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Sydney FC has signed Austrian captain and central striker Marc Janko as their marquee player for the 2014-15 A-League season.
Janko, 31, arrives from Turkish outfit Trabzonspor on a one-year deal, somehow replacing Italian icon Alessandro Del Piero.
Yet, in nearly three seasons with Trabzonspor, Janko only managed two goals – not an impressive record for a marquee striker.
“I am thrilled to be joining Sydney FC and can’t wait to get started,” said Janko.
Janko is the fourth striker to join Sydney in the off-season, with Bernie Ibini, Shane Smeltz and Alex Brosque already persuaded by Arnold to link up with Corey Gameiro, Chris Naumoff, Alec Urosevski and the rest of the two-time A-League champion team.
Arnold, who replaced Frank Farina at the end of the 2013-14 season, said “He will complement our current strikers well”.
Sydney FC doesn’t need to sign a new central striker.
After the Sky Blues’ 4-0 loss to Newcastle in a friendly in New Zealand recently, Arnold should have realised that they don’t need any more players up front.
They need a goalkeeper and after that, depending on how their defensive midfielders get through their expected heavy workload without injuries, maybe they need more re-enforcement at centre-back.
Ivan Necevski is not up to any A-League goalkeeping standard. Vedran Janjetovic runs hot and cold and can’t hold a decent cross or stinging drive. Maybe get rid of their goalkeeping coach as well.
At the centre of defence Petkovic and Ognenovski have some qualities, but carry ageing legs that will not hold out the likes of David Villa and Besart Berisha.
Janko seems to be a dangerous marquee player choice by Arnold and the Sydney FC board and carries with him a fair degree of risk. But the Sydney management have always flaunted an excessive degree of hubris and an innate ability to ward off a swarm of disgruntled fans that are hungry for success.
Farina toiled against the backdrop of his attack being stretched to breaking point, both in numbers and in talent. That’s what happened last season when target men like Ranko Despotovic were worn down by a gruelling workload.
The masterly Del Piero also shouldered a heavy burden last season trying to make up for the lack of attack in the Sydney front third. It’s probably Del Piero’s fitness, or ability to stay healthy, that remained the most pressing issue and led to his release from Sydney, paving the way for Janko’s recruitment.
However, all of this merely frames the supposed problem. Buying four new strikers doesn’t tell the whole story of what went wrong with Sydney FC last season.
So now Arnold has added to his attack in a big way, spending millions of the boards money with perhaps more to come. A bit different to his days in charge of Central Coast Mariners and their shoestring budget.
Bernie Ibini still remains extremely raw and will have great expectations to score for the Sky Blues and likely to be thrust into the limelight for some big games by Arnold. That too will be a risk.
Aside from finally being committed to the further development of Ibini, Arnold needs to master the tactical utilisation of Brosque and Gameiro and manage the fitness of Smeltz and Janko.
For those who will protest Brosque is not a striker, it seems the fee paid to sign him as the Australian marquee doesn’t agree with you. Arnold has dubbed Brosque a “modern striker”, meaning he too will be ground down by a gruelling workload.
Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean Arnold will always play Brosque as a striker, but it does imply he knows he can. The player has also thrived in the past in more of an attacking midfield role.
Smeltz is a player Arnold can call a striker. In fact, the New Zealand international probably wishes his new club manager would call him that more often. There are already a number of other strikers breathing down his neck. His dreams of leading the Sydney FC attack and picking up the Golden Boot award may have changed a little since first putting ink on that Sydney FC contract.
Arnold had dreams himself of utilising Tim Cahill as yet another striker, one of the stars of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. But even Sydney FC and its Russian oil and gas millions could not attract him to the A-League, which Cahill himself had once described as being a backward step in his career.
Arnold will hope to accelerate the development of Ibini. For all his struggles finding the net, Ibini still boasts that promising potential.
Sydney ended last season needing reinforcements, especially with Del Piero’s departure, but it wasn’t central strikers where that need was greatest. The bigger needs are in goals and a more mobile defence and defensive midfield.
He should have backed away from signing another ageing central striker.
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