FORMER Brisbane Roar coach Mike Mulvey has emerged as the frontrunner to replace axed ÂCentral Coast Mariners coach Phil Moss.
Moss is believed to be gutted after being effectively sacked yesterday morning.
He became the second coaching casualty of the season after the club issued a statement revealing he had been “stood aside”, effective immediately. The decision comes just three days before the week-20 match against Melbourne City at Central Coast Stadium tomorrow.
Mariners technical director Tony Walmsley has been appointed interim head coach but is not in line for the full-time position.
Veteran player John Hutchinson, who will retire at the end of the season, will assist Walmsley while seeing out the rest of the season as a player.
Despite winning the title with Brisbane last season, Mulvey was controversially dumped just six games into this season. He recently took up a short-term technical director’s role in Malaysia but is believed to have been Âspotted recently in Gosford looking at real estate.
Former Socceroo Tony Vidmar, head coach of the FFA centre of excellence and now coach of Australia’s under-17s, could also be a candidate. Vidmar, who played for the Mariners, is highly regarded.
Club officials decided to react as the Mariners are heading for possibly their worst season in their 10 years in the national competition. Central Coast sit third from the bottom with just three wins and 16 points from 19 matches. They need a minor miracle to make the finals with eight games left.
It has been a tough time for Moss, who took the reins last Âseason after being deputy to 2012-13 championship-winning coach Graham Arnold, who had departed for an ill-fated coaching stint in Japan three weeks into the season.
Moss spent three years working with Arnold and many believed he had earned the right to be given a chance at A-League level.
He did a go good job last season, taking the Mariners to third before losing 2-0 to Western Sydney at Pirtek Stadium in a preliminary final less than 24 hours after returning from an Asian Champions League game in Japan.
Moss impressed so much that the club was happy to hand him a three-year contract.
However, the Mariners have struggled this season on and off the field and Moss came under increasing pressure in the past few months amid calls from the fans that he be sacked.
The fans’ anger intensified after Moss left much-loved Mariners captain Hutchinson on the bench last week against Newcastle and did not bring him on to play a Ârecord-equalling 221st A-League match.
He has also come under fire for his player signings this season, especially the disappointing foreign contingent, as well as the team’s style of play.
But he has had to work amid a climate of concern regarding the future of the club and its constant cost-cutting measures.
Central Coast have struggled both defensively and in attack, managing just 16 goals (one more than bottom-placed Newcastle Jets) and conceding 40 — the worst record in the A-League.
It is understood Moss and his legal representatives are now in discussions with the club regarding to the size of his payout.
He was understandably disappointed when contacted by The Weekend Australian yesterday but declined to comment for legal reasons. Moss's assistant, Wayne O’Sullivan, has been offered a new role at the club.