Those genius's at the Sydney FC boardroom have masterminded another stroke of brilliance, they've fired the head coach Branko Culina. I can see why, after all he raised his hand and stepped up to the plate to coach Sydney FC six weeks out from their Asian Champions League campaign when no one would touch Sydney having just crashed out of the season two finals series. His predecessor Terry Butcher left him with a demoralised broken team that resembled more of a pub team playing hopeful long balls and giving the ball away like it was a hot potato. But in a short space of time Culina organised the team, reinforced the principle of possession based football, utilised his old NSL connections to arrange a number of competitive matches with NSW Premier League teams and the transformation was remarkable. Sydney FC played their best brand of attacking football in the Asian Champions league and us fans saw a glimpse of what our team might become. Culina was hailed as the saviour.
After nine rounds of season three Sydney FC are sitting in sixth spot, not meeting the expectations of their fans, coaching staff, players and most importantly the powers that be. Those powers that be have swung their axe blindly like some prehistoric dim witted neanderthal who dose not know how to cope when things are going bad.
What knee jerk reactionary logic has driven this decision? "We're sixth on the table after nine rounds even after spending one million dollars on a Brazilian World Cup winner". Sure that's a valid excuse when removed from reality. The reality Branko has had to deal with is the million dollar Brazilian Juninho has torn the ligament from his shoulder hampering his ability, Patrick is facing a season ending knee injury, Enfield is out for the season requiring knee surgery, Corica is serving a two match ban thank to a dubious red card, the best locally bred players have been plucked away for national team duties on three separate occasions along with a litany of other disruptions and health issues to manage.
It's the board of Sydney FC that needs to fall on their swords, they are the ones that are restricting the development of what can potentially be the biggest club in Australia. They don't seem to understand that a championship side needs time to develop with the right mix of people at all levels of the organisation. How many coaches will they sacrifice on their board room table before they realise it's them?
