By Adrian Warren
February 5th 2008 @ 3:57am
Kosmina sets A-League bar high after re-signing until 2010
John Kosmina has declared losing was unacceptable for Sydney FC and targeted an annual top-two finish after signing a new two-year contract.
Kosmina has turned the A-League club’s fortunes around since replacing sacked coach Branko Culina mid-season, losing just once in 13 games and lifting FC from sixth place and into the finals.
He has a chance to steer the club into a second grand final in three seasons with Sydney entering Friday’s minor semi-final second leg against Queensland in Brisbane on level terms.
The new deal lasts to the end of the 2009-10 season with the option of an extension.
Kosmina said it was a privilege to be Sydney coach and the last three to four months had only strengthened his belief it was a club of huge potential.
He said there was a lot more responsibility coaching Sydney than any other club he had been attached to in the past and it was a case of being “a big fish in a big pond” in what he joked was “the capital of Australia”.
“We need to be top one or two every year,” Kosmina said yesterday.
“There needs to be an expectation within the club that it’s all about performance, that coming second is unacceptable, that losing is unacceptable.
“I want to try and instil that culture in the players at this club in the future.”
Sydney chief executive George Perry said a top two finish was something the club aspired to as it gave them a double chance of winning the A-League and qualification for the Asian Champions League.
Perry said Kosmina had done great things for the club since replacing Culina in late October.
“He’s instilled a real sense of self-belief in the boys, a real sense of discipline in the team as well and added a winning culture to the team,” Perry said.
“His performance both on and off the field, he really sort of bought his own ticket.”
Kosmina, who guided Adelaide to the A-League grand final last season before his controversial exit form the club following their 6-0 defeat to Melbourne, attributed his success at Sydney to getting his players to focus on simple things.
“Football is not a difficult game, it’s made complicated by players or by coaches or even spectators at times that may influence over things,” Kosmina said.
“If you keep things simple and you get a simple structure in place and allow the players to take responsibility for their own performance and that’s what happened with these blokes, they’ve all stood up.”
Kosmina stressed the importance of developing a strong youth system as he said the top European clubs, including his own former English team Arsenal, have prospered from developing players from an early age.
“You want to be breeding Sydney FC players from 13 years of age,” Kosmina said.
He pointed out Sydney had a lot of players in the twilight of their career.
Perry said the club still had to do a lot of things, including establishing a youth academy, with a youth league starting next year.
He indicated Kosmina would be able to acquire more players to build his own team.
“John gets an opportunity to build a team that he wants for next season, he’s done remarkably well with a team that he inherited this year,” Perry said.
Perry said Kosmina’s contract extension gave the club stability and enabled it to continue growing their strong support base and sponsorship portfolio.
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