Vowing to usher in a era when the Wanderers finally exploit being a magnate for young talent across what he describes as Australia’s football heartland, the former Central Coast and Perth Glory chief is determined to turn his ‘homecoming’ into a tour de force in 2024-2025.

Born and bred a stone’s throw from Wanderers’ Blacktown training base, Stajcic, 50, insists he has inherited a club already brimming with the ingredients of success, with no radical surgery required to bring back the glory days of a decade ago.

“I think there are so many pillars here which only the Wanderers have,” Stajcic told FTBL.

“From being situated in the heartland of football; the junior nursery on our doorstep; having world class facilities; a fairly unique fee free program for our youth and then you combine that with the supporter base we have and there are many elements there that not a lot of other A-League clubs have.

“As a result, the expectations are high and so they should be - and, to be honest, they are high from all of us in the coaching staff as well.”

Amid an A-League wide cash crunch in the wake of central distributions being slashed to just $550,000, the Wanderers have been prudent thus far in the transfer market, to date signing only Bulgarian midfielder Bozhidar Kraev from Wellington and Korean defender Tae-wook Jeong on loan from Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

But Stajcic contends he has more than enough talent within his ranks to make his first season in charge memorable for the right reasons.

“There’s actually a good young squad here, a strong core group who’ve been around for the past 12 months or so gaining experience along the way,” he added.

“We’ve brought in a couple of experienced  players to add depth and quality and I’m happy with what the club has.

“For example, Brandon Borrello had an injury plagued season (in 2023-2024) and it’s like he’s coming back as a new player. He’s a really important part of the puzzle.”

 

“(From a personal perspective) it’s good to be at a football club that feels like a real football club in terms of its facilities - at Perth we were training at a local park where people were walking their dogs around!

“Here, where the facilities are world class, you have no excuse other than what you put out at training and in matches.

“This is a club with a great history - and one we want to bring back to the forefront.” 

 

One thing Stajcic plans to fully harness is a Wanderers youth set up which has produced a bevy of talent but often allowed players to slip through the net to other A-League entities or to depart prematurely overseas. 

“I don’t think we’ve had enough young players come through the academy here and become established at the club,” he admitted.

“It’s going to be one of my aims to change that (names of those allowed to leave prematurely include Cristian Volpato, Nectar Triantis, Anthony Pavlesic and Miguel Di Pizio

to name a few).

“For me there haven’t been enough homegrown players breaking through here and we want to get on top of that and keep our best players.

“When you think about the western suburbs it really is the heartland of football, from producing Socceroos to Matildas.

“We have kids in our youth program that scour the whole spectrum of Sydney … in addition to the locals there are kids from Manly, the southern highlands and Wollongong.

“We just need to harness what we’ve got and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t see more home produced kids in our first team. That’s something I’d love to see happen.”

With qualification for the playoffs a prerequisite as the Wanderers step out under Stajcic, next in the Australia Cup against Queensland Lions and then their A-League opener against fierce foes Sydney FC, he expects a campaign of tight margins.

“It’s traditionally been a pretty tight competition, from top to bottom one of the tightest in the world,” said Stajcic, who began the revitalisation of the Mariners but was stymied at Glory as they tumbled into administration.

“You’ve had standouts like Brisbane Roar under Ange Postecoglou but generally it’s a very close league, and I think you’ll see that again in the coming season.

“A part of that is the reduction in grants from the APL, meaning they’ll be less scope for the majority of clubs to go out and purchase a lot of internationals and high paid marquee individuals.

“The result of that, I think, will be even more parity and equality across the league.”