Sydney need a reality check on Aloisi deal

Half-Time Orange brought you news of my close encounter with Juninho Paulista in last week's blog. From his hangdog look even then in that east Sydney cafe, I was doubtful the Little Fella would pick up a new Sydney FC contract and his representative, Leo Karis, was similarly pessimistic. The new buzzword at the club was restraint. No marquees. No bigheads. John Kosmina would be given the squad of plumbers and labourers he wanted.

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A couple of days later, however, I first heard the rumour that the out-of-contract John Aloisi was about to be signed by the club on the sort of terms Juninho was seeking but being refused.

Surely not?

Dispensing with the services of one of the great Brazilian stars of the era, one of the best playmakers going around, for the Socceroos' super-sub?

Aloisi is a fine player, that there is no doubt, but he is not a Juninho. A finisher not a creator. I was excited to see him come back to Australia from Spain last A-League season, especially so because he was arguably at the peak of his ability. His presence in the domestic competition was a ringing endorsement of our local product, a loud declaration to the world that we were no football backwater.

But Aloisi's performances for the Central Coast Mariners last season pricked the bubble of hype that had accompanied him following that night in November 2005. Despite his seven goals from 15 starts, at various times Nik Mrdja, Sasho Petrovski and even John Hutchinson looked far more lethal in front of goal than the 32-year-old Socceroos veteran.

Which is why it strikes me that Sydney FC, if Aloisi's salary is as high as reported, are getting swindled on this deal.

Prior to signing with Sydney (and Central Coast's pulling out of the contest for his signature), the warning went out that Aloisi could make much more money overseas, which was exactly the same noise made by his management before the player's last flirtation with Sydney. I blogged about that in August last year and, after all the talk of him finding a club in England or the continent following his departure from Spanish second-division side Deportivo Alaves, it all came to nothing. At the time Aloisi's game of brinkmanship effectively cost him a representative cap against Argentina from which he has not really recovered.

In the absence of Mark Viduka from national-team football Josh Kennedy and Scott McDonald have seized the opportunity to be called our first-pick strikers. When he had the biggest shot of his career at being our frontline striker, something he had waited his entire career for, Aloisi effectively blew it.

Can we really say, then, that six months on the guy is worth a million bucks?

Some people will rightly say Aloisi is one of the most recognised Australian footballers and will exert considerable marketing pull for an unpopular club that is struggling to meet its membership targets. Certainly with sections of the community his signing will excite interest and perhaps get a few more spectators through the turnstiles at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Aloisi is a good-looking, photogenic guy who will undoubtedly appeal to female fans. We saw when the David Beckham Magic Bus rolled through in November how the presence of a handsome footballer in town can miraculously persuade 80,000 platinum blondes to leg it out to a game. The more of them at the SFS, the better for everyone.

But football aficionados will have grave doubts about the due-diligence of this acquisition, especially when Mark Bridge has also been signed and Alex Brosque, when he was serviced by the redoubtable Juninho, showed many times last season what he could do with some decent supply.

Far from learning the lessons of Central Coast Mariners or Newcastle Jets, who have created super-clubs with far less resources, Sydney FC is still perplexingly betrothed to the cult of celebrity.

There are some vacuous people in Sydney, that is true; one only need walk down Campbell Parade in Bondi on a Saturday afternoon to see a cast of humanity more self-absorbed and vacant than a Fernando Frisoni fashion shoot. They respond to marketing stunts because they don't know any better. But equally Sydney has a very sophisticated side, especially in its football culture.

Its long established Italian, Greek, Spanish and South American communities know good football when they see it. Young worldly men with laptops sit in cafes downloading the latest video clips of superlative end-to-end action in La Liga or the Premiership. Old blokes gather in parks to play chess and talk about Totti or Riquelme or Fabregas. These people want desperately to love Sydney FC but all they see is an organisation that - at its worst - places a premium on mediocrity and doesn't know what to do with real quality when it arrives (Benito Carbone, Juninho).

As has been pointed out many times, Sydney could have been in a position to groom whom I regard as the two best strikers in the A-League, Bruce Djite and Nathan Burns, for next to nothing when they were NSW juniors and then make some money by selling them on to European clubs. Instead they were picked up by Adelaide, who stand to benefit considerably when they are inevitably transferred abroad.

How is Sydney - currently a veritable black hole for investors' money - ever going to earn back its investment on Aloisi?

Its priorities are completely the wrong way around. Do not the words "getting" and "burned" ring loudly in its ears when it is reputedly paying Aloisi three times more than the Mariners were prepared to cough up to retain him? The Mariners' four musketeers - Lawrie McKinna, Peter Turnbull, Lyall Gorman and John Singleton - must be splitting their sides with laughter.

On Sunday, The Sun-Herald speculated that even with Aloisi on board, there was a remote chance that Juninho could be retained by the club under the salary cap. It's true Sydney FC is playing hardball in negotiations: they well know the Brazilian is of advanced age, injury prone and has no desire to play in Asia. He also wants to stay in Sydney.

But after one season as the club's "marquee" player is Juninho really worth one-fifth of his previous contract? The key to any prospect of Juninho staying in Sydney is him accepting the vastly diminished offer on the table. It is going to be a big comedown for a man who once held aloft the World Cup.

Making it even harder for him to stomach is the fact the club has the money to make up the difference but deems it better spent on Aloisi. Discord in the locker-room over pay packets is never good for team harmony.

Juninho is a jack-in-the-box, one of those rare talents who, sitting behind the strikers, can conjure an opening when there seems to be no opening at all. Such players are few. They make the strikers' jobs a breeze. They make or break seasons. They are worth a million bucks and even more. A guy who played 50 times for Brazil, won a World Cup and was voted Middlesbrough's Player of the Century qualifies easily in that regard.

A guy famous for one kick - as wonderful as it was - simply doesn't.

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