Sydney FC CEO George Perry speaks candidly with FourFourTwo about Terry Butcher, Dwight Yorke, the Asian Champions League and his club’s ambition to re-claim the title of A-League’s benchmark organisation.
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After a tumultuous second season, Sydney FC has had little time to re-group in their preparations for their upcoming Champions League campaign. Having recently unveiled Branko Culina as the man to lead the team into Asia, the club has also secured the signatures of key players and has been rightfully pleased in uncovering a handful of young talents.
With fans now hopeful of a fresh start, they also remain a little perplexed as to what actually went wrong. George Perry impressed upon FourFourTwo his focus and desire to move the club forward, and his belief that the pathway set through Asia will play one of the defining roles in its future.
The club has a new head coach in Branko Culina. Can you reveal what the criteria was during recruitment? How much did the “local vs international” issue come into play?
I think the first thing that we wanted to do was find a coach that was going to give the club some stability and Branko fills that mould very much to the extent that he has worked with the support staff before, he’s worked with some of the players before, he was well-known to the Australian game and well-known to the Australian way of football. He’s very technical and obviously knew how Sydney was playing so to an extent, Branko was at an advantage because he was already here and could bring that stability to the club. My personal preference is that the A-League is able to help the development of the Australian game and that means Australian players and Australian coaches. It [the issue of nationality] was a component but it wasn’t everything. He has a very short period to do something with the club and so far so good.
With the short-term stint, you have given him a six-match agreement but are there performance stipulations within that? For instance, is Sydney FC expected to top their group in the Asian Champions League?
Sydney FC showed in Japan in 2005 that it was capable of competing with the best in the world and being on the world stage. We haven’t set ourselves any expectations. We want to be very competitive and we want to have a good showing but we haven’t said that success is being at the top of the table and failure is being at the bottom of the table. As I said, Branko has only had the team for a very short period of time, we want to be competitive and build a very good, solid team and we want to have a good showing but there have been no benchmarks set for Branko.
Hypothetically, if the team does reasonably well - however the club defines that – but there are signs that things will improve for the next A-League season, can Branko look confident in staying on?
Well Branko is in the unique position of being able to audition for the job. If he does a good job and he’s good for the club then he’s got the inside running sure, but we’ve got to go through the proper process for a coach and we’ll get the best coach at the time for where we are as a club. Look, Branko has got an opportunity and he is backing himself and he’s enjoying himself but it remains to be seen how we’ll go from there on. If he performs well and he’s a good cultural fit for the club then he’ll be the one to look at for sure.
Is the “cultural fit” even more important now, as Terry Butcher was widely criticised for being a mismatch in that area?
I think it’s just a part of being a good mix for a coach, player or in the administrative side of a club. Being able to fit into the structures is always important and that is just one of the things that we are looking at.
It was reported that there was a meeting of the senior players in regards to Terry Butcher. How much of that played a part in his removal in the end?
Terry and the club agreed to go our separate ways. Terry had his reasons, we had our reasons. I met with our players often as I do as CEO of a club and we chatted about a number of things but rarely was it about Terry. We agreed to go our separate ways and we wish Terry well. It’s about pushing forward now. Terry has left the club and we’ve got the Champions League to look forward to and we’ve got a whole lot of new signings to announce shortly and it’s going to be exciting for the club.
With fans now hopeful of a fresh start, they also remain a little perplexed as to what actually went wrong. George Perry impressed upon FourFourTwo his focus and desire to move the club forward, and his belief that the pathway set through Asia will play one of the defining roles in its future.
The club has a new head coach in Branko Culina. Can you reveal what the criteria was during recruitment? How much did the “local vs international” issue come into play?
I think the first thing that we wanted to do was find a coach that was going to give the club some stability and Branko fills that mould very much to the extent that he has worked with the support staff before, he’s worked with some of the players before, he was well-known to the Australian game and well-known to the Australian way of football. He’s very technical and obviously knew how Sydney was playing so to an extent, Branko was at an advantage because he was already here and could bring that stability to the club. My personal preference is that the A-League is able to help the development of the Australian game and that means Australian players and Australian coaches. It [the issue of nationality] was a component but it wasn’t everything. He has a very short period to do something with the club and so far so good.
With the short-term stint, you have given him a six-match agreement but are there performance stipulations within that? For instance, is Sydney FC expected to top their group in the Asian Champions League?
Sydney FC showed in Japan in 2005 that it was capable of competing with the best in the world and being on the world stage. We haven’t set ourselves any expectations. We want to be very competitive and we want to have a good showing but we haven’t said that success is being at the top of the table and failure is being at the bottom of the table. As I said, Branko has only had the team for a very short period of time, we want to be competitive and build a very good, solid team and we want to have a good showing but there have been no benchmarks set for Branko.
Hypothetically, if the team does reasonably well - however the club defines that – but there are signs that things will improve for the next A-League season, can Branko look confident in staying on?
Well Branko is in the unique position of being able to audition for the job. If he does a good job and he’s good for the club then he’s got the inside running sure, but we’ve got to go through the proper process for a coach and we’ll get the best coach at the time for where we are as a club. Look, Branko has got an opportunity and he is backing himself and he’s enjoying himself but it remains to be seen how we’ll go from there on. If he performs well and he’s a good cultural fit for the club then he’ll be the one to look at for sure.
Is the “cultural fit” even more important now, as Terry Butcher was widely criticised for being a mismatch in that area?
I think it’s just a part of being a good mix for a coach, player or in the administrative side of a club. Being able to fit into the structures is always important and that is just one of the things that we are looking at.
It was reported that there was a meeting of the senior players in regards to Terry Butcher. How much of that played a part in his removal in the end?
Terry and the club agreed to go our separate ways. Terry had his reasons, we had our reasons. I met with our players often as I do as CEO of a club and we chatted about a number of things but rarely was it about Terry. We agreed to go our separate ways and we wish Terry well. It’s about pushing forward now. Terry has left the club and we’ve got the Champions League to look forward to and we’ve got a whole lot of new signings to announce shortly and it’s going to be exciting for the club.
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