LACHY Rose will wear No.9 and get first crack at leading the Newcastle Jets' attack as coach Rob Stanton scours the globe for a striker to fill the massive hole left by the departure of Apostolos Stamatelopoulos.
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As reported by the Newcastle Herald on Sunday, Stamatelopoulos is set to join Scottish Premier League club Motherwell on a three-year deal.
The Jets will reportedly pocket a $500,000 transfer fee, but it leaves them without the club's only Socceroo and record goal-scorer.
"It is great for Stamma," Jets coach Rob Stanton said. "When you get in the national team and make the All-Stars like he did last season, players like that get attention. I knew at some stage this would happen.
"The deal is a good deal for the club, it's good for the player. You don't want to sell your best players, but at the same time you bring players here to perform and impress people. That is what he has done."
Stamatelopoulos' move coincides with the arrival of Rose on a two-year deal.
Initially signed to complement Stamatelopoulos, he will be the senior striker until Stanton finds the right foreigner.
Rose, 25, was used mainly off the bench last season by Macarthur and finished without a goal. He scored four goals in each of the two previous seasons.
"I'm excited to be here," said Rose, who will make his Jets debut in the Australia Cup qualifier against Western United in Darwin on Wednesday night.
"Last season, I didn't get heaps of minutes. It's a new chapter in my career.
"With Stamma going, I feel like I need to step up to help the boys.
"This is my second day in, but I feel very confident in myself to go out there and score goals and help the team," Rose said.
"The biggest thing is that I just want to win."
Stamatelopoulos scored a club-record 17 last season. Fellow front men Trent Buhagiar (five goals) and Archie Goodwin (2) have also left the club.
Between them, they netted more than half of the Jets' 39 goals for the campaign.
Rookie Clayton Taylor was the other main contributor with seven goals.
"We will need to try and find those goals," Stanton said. "When I started last year, a lot of people looked at us and asked where the goals would come from.
"It is another challenge to find players who can deliver that or develop those players. Lachy will bring some goals for us. I'm hoping a foreign striker will bring goals.
"Lachy will be good for the group. You can hear the hunger and desire when you speak to him, similar to when Stamma got here.
"They are two different types of players but they have the same mentality, which is a good sign.
"We want characters in the team as well. I think Lachy will be well liked. Macarthur fans were drawn to him.
"Players get on a roll, they start to get confidence and goals come.
"You need players who can score goals. If you don't have goals it's hard to win games."
Stanton has been on the hunt for a striker since the end of last season. The sale of Stamatelopoulos may provide more money to spend but it also ups the pressure to secure the right player.
"In the next month, more players will become available," Stanton said. "I don't think we have to throw big dollars around to get players. I think we have to spend better.
"We want to be exciting, we want to go forward. I'm not limiting myself to any one type of player. We definitely need someone with a presence, someone who can bring something different to the team.
"I will look everywhere. I am not closing the door to any part of the world. It is about finding the right player to suit us.
"I will keep searching. It is a process that takes time. It has to be a good fit for the team and community."
Stamatelopoulos, whose wife Soffey is due to give birth in the next week, posted a farewell video to the "Jets family" on social media.
"You guys were a big factor in a lot of the personal success that I had," he said. "I just want to say thank you and wish you guys all the best for the upcoming season."
One of the main motivating factors behind Stamatelopoulos' move was to the enhance his chance of national team selection leading up to the 2025 World Cup.
"It is good for the game in Newcastle that we produced a Socceroo," he said. "We didn't bring a Socceroo here, we produced one in 12 months.
"That says good things about what we have been doing as a club and a program."
