Simon Cox hits the ground running at Western Sydney Wanderers
Simon Cox’s arrival at the Wanderers has brought immediate dividends, and the striker is aiming to make the most of his experience as his new club looks to climb A-League table.
Western Sydney Wanderers
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Update: There’s nothing like a bit of experience to give you a sense of perspective and Wanderers striker Simon Cox can claim to have seen it all before.
From the high points – like facing the world champions in their prime at the Euros, like playing in the EPL – to the unpleasant side of a game where coaches and players are dispensable, the Englishman has passed through it all.
You get the same shrug whether he’s talking about going head to head with Sergio Ramos, or the coach who’s just signed you being shown the door 48 hours later.
The only thing that really matters is whether his goals and attacking intelligence can spark a Wanderers revival that’s big enough to get them into the finals.
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At 32, he might have come recently from the lower tiers of English football, but Cox’s experience includes 30 caps for Ireland – one of them coming against Spain at Euro 2012, when the veteran coach Giovanni Trapattoni asked him to anchor the Irish midfield against the likes of Xavi and Iniesta.
“I played against some really solid players, and if I can use the knowledge that’s given me over here for the Wanderers, its hould help me out a little bit more than it would in England,” Cox said.
“As you get older you learn how and where to move about – when you’re younger you’re full of energy and just run around.”
It’s the same lack of hysteria about the turmoil at Western Sydney, with Markus Babbel axed and Jean-Paul de Marigny in charge temporarily.
“Football’s a results-based business and if you’re not getting the results then ultimately it’s the coach who ends up losing his job,” Cox said. “Players come and go, we move on, it’s the just the way football is.
“That’s football. One door shuts for somebody but another opens for somebody else. It’s about being opportunistic and taking what chances come your way.
“With a new coach, opportunities come along for some players. You might not have been in favour under one coach but as soon as they leave you see the standard lift at training because everyone wants to be involved in the first game under a new coach.
“The old saying is it’s a clean slate, and that’s actually true.”
A win in his first game away to the Mariners last weekend certainly helped, but a derby with Sydney FC is a rather different proposition, especially with Sydney boasting their own free-scoring Englishman in Adam Le Fondre.
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The Wanderers, though, can point to a win in the first iteration of this rivalry earlier this season as the Sky Blues’ onlyloss this season.
“They’re flying at the minute – they’ve won 14 games, they look the best team in the league by a country mile this year,” said Cox.
“But they’ve been beaten once this year and we were the team to do it. We aim to do that a second time.”
Le Fondre has Bobo’s record in his sights
Inspired by what he sees as a peerless squad around him, Sydney FC marksman Adam Le Fondre is on the trail of the club’s most prolific goalscorer.
Le Fondre’s penalty against Brisbane was his 15th goal of the season in his 15th appearance – uncannily matching exactly the record at the same point two years ago of Bobo, Sydney’s Brazilian star who went on to set an A-League record of 27 goals that season.
With the Wanderers now sitting in Le Fondre’s crosshairs in Saturday’s derby, the Englishman has promised no let up in his bid to own the same record.
“Bobo was a premier striker for Sydney, wasn’t he, but I said when I came here that I wanted to try to chase him down,” Le Fondre said.
“I tried last season and couldn’t quite manage it but I’m going again this year. Stuff like that inspires me to be a better player, and gives me goals to set outside of the team aims.”
It helps that Le Fondre has supply lines everywhere, with new arrivals Kosta Babarouses and Alex Baumjohann joining Milos Ninkovic in an attacking trident of movement and trickery.
“This season we are probably a bit stronger. Last year through no fault of his own, we couldn’t get (marquee) Siem De Jong on the pitch enough,” Le Fondre said.
“His quality was undoubted but he got a nasty injury away to Wellington, and another in the derby early on, doing his hammy at the SCG just before the FFA Cup final.
“We missed him playing regularly and he never really hit top form. Whereas this year we’ve got people who’ve been stars at their respective clubs in the A-League and have hit the ground running with us. It adds up to a really strong squad.”
- Tom Smithies