Football Season Guide

Sydney FC

In


Patrick Wood (att), loan expired. Matthew Scarcella (mid), loan expired. Rhys Youlley (mid), transfer from Westerlo. Akol Akon (att), transfer from Western Sydney Wanderers. Al Hassan Toure (att), transfer from FC Tulsa. Paul Okon-Engstler (mid), transfer from SL Benfica. Marcel Tisserand (def), free transfer. Piero Quispe (mid), loan from Pumas UNAM. Victor Campuzano (att), transfer from Sporting Gijon. Abel Walatee (att), transfer from Western United. Ben Garuccio (def), transfer from Western United.

Out


Max Burgess (sp) (mid), contract expired. Jaushua Sotirio (sp) (att), contract expired. Jaiden Kucharski (sp) (att), contract expired. Andrew Redmayne (sp) (gk), contract expired. Patryk Klimala (r) (att), loan expired. Anas Ouahim (sp) (mid), mutual termination. Anthony Caceres (r) (mid), contract expired. Aaron Bradley Gurd (sp) (def), transfer to Kanchanaburi Power. Léo de Souza Sena (r) (mid), mutual termination. Douglas Costa (k) (att), mutual termination. Will Kennedy (sp) (def), transfer to Central Coast Mariners.

Embarrassingly finished just outside the play-off places last season. Unacceptable for a club of their size and stature. They showed the faith with boss Talay though, keeping him on this season. Quite whether he can improve what they currently have remains to be seen though. The transfer window has not gone exactly according to plan. On one hand, bringing in Garuccio as a new LB, Walatee as a new winger, and Quispe/Okon-Engstler as new midfielders were great bits of business. Campuzano looks promising in attack. Youlley should do well too, and Tisserand will lend some much-needed stability to their defence. Toure brings liveliness to their attack. However, on the flip side they lost some really big players. Caceres was one - they fought to keep him but he said no. Douglas Costa could not return due to his ongoing legal battle in Brazil. Midfield regular Sena, rotation playmaker Ounahim, and main striker Klimala all moved on too, as did Kucharski following his breakout campaign. They're big losses, no matter how good their replacements are. There are smaller issues than integrating newbies for the season ahead too. For xample, GK Harrison Devenish-Meares is sidelined with a foot injury, although they're optimistic he'll be back for the start of the season. They also cannot play their first 4 home games or so at Allianza Arena (drainage concerns). With Talay already seemingly living on borrowed time, it's not ideal - they must start strongly. On paper, it's a good group of players. Whether they can be sewn together or not remains to be seen.

Target


Club aim - 1-3 Realistic aim - 4-6