Adelaide United have decided not to renew head coach Marco Kurz’s contract, meaning the German will depart the club at the end of the season – despite guiding the Reds to their second FFA Cup win.
“During my meeting with Piet I realised quickly that we do not have a common vision for the future of Adelaide United,” Kurz said in a club statement.
“Our goals are very different and therefore a renewal of my contract does not make sense.”
According to The Adelaide Advertiser, the club felt Kurz was not promoting enough youth team prospects to the senior set-up.
However, Kurz has handed out quite a number of debuts to young players during his tenure.
Former FFA Centre of Excellence scholarship holder Lachlan Brook was sixteen when he made his first A-League appearance.
Louis D’Arrigo (17), Pacifique Niyongabire (17), Apostolos Stamatelopoulos (18), Kristin Konstandopoulos (19) and Carlo Armiento (19) have also received their debuts.
Adelaide have remained in the top 6 all season, and Kurz has the highest win percentage of any Reds manager to date.
The Advertiser’s Rob Greenwood voiced his disappointment at the decision, saying Kurz has worked wonders with limited resources.
“His will to win is second to none.
“I have nothing but the highest things to say about him in terms of his professionalism, conduct, knowledge of the game and ability to work with players whether they’re experienced or young ones coming through,” Greenwood told Evenings on FNR.
The change of ownership in Adelaide is likely a major factor, with Kurz and new Chairman Piet van der Pol not exactly seeing eye-to-eye.
“Obviously Kurz was hired by the former owners which I guess can lead to the new owners coming in and wanting to bring in their own people.
“The first sign when cracks were appearing was in December/January when Kurz was entering the last six months of his two-year contract, and there was a lot of speculation around if the club were going to re-sign him.
“The club then put out a statement early January saying they had agreed with Kurz to hold off on contract discussions until later in the season.
“That lead to more speculation and more questions from fans and media.” Greenwood added.
Following the decision, the announcement on Adelaide United’s twitter was inundated with disgruntled fans.
“The owners will be facing backlash from supporters,
“It’s going to be interesting to see in these last home games what the reaction from Reds fan is.”
