers won 4-0).

Growing up watching the great Sydney Croatia sides, for me that style was total football. That along with the ’82 World Cup, dad had me watch Brazil, and ‘86 he made me watch Diego’s Argentina, that shaped me.

My dad was a big influence, like your dad was for you.

RS: The collective is one thing, but what pride do you take out of developing an individual?

MR: I take huge pride in making players better. This season alone I feel players like Lawrence Thomas, Tomi Mrcela, Gabriel Cleur, Aidan Simmons, Calem Nieuwenhof and Brandon Borrello have had their best seasons.

I’ve coached two players to win Johnny Warren Medals in Roy Krishna (Wellington) and Alessandro Diamanti (Western United), and Brandon is a great chance this season.

RS: About Borrello, he was known as a wide player, but you’ve got him as a central striker and he’s got 13 goals to date. It didn’t quite happen for him in Germany, how hard was it to lift him?

MR: The connection I had was that I played in Germany. He had injuries, kept in close contact. He was doing it tough, he thought let’s try this. Knowing how passionate he is, he’s very similar to the way I am. I wanted him to come back and build things around him.

Was really happy he got a chance with the Socceroos, and Arnie played him as a striker, not a winger. You take a lot of pride when you see something like that.

RS: And finally, how has the relationship with the fans been?

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MR: This season we dedicate to the fans who stuck with us through those hard times. You get great joy after a game, walking around the streets in the west and people shake your hand, smiling about the football club again.

I understand they’ve lost a bit of trust across the years. The club hasn’t had success for a while, but they need to know everyone involved in the club is working so hard to bring it back to what it should be, and their support is everything to us.

On the day the RBB had their pre-season gathering, we recognised the need to build a strong relationship so we announced this season’s captain on that day with them. Now with finals all I can say is come out and support the team. We’ll do the job for you.