A 15-year-old Carle made his senior NSL debut as a late substitute for Olympic against Marconi on October 5, 1997 at Sydney Football Stadium.

And it was Carle’s 18-year-old team-mate Emerton who helped set him up for a smashing last minute winner to edge the Sydney derby 1-0.

Now Emerton, 32, can help his team-mate once again in more ways than one.

Last season the marquee status proved difficult for Carle to carry and for many he simply tried too hard.

Injuries hit at inopportune times and despite always giving 100 percent, the dazzling playmaker had a season largely to forget as he tried in vain to lift a Sydney side that failed to fire.

But now in Emerton, capped 87 times for the Socceroos and a bona fide EPL star, the 29-year-old Carle has a player who can share the weight of expectation.

And on the park, Carle can once again link up with a player who is still very much at the top of his game.

With Carle himself in sparkling form this off-season, it should prove an irresistible and timely mix for the rejuvenated Sky Blues.

“Nicky’s a great player and Nick and Brett are close friends,” Simon Konstantinidis, Emerton’s representative, told au.fourfourtwo.com after the club announced the deal to a large media contingent.

“They’ll work well together and it’ll build up the team spirit. Having someone like Brett coming back with all this experience and blending into a squad I’m sure he’ll impart his experience and qualities he can bring to the game.

“Hopefully that’ll spread throughout the team and I think we at Sydney need someone like Brett to come back and play for our club and support it – and that’s what the fans want.”

Konstantinidis, who was President of Sydney Olympic at the time the pair were playing for the Blues, also confirmed that Emerton has his sights firmly on the Brazil World Cup 2014 and has no intention of retiring from the international game.

He added: “Brett’s coming back because he has a three-year plan in order to play for the Socceroos.

"His objective is to play in the next World Cup, making it three World Cups and what happens after that, he says his body will tell him."