When the Australian Professional Leagues announced that central distributions would be reduced from around $2 million to just $530,000 this season, there was a range of reactions in A-League clubland.
Some clubs conducted an immediate firesale, flogging off their best players to overseas clubs to make up the shortfall. Others shifted their recruitment focus to adjust to the new economic reality, pivoting from higher-earning foreigners and established Australian pros towards youth players and diamonds-in-the-rough, who could eventually be flipped for big money on the transfer market.
Some reduced their administrative headcount; most did some or all of these things. The poor old treble-winning Central Coast Mariners, meanwhile, purportedly lost their chairman because of it this week, plunging them into yet another period of existential uncertainty.
Sydney FC has felt the pinch, too, but you wouldn’t know it. Such is the financial position of majority owner Scott Barlow, and his desire to maintain the Sky Blues’ status as standard-bearers of the A-League, they’ve been able to absorb the blow without much identifiable damage. In fact, they’ve somehow swum against the tide of austerity, fending off million-dollar transfer offers from abroad for their best kids and bringing in marquees like Douglas Costa, while pretty much everyone else has had to tighten their belts and go without.
“This club has been designed to win trophies every year,” says head coach Ufuk Talay, who knows just how fortunate he is compared to some of his A-League contemporaries.
“The stuff that’s happened between the APL and the clubs … I don’t believe it’s affected us.”
Douglas Costa appears to be an unbelievable signing for Sydney FC on the evidence so far.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Which is why most people expect the Sky Blues to win the competition. In a canter. Even accounting for the A-League’s baked-in unpredictability.
Perhaps some of this is confirmation bias, since other teams have been playing mostly behind-closed-doors warm-up games, but Sydney FC have been playing – and winning – through the back end of the A-League’s interminably long off-season, thanks to their berth in the AFC Champions League 2. But on the early evidence, which is admittedly the only evidence we have, they look very good – even accounting for the lower calibre of the teams they’ve faced.
Compared to their crosstown rivals, the Western Sydney Wanderers, who they tackle in Saturday night’s nearly sold-out derby, they have certainly signed the better marquee player. Not that Juan Mata hasn’t got an incredible CV, but until he plays (and plays well), there will be question marks over his capacity to contribute at this level and at his age, given how little football he has played recently. Costa, 34, is indeed coming off probably the worst 18 months of his career, but it seems as if the move to Sydney has done what everyone hoped it would – make him fall back in love with football again.
Aside from his little side-project on OnlyFans, there is not even a hint of diva-like behaviour from the former Brazilian international, who looks and talks like a man who is fully invested in what his club is doing.
Sydney FC chairman Scott Barlow, Douglas Costa and coach Ufuk Talay.Credit: Edwina Pickles
“Firstly, he’s a great professional,” Talay said. “He feels he’s getting fitter and stronger as well, but he’s also been good for the players around him, as well. And he’s definitely lifted the standards of the training environment.”
Speaking of which, Costa certainly seems to have gelled quickly with the players around him. Sydney’s three other fresh imports have settled well, too: fellow Brazilian Leo Sena now runs in the midfield in the place of departed ex-skipper Luke Brattan, German-Moroccan ace Anas Ouahim is their new creative fulcrum, while Polish striker Patryk Klimala looks like he’ll get plenty of service. And then there’s the incumbent, Joe Lolley, already one of the A-League’s best forwards.
If they do have a weakness, it is in defence, where new captain Rhyan Grant will be the only experienced member of a back four that will otherwise comprise a 20-year-old (Hayden Matthews), a 21-year-old (Jordan Courtney-Perkins) and an on-loan 22-year-old (Aleks Popovic). But after getting within one game of a grand final appearance last season with a similarly aged rearguard, having played some of the most eye-catching football in the A-League under Talay last term, and given the state of the rest of the league, they should get by.
The big question is how they can deal with the pressure of that widespread expectation – which is nothing new to Talay or to Sydney FC, but is new to most of these players.
“You can’t control the expectations from outside. But one thing I can control is what we do every day when we’re on the park, and what we do on the weekends to get the desired outcome,” Talay said.
“There’s always going to be pressures. But for me, it’s the pressure that you put on yourself to have success. Again, this club is designed to win trophies, and I believe we put a team together that can achieve that. But it’s not going to be easy. There’s a few hurdles that we need to get over.”
