Musialik leaves Jets feeling blue

THE NEWCASTLE HERALD

STUART Musialik has become the third grand final hero to walk out on the Newcastle Jets, and his manager revealed yesterday the A-League champions came "nowhere near" the offer he eventually accepted from Sydney FC.

Musialik, the only home-grown Novocastrian to start in the Jets' 1-0 title triumph against Central Coast, signed a two-year deal with Sydney after seriously considering a late bid from Queensland Roar.

He is the fourth high-profile recruit Sydney have announced in the past two weeks, joining his Newcastle and Olyroos teammate Mark Bridge, Socceroos striker John Aloisi and former Perth midfielder Simon Colosimo.

Musialik said he was disappointed to leave Newcastle, but his agent, Tom Brooks, said that financially the Jets' offer was simply not competitive.

"If they'd got close, Stuey would essentially have stayed for less money than he could have got elsewhere," Brooks said.

"But it wasn't even close. They [Newcastle] have their restrictions, they have their policy on [third-party] service agreements, and that's their prerogative.

"That's how they run their club, and they won the grand final, so I suppose you can't argue with it."

Brooks said the easy decision would have been for Musialik to re-sign with the Jets, "because he's a local boy, and he didn't particularly want to leave".

He confirmed that he had negotiated an exit clause so that Sydney would agree to release Musialik, if he received an offer from overseas, for "a fee that wouldn't be prohibitive for the player".

"It's just a standard clause that a lot of the young Olyroos guys put in there, which gives them the opportunity if they are fortunate enough to get a club overseas interested in them," he said. "It would be unfair to say that Newcastle declined that."

Musialik said it was "pretty disappointing" to have to leave his home-town club but felt it was some consolation to depart after winning a grand final.

He was also excited about continuing to play alongside Bridge, one of his closest friends, and for the A-League's most glamorous club.

"It was a very tough decision, to leave Newcastle and my family and friends," he said.

"It's pretty disappointing from that side of things, but as far as my career is concerned, it's probably the best move for me to make at this point in time. Sydney have obviously recruited very well, and I think the club is looking to bounce back after two seasons that probably haven't been as successful as they would have liked.

"Obviously I'm looking forward to playing with the players they've recruited and the ones who are already there, and just being in a successful environment."

Musialik said it would "make the move down to Sydney a lot easier having Bridgey around".

Jets owner Con Constantine said it was disappointing that Musialik chose to follow Bridge and Andrew Durante (Wellington) out the back door, but he wished them all well.

He reassured supporters the Jets would still field a quality roster next season and had been doing their utmost to retain their grand final squad.

"We've had three players leave after winning the grand final I just hope they made the right decision," he said. "Obviously we have to work within a salary cap. It makes things very difficult because it seems like other clubs are offering our players twice as much as we can."

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