Muscat proud to lead special playing group
Melbourne Victory captain Kevin Muscat praised the playing group at the football club, saying he was extremely proud to be leading such a united and talented group of players.
Muscat once again led his side superbly, as Victory secured its second Hyundai A-League Championship, after a tight 1-0 win over Adelaide United at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne.
While some are speculating whether this might be his swansong, the 35-year-old was not about to overshadow this side-s achievement by announcing his retirement and will wait and see what happens after celebrations have died down.
“I-m enjoying it thoroughly,” he said after the match. “How can you not enjoy the season we-ve had; we-ve taken everything before us.
“It-s been a pleasure and I-m very proud to be involved with a football club run the way ours is and to be involved with the group of players that we-ve got at the moment.
“At this point in time it-s not about an individual and I-m not going to drawn into speculation about myself.
“As I maintained throughout, it-s been a superb team effort and in due time, and I can-t see it happening in the next few days, I-ll sit down with the coaching staff and see where we are at.”
Asked if he was proud of this group of players and what they-ve achieved, he didn-t hesitate.
“Without a doubt. We won the first trophy (Pre-Season Cup), the second trophy (the Premiers Plate), yet the whole hype has been on how successful other teams have been and it-s been a bit hard to swallow.
“Maybe going into the game there was a little bit of a fear that you don-t want to slip up at the big dance and we certainly didn-t do that.
Asked about this particular team going on to dominate for several years to come, Muscat made it clear that to play for Melbourne Victory, you must be first and foremost be a winner.
“Where we go from here, if players are at this football club and they're not hungry to win things and be successful, they won't remain here.
“And I'm pretty sure that's why Ernie will move on into the market and try and find those players because you've got to be hungry to be successful and that's the culture we're trying to build here.”