Newcastle coach Rob Stanton has no plans of quitting the in-form Jets before the season is out as a cloud hangs over his long-term future.
But he feels confident his players would be ready to kick on without him after this A-League Men season if required.
The ninth-placed Jets are on their best unbeaten run in 20 years, defeating Melbourne City 1-0 to go seven games without tasting defeat and close within six points of the finals places.
They have beaten fellow top-six teams Melbourne Victory and Adelaide and drew with leaders Auckland in that purple patch.
But the Newcastle Herald reported this week Stanton had signed a two-year extension at the Jets, yet may not be at the helm next season.
“To be honest, I’m not really worried about my future,” Stanton said.
“For me, I want to coach where I’m working with really good people, with good players, whether they’re young, whether they’re older, and I want to make sure that I have the tools that I can develop them to the best they can be.
“If I don’t have that, then my future would alter greatly.
“So at this point in time, I can’t really comment too far on that. At the end of the day, you’ll see what’s gonna happen.
“But for me personally, I’m happy now because I can see the work I’ve done, and I can see it’s at the point where the players now are almost in control themselves, and that’s where I wanted to get them.
“That means the belief, that means they’re at that stage where they can see how far they can go now without – and not put a limit on themselves.
“And that took a lot to unlock. That took a lot of work. It was draining. I can just see now that they’re almost ready to take it over themselves. We’ll see what happens at the end of the year.”
Stanton stressed he at least planned to see out the season.
“I’m here – unless something changes to the end of the year, I would like to fulfil my commitments,” he said.
“I’m not a quitter or I’m not someone that wants to walk away.
“But as I said, I feel like they’re in control of themselves and I’m really pleased with where they’re at.”
Newcastle are back in action at home to John Aloisi’s second-placed Western United on Sunday.
“They are a top team. They’re a very, very good team,” Stanton said.
“My only complaint is that we’ve got to play them on the back of three games.
“We had to do the same last time, and it was hard, but this is going to be a big challenge for us is how we prepare, the recovery. So I’d love to have a crack at them a bit fresher, but unfortunately, it’s not (the case).”
https://thewest.com.au/sport/soccer/jets-coach-stanton-not-a-quitter-amid-clouded-future-c-18019886
