A League 2008/09 season review part 1

By: Kieran | March 15th, 2009

I’ll start my A League season review with the bottom 4 teams, and then in a few days I’ll post my review of the top 4.

Overview:
An interesting season for the A league to say the least. Adelaide making it into the final of the Asian Champions league, and their subsequent progression into the FIFA Club World Cup were two highlights of the season, along with the signing of two big names to the two new franchises, Robbie Fowler and Jason Culina. A crazy grand final involving 2 red cards resulted in a tumultuous conclusion to the season, but the 2008/09 season will never the less be looked back on as a major step forward for the A League, with Adelaide making it big in Asia and 2 very big names signing for the next season.

But, how did the season look for the bottom 4 sides:

Sydney FC
While some clubs might see ending 3 points away from the playoff as a decent result (i.e. Wellington), Sydney isn’t one of them, and most of the Sydney faithful will see the 08/09 season as a failure, to say the least. Unfortunately for the sky blues, the so called glamour club of the A League failed to turn up this year, in part due to the pretty poor form of their marquee signing, Johnny Aloisi. While a very solid start to the season, and a strong showing from their youth at the end of the season saw them only 3 points from the playoffs, in reality it was a poor season for Sydney FC.

So, what will the next season hold for the A League’s glamour team? Well hopefully a return to glamour, after signing former Sparta Prague manager Vítězslav Lavička, and being now owned by a rich Russian (Roman Abramovich Mk2 anyone?). However, if they have any chance of recapturing their former glory, they better start buying people, after a mass exodus of players (mostly to FNQ) and so far not even starting to rebuild (although it is possible Sebastian Ryall is on his way to Sydney from Melbourne). Luckily for the Sydney squad, they have an extremely solid youth team, which won the inaugural National Youth league, so if their new manager buys wisely and uses the upcoming players such as Gan, Danning, Grant, Jurman, etc, the Sky Blues could be in for an entertaining 5th season.

Wellington Phoenix FC
While most teams wouldn’t see coming third last as a great achievement, Wellington’s season was a huge success, as it saw them only 1 win from the playoffs, and it saw their striker, and arguably the coolest player in the A League, win the Johnny Warren medal. Unfortunately, he’s jetting off to Gold Coast United, but he helped them get within a whiff of the finals, so all in all job done for Smeltz.

However, this is where the good news ends for the Phoenix fans. So far they’ve only signed one player for next season, in Adelaide player Diego, and while they’ve got a while to go before the new season, they’ll need to move quickly to sign a suitable replacement for Smeltz, and enough players to fill the cap left by Coveny and co. They also need a quality goalkeeper after Moss left for the Victory, so they need to get shopping ASAP.

Perth Glory
Not quite as epic fail as the Jets, but close, with only 4 more points than the spooners (the wooden spooners that is). However, there are many positives for Glory fans. While they started poorly, they finished strongly, and it now seems as if the club is relatively stable, as manager Dave Mitchell has signed a new contract, and Tony Sage now has sole ownership of the club. So the Glory will be looking for a much improved season next year.

The team building for next year hasn’t gotten of to the best start for the Glory, losing Nikita Rukavytsya to FC Twente, and losing Nikolai Topor-Stanley to the Jets, however signing striker Victor Sikora is hopefully only the start of Perth’s recruiting.

Newcastle Jets FC
Umm, how do you say epic fail politely? A very bad season for the jets, which resulting in 4 wins from 21 games, and a wooden spoon. Add to this a very disappointing season for young star Kaz Patafta (can you tell where I’m from?), and really, they’ll be trying to forget this season as soon as they can. The only thing that could potentially salvage some form of relief would be a good showing in the Asian Champions League, but that already isn’t looking likely.

So, can they make a bigger splash next season and a least be near the top 4? Well at least they’re making the right noise. There apparently interested in adding Bertrand Robert and they have already added a few names to the squad, including Italian forward Fabio Vignaroli, Donny de Groot and Canberra lad Nikolai Topor-Stanley, among others. However will these new names lift them back up the ladder after such a poor 08/09 season? Only time will tell.

Join me in a few days for the top 4 teams.