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May 01, 2012   |  7:24PM AET

Ange promises new faces

Ange promises new faces

Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou is hoping to ‘lock away’ some new signings by the end of May, while beginning to introduce a new style of play from the youth team upwards.

Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou is hoping to ‘lock away’ some new signings by the end of May, while beginning to introduce a new style of play from the youth team upwards.

Speaking at his first training session with the club after leaving Brisbane Roar as a two-time premiership-winning coach, Postecoglou said he was eager to bring in fresh faces.

“I’m pretty anxious to get things locked away pretty quickly before the end of the month, so that’ll mean a fair bit of work between now and then to get in the ones we want and make sure the squad and staffing is all organised by the end of the month,” he said.

Postecoglou is working on bringing in a few new players, and he hopes ‘announcements’ would be made within the next two weeks.

The former South Melbourne player and coach said Gold Coast starlet Ben Halloran was just one of many potential targets the club were assessing.

“No priorities (in terms of targeting players), just we want to bring in good players, he’s (Halloran) a good player so he’s definitely somebody we’ll look at but there’s a number we’re looking at the moment,” he said.

“In terms of the targets there’s a few that I’ve identified and would like to bring in but when you’re in this sort of game, I don’t really like to talk about them until they’re over the line.

“But I would think there will be a few announcements within the next two weeks.”

Postecoglou definitively ruled out Basel veteran Scott Chipperfield as one of his targets.

“Scotty will be great for the A-League, hopefully he does come back, (but) probably not for us,” he said.

“I’ve tended with my recruiting to go for guys who, for want of a better word, are a bit younger in terms of the kind of game we want to play.

“There’s a fair bit of experience at the club anyway so I don’t think that’s the area we’re really lacking in, particularly in his position, we’ll be looking at other positions.

“If you get the right foreigners, they can certainly make the difference in this league.

“At the same time there are some good players, particularly with a couple of clubs up in the air, there’s some good players that could potentially be available, some Australian players.”

Ahead of Victory’s clash with Greek club Olympiacos on May 19, Postecoglou said initial training sessions could prove crucial, with the club’s younger squad members to be given a chance to impress in a bid to implement his new playing style as quickly as possible.

“This next three weeks gives me an opportunity to have a good look at some of the young ones who were in the youth team last year or on the fringes of the first team to see if anyone stands out,” he said.

“Really this Olympiacos game will give me a chance to have a look at some of the other (players) maybe I wouldn’t have had a chance to look at.

“It’s up to us, the coaching staff, to give them the tools to be able to play that way (the new style), I think by the time we start pre-season we’ll have about 14 weeks until the start of the A-League season, I think that’s enough time to implement what we want.

“It’ll be easier for everyone if there’s less resistance to it, the quicker they accept we’ll play a certain way and they need to do certain things, the quicker the transition will be.”