Ante Covic and Labinot Haliti have been announced as Western Sydney Wanderers' latest signings as the fledgling A-League club started their first training session.
Former Victory goalkeeper Covic and ex-Newcastle Jet Haliti bring to nine the number of official signings for the Wanderers ahead of their inaugural season, which starts against Central Coast on October 6.
An emotional Wanderers coach Tony Popovic welcomed Covic and Haliti to the club before training at Blacktown International Sportspark on what he described as "a great day for the club and its players".
"This has been a long time coming," Popovic said.
"This is where we want to be, out on the park. We are all very excited and ready to go.
"(Ante and Labinot are) two experienced players ... Ante had a fantastic season last year and deserves to be playing at the highest level and Labinot is a great professional who will add a lot of value to our side.
"We are looking forward to having them here."
Victory's reigning player of the year Covic says there is a great feeling within the club.
"We are raring to go, it is kind of like the first day at school, we are all buzzing," he said.
Covic denies he has something to prove after being let go by the Victory.
"My performance last year spoke for itself, I have been very happy with where my career has been going and what happened was out of my control," he said.
"This is a new chapter and I am very positive about it. It is great to be part of a fresh, new club in the heartland of Australian football. It is a huge buzz."
Covic and Haliti join Aaron Mooy, Tarek Elrich, Kwabena Appiah-Kubi, Michael Beauchamp, Mark Bridge, Shannon Cole and Nikolai Topor-Stanley as the Wanderers' official signings.
AAP
Tags: soccer, sport, a-league, blacktown-2148, nsw, australia First posted July 02, 2012 11:56:13