CRAIG Deans insists he is not yet ready to coach the Newcastle Jets on a full-time basis, although how long he temporarily occupies the hot seat is anyone's guess.
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Deans was handed the reins in a caretaker capacity last month when former Welsh international Carl Robinson stunned the Jets by defecting to Western Sydney Wanderers. On Friday, Deans will oversee the first "friendly" of the Jets' pre-season when they take on Central Coast Mariners.
It is his third stint as Newcastle's interim coach.
In 2011-12, he stepped in for the first three games of the season after Branko Culina was sacked, then in January this year he deputised for five games, between the departure of Ernie Merrick and the arrival of Robinson.
The technical director of Newcastle's academy and formerly the club's W-League mentor, Deans has served a coaching apprenticeship of close to 15 years but said now was not the right time for him to apply for the A-League job.
"A couple of weeks ago I let the club know what my position is," he said. "The head-coaching job wasn't something that I wanted to do right at this moment. Down the track, yeah, I want to do that, whether it's here or somewhere else. But at the moment, it's not for me, the head-coaching position."
Uncertainty about the club's ownership, however, has prompted CEO Lawrie McKinna to defer any decision about Robinson's successor.
Chinese businessman Martin Lee has been trying to sell the franchise for more than a year, and Football Federation Australia chief executive James Johnson was confident last month a transition would take place "in good time".
McKinna has repeatedly stated that the new owner, or owners, will need to hire the coach.
Deans, meanwhile, has to prepare a team for the season kick-off in six weeks, and potentially for an indefinite time frame after that.
"Obviously the ownership thing has been going on for a long time anyway," Deans said.
"Months and months. It definitely seems like we're getting closer.
"It could be a matter of weeks, it could be longer. I'd be silly to try and predict a time frame because it's been a long time already.
"But if that's the case, we've been through it before, when Ernie left. We've been through it before in the COVID period for a few weeks when the coaches [Robinson and assistant Kenny Miller] were in isolation.
"We're more than capable of managing the squad and getting them ready for a game, and if there's no coach here, if that's the card that's dealt, we'll deal with it."
The ownership wrangle means that not only have the Jets been unable to appoint a long-term coach, player recruitment is also effectively on hold.
Deans said the collective attitude of Newcastle's incumbent players and staff was to "just get on with it".
"For me, yeah, we'd love to have some clarity and direction around the coaching situation," Deans said.
"But if you look at it from a players' point of view, they're all on trial.
"Even if they're contracted, they're all on trial, and that normally brings the best out in people, when they know they need to perform."
Friday's trial against the Mariners will be played behind closed doors on the Central Coast and Deans indicated up to 20 players would receive game time.
"We want to win it," he said. "We want to get some fitness out of it. We want to get some co-ordination and all that sort of stuff within the team, so we'll approach it as we would any other game."
Triallists Jeremy Brockie, Jai Seldon, Takeru Okada and Jack Duncan are all in the mix to play against the Mariners.
"We'll take some youth team players down and possibly give them an opportunity to see we're they're at ... the focus is to make the team as competitive as possible come round one," Deans said.
