Will sign of the times work for Sydney FC in the A-League?

From the 'Bling FC' tag in it's inception with signings like Dwight Yorke, Juninho, Benito Carbone and further down the track, Alessandro Del Piero, to the dark days of seven years without silverware between 2010 and 2017.

But right now, a policy on nurturing and rewarding youth is something never before seen at the club until now. It is a sign of the times.

The club has been hurt on the field in recent times by players that they brought up to only go and let them leave, where they have then flourished in different colours.

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Marco Tilio - a Sydney boy - was let go to Melbourne City where he won silverware and made a name for himself in the national team. Now, he plays for Celtic in the Scottish top flight.

Callum Talbot began playing consistently in Steve Corica's first team before moving to City, where he was a regular starter in their premiership winning season last campaign.

Calem Nieuwenhof put his name on the Australian football map by scoring a thunderbolt for the sky blues in Wollongong against Wellington. Now - he scores pile drivers against his former side in derbies at his former home ground the Sydney Football Stadium and in the last few days signed for Hearts in Scotland.

So what have the club done about it?

Enter Stanwell Park's Gus Hoefsloot, Dapto's Zac De Jesus, Shellharbour's Joel King, plus Aaron Gurd, Patrick Wood, Jake Girdwood-Reich, Jaiden Kucharski and Adrian Segecic.

These players - all 22 and under - are the future of Sydney FC. Gone are the days of 'Bling FC' and being labelled 'the Manchester United of the A-League'.

This is a trend similar to that of most, if not all of the teams in the league in a general sense. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreigners were unable to come to Australia and join the competition with as much ease as seen in the past.

The exceptions were of course Johnny Warren medallist for Western United Alessandro Diamanti, former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge for Perth and EPL stalwart Charlie Austin.

But to the average punter, the only known name out of those three before the A-League was Sturridge.

Diamanti was the only one to work out in the end, with the Italian part of Western's inaugural A-League championship. The rest were disappointments.

And generally speaking, fans are all for the change for youth. That is, real football fans, not 'eurosnobs' who only watch the league for the sugar hit.

Going back to Sydney, for a long time supporters in it's social media circle have bemoaned the club's lack of ability to nurture youth.

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Along with youngsters in their first grade squad, the NPL academy side has performed sensationally in the NSW top tier this season.

Someone who agrees with the change in transfer policy is two time Sydney FC championship winner and current Wolves coach David Carney.

"Those names ['Bling FC'] were brought in to get the league going and to bring in the crowds, which they did and they did an excellent job," he said.

"Especially 'Yorky', he was class on and off the pitch. Definitely big names will attract crowds but if you're bringing through good players, especially Australian good players and they're good to watch, the crowds will come anyway. I think that's important at a club like Sydney FC to keep producing young players.

"I've seen for the Wolves there is a lot of talent coming through in the under 18s. So I completely agree with what Sydney FC are doing."

Carney made reference to the current benchmark in the competition for producing young stars, current champions the Mariners.

"I think it's the way to go. You look at the Mariners and they're producing players and selling players on," he said.

"You can still win leagues with the youth if you do things right. It's something that I'm trying to build at the Wolves getting young players and producing them to get better and better.

"You look at what [Nick] Montgomery has done at the Mariners and he's got a youthful side and he's developed them into winning championships. You don't always need the players from overseas and the 'has-beens' that we call them. It's good to bring in the crowds but it doesn't necessarily make you win games.

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"From what I've seen at Sydney FC, the young ones are very good."

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