Milicic focused on Socceroos not Melbourne City

Australia assistant coach Ante Milicic says returning to his former club Melbourne City to replace the outgoing John van’t Schip is the furthest thing from his mind as he helps prepare the Socceroos for a busy 2017.

New Matildas coach Ante Milicic Source: Getty Images

Milicic is among those named as a possible replacement for van’t Schip, who resigned as City's head coach unexpectedly on Tuesday to return to the Netherlands to care for his ill father.

City’s assistant Michael Valkanis is at the helm in a caretaker capacity while the club begin a worldwide search for a new head coach.

Former Adelaide United coach Josep Gombau and current Adelaide United boss Guillermo Amor are also looming as potential candidates.

Milicic was the assistant under van’t Schip at the then-named Melbourne Heart for the club’s first two campaigns from 2010-2012.

He was overlooked to replace van 't Schip in 2012, instead heading to Western Sydney to become Tony Popovic’s assistant before making the move to work with Ange Postecoglou and the Socceroos ahead of the 2014 Brazil World Cup.

Milicic is highly regarded by all in the sport and would be a fitting replacement at City.

He confirmed the club are yet to get in touch and said with the Socceroos to face three crucial World Cup qualifiers this year and the Confederations Cup in June, it wasn’t even something he’d thought about.

“No one has contacted me from Melbourne City and I’ve put in a lot of work with the Socceroos and I’m contracted with the FFA,” he told The World Game on Wednesday.

“So I’m just focusing on my job monitoring our players who are playing overseas, watching the A-League and looking forward to not only these qualifiers we have in March but the Confederations Cup.

“So nothing really changes for me but it’s normal that there’d be speculation when a coach leaves a club.

“But I honestly just haven’t given it any thought.”