Joe Keenan is on a three-day trial with the Newcastle Jets, according to The Herald:

The 25-year-old has a season to run on a two-year deal in the Victorian capital, but coach Ernie Merrick has opened the way for him to move on.

Keenan’s departure will pave the way for Melbourne to sign another foreign player, likely to be Costa Rican defender José Luis López.

Antun Kovacic is also on trial with the Jets. Some Victory fans may remember the Richmond defender for his brief addition to the squad in season 1 as an injury replacement.

Newcastle have also been touted as a possible destination for Kaz Patafta, who has severed ties with Benfica FC.

And just to round things off, another former Victory player has been talking with Jets coach Gary Van Egmond. Ljubo Milicevic, it appears, has not been able to find a new club since he parted ways with the Victory in February.

Hey Gary, you want to check out Leandro Love as well?

It seems the defender and the club have agreed to “mutually terminate his contract”, which suggests to me that the Victory will not be required to pay out his contract – as would have been the case if they had fired him outright. Perhaps Milicevic has some other offers on the table.

Or maybe he just decided to end the charade. Milicevic appears to have been in the Victory’s bad books since well before the breakfast debacle in October. His injury provided a convenient front, but it was obvious to most Melbourne supporters that Ljubo had little to no hope of becoming a regular in the Melbourne side. It seems both parties were just biding their time, waiting for the day when they could amicably part company.

Gary Cole, adopting his usual line, wishes Ljubo “well for the future”.

An article in The Advertiser today, titled “Ljubo up for grabs”, once again suggests that Ljubo could join Adelaide United in November, as a replacement for Angelo Costanzo, who picked up an injury in the clash with the Victory two weeks ago. It doesn’t look like it would be a long-term affair, as Milicevic seems to be eyeing a return to Europe in January.

Earlier this week, Archie Thompson expressed his anger over the suspension, suggesting that he is willing to return to Europe if the “right offer” should arise. But after meeting with the other members of Melbourne’s leadership group yesterday over – you guessed it – breakfast, Archie returned to training today, making an official apology to his team mates and Victory officials (the Age).

(As an aside, I was interested to learn that the leadership team includes Rodrigo Vargas, Grant Brebner, Danny Allsopp and Kevin Muscat, as well as Archie, of course. Any surprises there?)

Ljubo Milicevic, on the other hand, has not made a noise this week, instead preferring to send all questions over to the Professional Footballers Association, his union. The Victory also appears hesitant to make any declarations about whether Milicevic’ will be staying or going. Of course, this in itself suggests that an early exit for Milicevic is a realistic possibility.

Meanwhile, a rather curious article in The Advertiser yesterday suggested that there may be talk of Milicevic moving over to Adelaide United. Adelaide have their fair share of injury problems at the moment, so it’s not surprising that they’re on the prowl for defenders. But Ljubo? Surely his performance on Friday night wasn’t impressive enough to warrant such interest?

The pair, who are close friends, went out on Friday night after the disappointing 4-1 loss to Adelaide United. Gary Cole, the Melbourne Victory’s operations manager, insisted that they “had not been drinking or acting in a manner that would bring criticism among the wider community.” (The Age) At the time of that writing, all we knew was that Milicevic and Thompson had both been suspended from training with the team. The official reason given by Cole was that it was “curfew stuff.”

An article in the Courier Mail today suggests that there may be even bigger ramifications for the players:

“As tensions at Victory yesterday came to a head, it is believed Thompson’s ‘partner in crime’ Ljubo Milicevic may be on his last chance at the club.

It is understood the coaching staff will front the Melbourne Victory board tomorrow night to demand Milicevic be released from his contract over his latest alleged misdemeanour.”

It’s well known that Milicevic hasn’t exactly had the best time at Melbourne. Besides picking up an injury in the first half against Wellington Phoenix back in round 1, there were also reports of locker-room tension between Milicevic and captain Kevin Muscat during pre-season. And now this.

Could the club really fire him for missing breakfast? Yes and no.

To be honest, I don’t think this is about the breakfast incident; nor is it about the “couple of beers” Archie and Ljubo had on Friday night. This is about Melbourne’s overall unhappiness with Milicevic’s performance, both on and off the pitch. Is it a coincidence that the “coaching staff” demanding Milicevic’s release includes Muscat, who is assistant coach? The club has previously insisted that the issues between Muscat and Milicevic earlier this year have been sorted out. That sounds decidedly false now.

Meanwhile, I’m sure Archie will walk away from this with a slap on the wrist, and no more. The Victory relies far too much on their star striker to be angry at him for very long.

Milicevic, on the other hand, looks, well… expendable.

Thankfully, Milicevic, a 24 year old Melbourne boy, isn’t going anywhere. With two weeks to go before the start of the season, that would be very bad news for Merrick and co indeed.
But that is not to say that the rumours are entirely unfounded. There is tension in the Melbourne camp, and it’s between Milicevic and skipper Kevin Muscat.

It’s not hard to see why the two don’t get along. Like Muscat, Milicevic is a fiery player. And he’s a leader, having captained the Australian Under-20s and Under-23s. And in his 6 years in Switzerland, he spent several seasons with FC Thun, which included a string of 5 matches in the UEFA Champions League, up against such humble competitors as Arsenal, Ajax and A.C. Sparta Praha.

Jesse Fink from Half-Time Orange summed it up perfectly:

“Muscat will have grown comfortable in his position as eminence grise of the Victory locker-room. Now, in Milicevic, he has a younger, better and just as headstrong one-time Socceroo defender among his flock.”

Is tension between Muscat and Milicevic necessarily bad?

No. Consider the tension between Muscat and Alessandro at the start of last season, which did not seriously affect the Melbourne game. Tension between players is to be expected.

But Alessandro spent most of the season on the bench. Given Milicevic’s experience and talent, anything short of a spot on Merrick’s A-list would be surprising.

Muscat and Milicevic will be spending plenty of time together on the pitch. For the sake of the team, let’s hope they can put their personal issues to a side.

Read more about Ljubo Milicevic:

• Ljubo Milicevic on Wikipedia
• Milicevic profile on Melbourne Victory website
• Milicevic profile on PintCulture
• Those Melbourne blues, Half-Time Orange
• Victory marches into damage control, August 8, 2007, The Age