Does Gary van Egmond have another Mario Jardel on his hands? The Newcastle coach's frustration with Ecuadorian striker Edmundo Zura after Friday's 5-0 humiliation at the hands of Melbourne indicated he may be having a few doubts about the latest South American to arrive at the club.
The Jets coach carried his team to a Hyundai A-League championship last season effectively without a marquee player as the Brazilian with a big reputation turned out to be a big flop.
Just three matches into the defence of that championship, van Egmond is without a win and has been laboured with another expensive striker from south of the Panama Canal who seems unable to follow his coach's instructions.
"Zura's still working towards getting better as far as the team environment is concerned. Language is difficult with him," van Egmond said. "But I expected more from him when he came on as far as the impact was concerned. Multiple times the ball was on the left hand side, he was standing on the right-hand side. He wasn't actually looking to join in the play," van Egmond said after Friday's loss.
Taken in the context of a game where the Jets were outplayed in nearly every part of the park, and has less than 25 per cent of possession it's a fairly pointed criticism of a player who only came on for the final 35 minutes. As a measure of comparison, van Egmond found plenty of positives about the efforts of Danish debutant Jaspar Hakansson.
"Jasper will definitely fit in well. He's got some good qualities, his work ethic is good. He sees things, it's just a matter of working on the best areas for these players to play," he said.
Van Egmond was put under pressure from the Jets ownership midway through the last campaign to start Jardel despite the 33-year-old's obvious fitness concerns. Common sense and van Egmond's will eventually won out and the once-prolific Jardel had no involvement in the Jets' Grand Final success.
With Zura doing his best impersonation of a merry-go-round in the middle of the pitch on Friday night there may have been more than a sense of deja-vu for van Egmond. At least Zura has youth on his side at 25, but how much patience van Egmond can afford to show a player with his team so out of form is debatable.
With the departure of so many key players in the off-season, the Jets were expected to drop off, but Friday night result against a team the Jets have had such a good record against, ranks as the worst in van Egmond's time at the club.
He could do well examine the persistence of his opposite number, Ernie Merrick, on Friday night when it comes to imports. Carlos Hernandez was far from peak fitness in his first few games at Melbourne last season, and the Costa Rican was under immediate pressure to fill the shoes of Fred.
Twelve months later, Hernandez is in brilliant form, and played a huge role in Melbourne's demolition of the Jets.
Zura is certainly not the only player on van Egmond's radar. He admitted he was disappointed with how his senior players performed, but most of all, his team's inability to stick to a task.
"A few times today, they didn't actually do their job and that's where the discipline comes back in. We have a young team. They are obviously going to learn from it but it looks like it going to be a sharp learning curve if we are going to compete this year." he said.