A-League: Sydney FC squad set for overhaul
After a year at the helm, Sydney FC coach Steve Corica is ready to reshape his squad as he looks to plan for continued success.
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THEY say you should live in a house for at least a year before planning any major renovations, and Steve Corica is getting close to the point where architectural plans can be inked in detail.
Almost 12 months have passed since the Sydney FC hall-of-famer stepped up to become head coach, and finals football beckons in the foreground after a remarkably smooth first campaign.
But looming in the background is the growing outline of his second season, with formative decisions imminent on playing style and playing personnel. The colour scheme is set in sky blue, but the scope for renovations is broad.
Having known many of these players for a long time in the avuncular role of assistant coach, it’s through more dispassionate eyes that Corica has to design his blend for next year.
The squad that flies to Korea early on Saturday for an Asian Champions League showdown with Ulsan Hyundai, and returns for an A-League semi-final on May 12, has been a benchmark of sustained success. But after a lifetime in the game, Corica knows as well as anyone that the time to make changes is ahead of the curve.
Roughly half the squad is odds-on to stay, though Corica learnt the hard way, just weeks into the job, that even contracted players can suddenly vanish from the equation if overseas interest calcifies into offers that can’t be refused. Bobo and Adrian Mierzejewski cleared the decks for personal awards last season, and promptly cleared off to Turkey and China respectively.
It’s probably safe to assume, though, that veterans such as Alex Wilkinson and Milos Ninkovic will return for pre-season training on July 1, painful though it will be. Likewise fullbacks Michael Zullo and Rhyan Grant, one with a mullet and one without.
Striker Adam Le Fondre has two years on his contract and is well settled in Sydney, while young speedster Trent Buhagiar can resume where he left off last year when his cruelly ACL ruptured.
The engine room of the side is less certain. Josh Brillante has itchy feet for a move abroad, and having been denied one Korea move is searching for something else. The Robin to his Batman, Brandon O’Neill, has just re-signed, but whispers of interest from European clubs persist.
The future of others is hazier still. On-loan from Greece, Reza Ghoochannejhad is keen to stay long term, but a meagre return of one goal so far since January means he needs a fizzing end to the campaign to force the issue.
Likewise Antony Caceres and Danny De Silva, both on loan, both keen to stay, but both at the mercy of their parent clubs (Manchester City and the Mariners respectively).
And then there is the vexed question of Siem De Jong, both brilliant and brittle, too often in the same game. His major injury at Sydney was entirely the cause of another player, but bad luck doesn’t change the fact he has missed 12 A-League games.
In all likelihood he will return to the final year of his very well upholstered contract at Ajax, though there is some faint hope at Sydney that he might yet forsake those euros for another A-League campaign.
The only guaranteed departures are Alex Brosque through retirement; Aaron Calver who has signed for Western United; and Jop van der Linden, sidelined so comprehensively that a brief appearance off the bench recently was almost confusing.
But still Corica will have room for serious sky-blue thinking for next year, potentially searching for two marquees and four visa players.
If it isn’t quite a blank canvas, then this is Corica’s chance to be the architect of his own squad - and his own destiny.
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