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Sydney FC staying calm in the face of evolving rivals

Sydney FC' season has reiterated the needlessness of A-League finals. (AAP Image/David Moir)
Expert
28th July, 2017
25

As A-League teams around the league joyously announce new signings, fresh names perfumed tentatively with the scent of hopeful expectation, Sydney FC are sitting off to one side, quietly and contentedly out of the spotlight.

The transfer activity this off-season has occurred – certainly in terms of quantity – mainly toward the bottom of the table; the Mariners have brought in seven senior signings so far, and the Jets have brought in six.

The Wanderers, ever restless around this time of year, have acquired six new first-team hopefuls too, and although the bulk-buying ends there, the Roar and the Victory have poached name-brand players – Fahid Ben Khalfallah and Rhys Williams, respectively – from A-League rivals. City too, in Stefan Mauk, have made a statement in this transfer period.

All the while, the champions and premiers, Sydney, aren’t feeling the need to scramble to keep up; their main objective, which was totally apparent in the first few weeks of the off-season, was to re-sign their main assets and keep the core together.

Theirs was a title built on a careful mix of youth – the central pairing of Josh Brillante and Brandon O’Neill, for example – and experience – in Alex Brosque, Alex Wilkinson, Danny Vukovic, and others. The chemistry present in the first team was a potent concoction, and preventing it from curdling was the top priority. We’ve now seen, in the last month or so, that it may have been the only priority.

Sydney FC A-League 2017 Grand Final

(AAP Image/David Moir)

And this is a good thing. Extreme volatility season-to-season is a problem in the A-League – Adelaide’s title defence last season is evidence that the problem endures – and the best solution to that problem is stability.

The Mariners and Jets are splashing out because they have to; they cannot afford – in every sense of the phrase – to remain as they have been, wallowing at the foot of the table, repulsing crowds with awful results. Asdrubal Padrón, a 26-year-old striker the Mariners announced the acquisition of yesterday, is a gamble worth taking simply because, well, things can’t really get much worse, can they?

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As of now, Sydney have signed three players, none of whom could reasonably be described as blockbuster transfers, and yet all of whom add depth and, in the case Luke Wilkshire, experience to an already mature squad. When Rhyan Grant suffered a ruptured ACL earlier this month, there was cause for alarm; Grant had been one of Sydney’s best players last season.

Similarly, when Danny Vukovic departed for Belgium, Sydney might have been excused for panicking a little. Two gaping holes in the league’s best squad had yawned open, like two sudden flapping punctures in the hull of a hovering zeppelin.

In Wilkshire and newly signed gloveman Alex Cisak, Graham Arnold has patched those two holes adroitly and without much fanfare, and no Hindenburgian plummet is expected.

Obviously, Wilkshire won’t be expected to churn through the Herculean work rate Grant so effortlessly provided, but his defensive instincts, refined over a long and successful career, should ensure that Sydney’s back line remains imperious next season.

Seb Ryall, himself now wholly back from a long-term injury, was already poised to take on Grant’s workload, and can now rest easy knowing Wilkshire is also there to support him. Certainly, there will be an element of dynamism that will be absent from the right-hand flank while Grant convalesces, but Sydney are very used to grinding out tight wins; their final regular season fixtures against Brisbane and the Victory last term come to mind, content as Sydney were in those games to stifle the contest, relying on their cutting edge to eventually secure them the points.

sydney-fc-a-league-football-2016

(AAP Image/James Elsby)

Cisak, who is 28, has spent the last few years journeying mainly around the English second division. The picture used in the club’s official announcement was of Cisak, Burnley’s goalkeeper at the time, tussling with Steve Gerrard, with Craig Bellamy seen lingering in the background. Suffice it to say that is an old photo, but, in tandem with Andrew Redmayne, Cisak should be able to make up most of the deficit left by Vukovic’s departure.

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The third signing, Paulo Retre, is not expected to feature heavily in the first team, but is nonetheless a good squad player to have. Despite bidding farewell to Vukovic, Filip Holosko and Milos Dimitrijevic over this off-season – all players 32 or older – the average age of the Sydney squad hasn’t really gone down.

The A-League is still a competition that generally rewards experience over youth, and Graham Arnold knows this. Even the players like Michael Zullo (age 28) and Grant (26) are older than you think.

So, the Sky Blue half of the harbour city needn’t fret that their local rivals are out-spending them, feverishly refreshing the club website for news of a spangly new marquee.

There is virtue in patience, in stillness, and while the flurry continues around them, Sydney are right to bed in and wait it out. Only once has n A-League team won back-to-back championships, and never has a club won back-to-back premierships.

Sydney, as presently constituted, are well-poised to achieve both of these things, and it’s unlikely that all the activity occurring in their peripheral vision will distract them from the task.

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