With a $1.6 million two-year deal already on the table, the expansion A-League club believe backing Ninkovic’s post-career vision could be a deciding factor in the 34-year-old ending his four-year association with Sydney FC and heading to Campbelltown.
With a final decision pending this week, the odds on whether Ninkovic stays with the league leaders or goes are in the balance.
However, it’s understood Macarthur powerbrokers are growing in confidence that with an eye to the long-term Ninkovic could well be confirmed as their first signing in preparation for next season.
Another issue for the Sky Blues in attempting to persuade Ninkovic to re-sign is the club policy of generally only offering one year extensions to players aged 31 or over.
That in-house edict would likely have to go out the window for Ninkovic to re-commit, and were that to happen the possibility of upsetting fellow veterans such as Alex Wilkinson, 35, and Adam Le Fondre, 33, would be tangible.
Sky Blues CEO Danny Townsend told The World Game there was no official age-cap policy currently in place.
Le Fondre, in particular, is at risk of also being seduced by Macarthur, with his contract due to expire mid-2021 and a move to the south west already being discussed behind the scenes for the free-scoring Englishman.
With 10 goals from nine games this season, Le Fondre is, according to Fairfax, close to triggering an automatic extension.
However, it’s believed his nose was put out of joint when the arrival of Kosta Barbarouses scuppered his expectations of marquee status at Sydney.
And, he too, is looking to Macarthur as a potentially lucrative new home with the club to be afforded salary cap dispensations of around $400,000 in their debut season.
Goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne, 30, is another who could willingly defect to the newcomers, with his existing contract expiring next June.
