Graham Arnold has lit the Sydney derby touchpaper, claiming he turned down a request from Western Sydney veteran Mark Bridge to join Sydney FC this A-League season.
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Saving his sharpest barb for probably his last cross-town clash with the Wanderers, the Socceroos coach-in-waiting has levelled the claim in response to Bridge suggesting Sydney FC skipper Alex Brosque is set to hang up his boots.
Bridge, who played alongside Brosque for Sydney between 2008 and 2011 before joining the Wanderers in 2012, said on Friday his long-time friend "will probably retire at the end of the season so I want his last derby to be a losing one".
Arnold retaliated on Saturday, asserting Bridge asked to re-join Sydney during the pre-season following a trying one-year stint in Thailand with Chiangrai United.
"They're great mates," Arnold began.
"Bridgey at the start of this season wanted to come to Sydney FC but we couldn't fit him in so he went back to the Wanderers.
"We talked about last time before the derby (that) they enquired about four of our defenders.
"They sacked their captain, who's a defender, six weeks later and all those other defenders are still on notice.
"So it's not my worry about Alex Brosque's last derby - it's more my worry about the Wanderers' and their families' last derby."
Sunday's game will be the last at Allianz Stadium before the venue is knocked down and rebuilt.
It will also be a swan song for Arnold, who is negotiating to take over from Bert van Marwijk as national-team boss following the World Cup.
The 54-year-old boasts an overall 11-1 record against the Wanderers, the only blemish a 1-0 loss in last season's title-winning run.
Yet this may be the western Sydney club's best chance of another upset, two and a half months after their last-out 5-0 derby thrashing at ANZ Stadium.
Despite sitting 23 points adrift on the ladder, Josep Gombau's men are refreshed from a nine-day turnaround in the knowledge Sydney have just returned from a taxing Asian Champions League trip to China.
Arnold has fresh bodies at his disposal in David Carney, Matt Simon, Fabio Ferreira, Jordy Buijs and Ben Warland but will be forced into a defensive shake-up.
He's named Paulo Retre and Aaron Calver as potential replacements for suspended right-back Luke Wilkshire and says Carney is likely to stand in for "touch and go" Michael Zullo, who hurt his hamstring in Shanghai.
Australian Associated Press
