Unhappy United star deserts club

Western United will play hardball with Max Burgess if the troubled midfielder wants to join another club this season following his return to NSW.

Despite being contracted to United for the rest of their 2020-21 campaign, Burgess has been allowed to go back home to Sydney.

The 26-year-old former Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix player failed to settle after arriving late for the start of United’s season after a pre-season standoff with the club.

Burgess has made just one appearance this season, a 27-minute spell off the bench in United’s 3-2 loss to Central Coast Mariners on February 7.

United CEO Chris Pehlivanis said there was no point in keeping Burgess at the club any longer if he didn’t want to be there.

However, Pehlivanis wasn’t about to let Burgess have his contract terminated and play for another club this season – unless United could benefit.

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“If you don’t want to be somewhere, that’s fine, but you can’t also walk out on your contracts and expect clubs to just let you play for someone else … not for nothing,” Pehlivanis said.

“Western United always comes first. Maybe a player swap but it’s got to be like for like or if it’s something that can be beneficial and adds value to our club, we’ll look at it, if not we’re not going to focus too much attention on it.”

It’s understood Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers are interested in Burgess, with Sky Blues having asked for permission to speak to him – as permitted – now that he’s in the final six months of his contract.

Pehlivanis was disappointed Burgess wanted out after his fine 2019-2020 season with the fledging club.

“We had a great environment, he was playing good football, he was happy, and then other people, clubs, his agent or whoever get involved, and the by-product is you’ve got an unhappy player now,” Pehlivanis said.

“Unfortunately sometimes people make wrong calls and take the wrong approach.

“He missed 10 weeks of pre-season, and other players worked hard in the pre-season,

“You don’t walk straight back into the starting line-up. You’re have to work hard. You either want to do that, or you don’t want to do that.

“I was hopeful he would build and be part of the journey this year, but it didn’t look like it would work.”

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