By Thomas Rooney
West Ham United skipper and Australian international Lucas Neill may well be earning millions of pounds playing football in the English Premier League, but he has revealed that he could return to Australia in the not too distant future.
Neill has confirmed that he will swap West Ham for Western Sydney should plans for a new A-League franchise be approved. The 30-year-old is part of a group of investors that are involved in setting up the new club which hopes to enter the A-League in August 2010.
As we all know, the Western Sydney face strong competition from a number of other A-League hopefuls in the cities of Canberra and Geelong to name just two. However, Neill is confident of success saying that he is ‘in it to win it’ and that not coming out on top isn’t an option because he ‘hates losing’.
Something these comments show is that Neill is very determined and passionate about what he is aiming for. He first investigated the expansion of the A-League about a year ago when rumours about the situation became public. Taking this into consideration, Neill is obviously very prepared for the challenge ahead as well.
One of the main impacts Neill with have on Western Sydney should everything go to plan is, unsurprisingly, financial related. The West Ham star who has earned a healthy sum of money during his many years in England, plans to plough a significant amount back into the Australian game.
This doesn’t mean that Neill is after a seat on the club’s board though – far from it. He says that he doesn’t want to be involved in running the club and would much prefer to play for the club before his career is out. Then, this could lead to an eventual coaching role.
Like I have previously mentioned though, even if the franchise is granted, Western Sydney won’t be entering the A-League until August 2010 at the earliest. This means that Neill has at least another season in England to focus on and therefore, is after a new contract at Upton Park. Most football betting money would be placed on this not being a problem either as he is a very important player for West Ham.
Speaking of his current team, well they aren’t having the best of times. They have lost seven of their last eight games and some football odds are even suggesting that they could be relegated this season. This is obviously something that Neill won’t want as he will be hoping to play well, as part of a top ten Premier League team for a couple of years, before his potential move back to Australia.
