Halfway through last season, fans of Sydney FC fans staged a very public protest against then-manager Frank Farina and the board’s handling of the club.
Results were not going the way of the Sky Blues, marquee players weren’t delivering, and frustration was growing that ‘quick fix’ options were brought in over promoting from the club’s all-conquering youth side.
FC looked more suited for the battle to avoid the wooden spoon than a team that use to be known as ‘Bling FC’ and was the envy of the league.
Only a late season revival, and poor form of rival clubs, saw Sydney FC make the finals. Despite a five-nil win over rivals Melbourne Victory, and a 3-1 derby win over the Wanderers, Sydney FC fell well below expectations.
Fast forward to the pre-season of the 2014/15 campaign and fans are once again confident their club can return to their glamour days.
The sacking of former Socceroo manager Frank Farina was met with great excitement by the vocal majority of fans, as was the appointment of another former Roos coach, Graham Arnold.
Since his appointment as manager, Arnold has been vital in the club signing excitement machine Bernie Ibini, club legend Alex Brosque, young left back Alex Gersbach, and goal machine Shane Smeltz.
It’s no coincidence that Arnold moved quickly to re-shape Sydney FC’s faltering attack after marquee Alessandro Del Piero’s departure.
Also returning to the attacking third will be former marquee Nick Carle, who incredibly spent last season playing in a midfield anchoring role, a decision which quelled his natural attacking instincts.
Terry Antonis has also regained full fitness after his injury plagued 2013/14 season.
The late season signing of Sasa Ognenovski seemed to add a defensive steel that had not been there previously, and with a full pre-season under his belt, FC fans can expect another robust season from their experienced defender.
Despite a 4-nil hammering at the hands of English Premier League outfit Newcastle, expectations are high at Moore Park.
Arnold took an under-resourced Central Coast side to a grand final win over the more fancied Wanderers. His time at the Mariners not only stabilised the club, but turned them into a genuine force both in the local league, and in Asia.
Arnold has also overseen a clean-out of sorts. The underperforming Richard Garcia, Marc Warren, Blake Powell, Mitch Malia, Joel Chianese and Ranko Despotovic have all found new clubs, while foundation member and captain Terry McFlynn retired. Brett Emerton also left the club last season.
With a younger, faster and more exciting squad at his disposal, Arnold has said and done all the right things to revitalise the club.
Fans are now firmly back on board after seeing the changes they demanded from the club.
The Sky Blues still have a marquee position available and have been linked to some big names. Whether or not they sign one of the rumoured stars, under Arnold they are far better situated to being an A-League force than this time last season.
James Anderson
Roar Guru
I have to say, I'm a huge fan of Sydney FC this year after watching the game against Newcastle. Sure they lost 4-0, but two of the goals were defensive errors, and the football on show from the Sky Blues was an attractive, modern brand that was lacking last season. Antonis has single handedly made me interested in watching Sydney, and the potential of Brosque, Ibini, Carle, Ognenovski, Gameiro, Gligor and now young Gersbach will help me to watch them this coming season. Still not a fan of Ryall, Jurman or Petkovic, but hopefully Arnold will bring the best out of them.
Matthew Skellett
Guest
Ayn Rand lived on welfare in her later years ( when her neo-liberal friends abandoned her )-you planning to people the dole queue too Nordster ?
Arto
Guest
@ Squizz: If we discount the age of multi-millionaire owners & benefactors that have recently skewed the argument away from the local demographics at play, the both Liverpool & Manchester have had only 1-2 teams that have by & large stood for those successes and are in-effect 1-team cities (this is also true for other succesful cities in English football, such as Birmingham, Leeds, & Nottigham). If we start from the 1970's when Liverpool's greatest period of success began and count up until the start of the EPL era, so London has supported on average 5 teams (in the 1989-90 season this was 40% of the teams in the league, with 8 London-based teams!), which I think then makes your particular example a little less clear-cut than you would like to believe. And why do you not note the short-term nature of teams like Blackburn or Newcastle who had success only to slump back down afterwards. Whilst I will definitely agree that the size of the city, club, is no guarantee for success, I think it certainly provides a competitive advantage that if managed properly makes their chances for success a lot higher than those from smaller areas...
Domitian
Guest
Only the big clubs fans have their own fans.
Squizz
Guest
Yes I note the short term nature of the sustained excellence over decades that teams from the 'smaller bases' of Liverpool and Manchester have demonstrated when compared with the larger city of London
Arto
Guest
@ Justin Mahon: It's not entitlement, it's the Law of Averages/critical mass/whatever you want to call it - the bigger cities, countries, organisations, teams, etc. tend to gather at the top of all almost every competition-based system. Yes, teams from "smaller" bases can do well & win, but it tends to be short-term and can sometimes be more down to the 'bigger' team's lack of performance rather than a particularly great effort by the smaller team...
Justin Mahon
Guest
You lost me at "FC" as a nomenclature. It just sums up the sense of entitlement that Sydney FC have and the Sydney centric football media continue to feed.
Ian
Guest
Wellington Phoenix play in the A-League. A for Australian league. Note you ignored all other comments in the post of course. Fans of other countries seemed to have been impressed with Australia's style of play and also by one of the goals of the tournament. But you keep supporting Australia in sports that only a few countries play where you are guaranteed of 'success'
JonJax
Guest
Re: passing judgement on Arnold's SFC regime before any ball has been "kicked in anger", I defer to Chairman Mao when in 1973, responding to Gough Whitlam's question on the success or not of the French Revolution of 1789, responded " it's too early to tell" !
Daniel Nichols
Roar Guru
haha fair call mate. Salary cap def has its "for" and "against" Melbourne City have used it to its fullest this yr tho
JohnL
Guest
Which USA teams are you referring to? FC Dallas that lost 2-0 to Aston Villa? Sporting Kansas City that lost 4-1 to Manchester City? LA Galaxy, currently 3-0 down at half time to Manchester United?
nordster
Guest
Haha well Aunty Ayn is originally from St Petersburg too....spoooooky.... At least get the owner to shout all the players and staff a full library of her works...each...might turn them all into uber competitive egoists....just what anyone living under the shadow of equalisation could need. And of course a bitcoin account for side payments and a vault for some gold bullion, objectivist hard money! Again on the down low... :) Also u are completely misrepresenting the concept of radical capitalism...hehe...
nordster
Guest
Yes for domestic sporting dong measuring purposes maybe....for keeping pace with our football competitors internationally, its a ceiling on ambition and ultimately standards...talent needs to condense over time with bigger clubs. (Its starting to anyway.) Also equalisation is a barrier at the base as it sets too high a bar for new entrants...for any regional or mid sized club/market outside the tent...a big downside there... Pro/rel could replace the need for "expansion" ...which da fans are constantly yearning for...and do away with the need for so much expensive centralised league admin to begin with. Double win. :) Triple if u include the interest factor of pro/rel added to the mix which would be potentially revolutionary for strayan sport. But no lets not let football be a leader or anything. Anyway thats enough nordster awesomeness for this cycle...
Brian
Guest
The A-League’s equalisation policy is one of its greatest strengths.
Domitian
Guest
We should get Ayn Rand as CEO, outsource all our inhouse to Asia and employ Bangladeshi refugees as our support staff. All our players should share a 3 bedroom unit in Darlinghurst.
Brian
Guest
The A-League’s equalisation policy is one of its greatest strengths.
Brian
Guest
The A-League's equalisation policy is one of its greatest strengths.
Terry
Guest
Ian - you appear to be somewhat confused. My comments referred to Australian football. Wellington is the capital of a different country near Australia called 'New Zealand'.
nordster
Guest
Youse cant handle da truef ? :) Should be grateful for my contribution geez! Clubs like sfc should be leading the way year on year....cumulative success my friend...underrated...
The Minister
Guest
Whevs....anything else nordster?