Having fought off interest from Rotherham for his star midfielder, Swindon Town manager Mark Cooper wants Socceroo Massimo Luongo to become a leader in the Robins' dressing room.
Still a novice at international level with just one Australia cap to his name, Luongo has established himself as a key player and certain starter at the County Ground, attracting interest from the Championship during the off-season.Swindon rejected Rotherham's offer of 600,000 pounds for the former Tottenham Hotspur man, and now Cooper wants the gifted midfielder - a member of the Socceroos squad at the World Cup in Brazil - to make his voice heard during the 2014-15 League One campaign.
"I think leaders are very short in supply in the modern game and invariably you have to pay a lot of money to get them," Cooper told the Swindon Advertiser.
"They're usually 28 or 29 and you have to pay a lot of money to get them - so they might be a little too far out of our reach.
"Yes, we could probably do with a leader on the pitch but the boys that we've got have got to step up to the mark now.
"I would class Yaser (Kasim) as experienced, I'd class Mass (Luongo) as experienced, I'd class Wes (Foderingham) as experienced ... so we're looking for them to push on to become more vocal."
Luongo made his international debut off the bench in a 4-3 friendly loss to Ecuador in March.