Bulls Abroad: Tim Cahill is in Australia, still not really answering questions about RBNY future

Tim Cahill has been on vacation for most of the time since the New York Red Bulls finished up their 2014 season. But now he's back in Australia, among family and friends, ready to start preparing for his Socceroos' effort to win the 2105 AFC Asian Cup.

Good to be home #Australia @TheStarSydney pic.twitter.com/P38R5ilAjx

— Tim Cahill (@Tim_Cahill) December 13, 2014

On his way back into his home country, he got ambushed at the airport by a local news crew. The resulting interview covered some familiar ground: happy to be home, really enjoyed his time on safari (if you're looking for a spokesperson for any sort of safari-related activity, Cahill's your guy), ready to focus on Asian Cup.

Things get interesting in the last minute of the chat, when the reporter asks Cahill for his thoughts on the "talk that [RBNY] may let you go a year early from your contract."

Cahill (unsuccessfully) tries to stifle a laugh: "May let me go?"

Then he sets the record straight...sort of: "Look, for me it's easy: I've got loads of options, but if I want to stay, I stay."

He goes on to talk about signing for a club with "a vision", and staying if he sees that vision "fulfilled". He praises the Red Bulls ("It's a great club, great set-up, great people, and we're on great terms") but also mentions that any decision about his future is about what's best for his family and "international football".

Not a confident commitment to another year in Harrison by any means. Nor a rejection of the club either - he was at pains on camera, and in subsequent quotes put into the text of the article accompanying the interview by Fox Sports, to make clear that he likes a "long-term" association with the teams he joins.

The Red Bulls are only the third club Cahill has played for since leaving Australia to seek a career as a professional soccer player when he was a teenager. Even seeing out his contract with RBNY - thereby playing three and a half seasons with the team - is only roughly half the time he spent with either Millwall or Everton.

He also quashed the suggestion that he might use his current time in Australia to make a cameo appearance in A-League as a "guest player" (the same rule that allowed NYCFC's David Villa to spend a few weeks Down Under earlier this year).

Cahill does appear to have the desire to play in Australia at some point, but not yet: "When I make that decision, whether it's in a year or two years, to play in A-League, it's going to be for a massive purpose, " he told Fox Sports.

There isn't a huge amount to be gained from parsing the words of a man who was probably just doing his very best to be polite and cheerful for the hometown crowds, despite the fact he'd just got off a long flight and was probably in no mood to talk.

What is clear: "Are you going back to RBNY?" is going to be Tim Cahill's version of the Thierry Henry retirement question for as long as it takes for him to answer it.

At least he has the benefit of having spent a year watching the captain shrug off a question he didn't particularly want to answer. Meanwhile, somewhere in New York or London, Thierry Henry is probably enjoying the fact he doesn't have to deal with this stuff anymore.