Rudan has been appointed for the rest of the season following the overdue sacking of Carl Robinson,and has an opportunity to become the Wanderers’ long-term manager if he can impress in their remaining 19 games.
He is the fifth man to sit in the top chair at Wanderland since inaugural coach Tony Popovic,but none of them have been able to guide them to the A-League finals in five barren years.
Fans have been voting with their feet during that decline,with recent attendances at CommBank Stadium - even before the pandemic - nowhere near the club’s heyday under Popovic.
Western Sydney’s A-League Women team is also struggling with one win from eight games this season and only two goals scored - further underlining the club’s immense underachievement on the field despite boasting facilities that would be the envy of any sporting club in the country,and sitting in a region that is arguably Australia’s best nursery for junior talent.
Tsatsimas and football operations manager Gavin Costello were blamed last month by former women’s coach Dean Heffernan,while Robinson’s ex-assistant Patrick Zwaanswijk said the Wanderers had “no identity”.
Tsatsimas said he reflected on the nature of his own contribution to the club “every day”,but dismissed the notion that he was part of the problem,and denied the Wanderers were a basketcase.
“I think the results in the A-League side and to a certain extent the W-League side haven’t been reflective of what’s been developed at the club,” he said.
“The results are the vehicle to convey everything but the club’s developed at a very fast rate,a faster rate than any other club in the Australian sporting landscape. It’s had success,it’s also had some downtimes,but it’s developed an infrastructure that is second to none,the people here are fantastic,the fans are the best in the league. We just need to bring success on the pitch to reward everything else that’s been done.
“There’ll be a day when I won’t be CEO of this football club but today’s not the day,today we’re announcing Mark Rudan as head coach.”
Rudan,who has prior A-League experience with Wellington Phoenix and Western United,said it was hard to understand from the outside why the Wanderers continue to fall flat.
“It’s a good question. I can only comment from what I’ve seen this year and from outside,it’s hard,because the personnel is certainly there and only until I get to work will I find what those answers are,” he said.
“It’s a club from afar I’ve seen do some extraordinary things. It’d be nice if we all worked hard to try and find our way back up that mountain. I’m certainly privileged,I’m extremely honoured because this is one of the big four clubs of the league,you can’t deny that. I’m very pleased to be here.”
Chairman Paul Lederer,who was believed to have been behind the move to sign Robinson as coach on the eve of last season,did not take part in Monday’s press conference.
Tsatsimas defended the club’s decision to hand Robinson full control of the football department but continued to resist calls for a director of football to be installed at the Wanderers.
“The head coach needs to be able to govern the way he wants to convey his team on the pitch - being able to bring in the players he identifies,the way he wants to play,” he said.
“When we invest in a coach we believe in him and believe in the structure that he’ll bring. Unfortunately it didn’t work out for Carl but having said that,Mark is here to pick up those pieces.
“The narrative out there is certainly the case and I appreciate what’s being said. Notwithstanding all that,we’ve made some mistakes along the way,but it doesn’t mean that we don’t believe we’re on the[right] track. Everything here is set,everything else is set here. We just need success on the pitch and we believe that Mark will be the one that brings it along and we believe come April,May,it’ll be happy days here at the Wanderers.”