Mashup by Phormic (c) 2008 |
Another week another top drawer signing for Sydney FC, this week unveiling Stuart “Disco Stu” Musialik, a 22 year old midfielder and the second Jet that’s been diverted to Sydney in as many weeks. Musialik was a standout in Newcastle’s championship winning team last season and according to John Kosmina he “..will add that little bit of cohesion between the back and the front.”
A few eyebrows have been raised at Sydney signing another midfielder after picking up Colosimo last week, but no-one’s questioning his ability. More details after the jump |
Contract-wise it’s a two-year deal, as usual the financial terms are undisclosed, but competition from Queensland, Melbourne and Adelaide is likely to have pumped up the bottom line quite a bit, the only other interesting element of the contract is the get-out clause that seems to have become all the rage amongst young A-League stars. Mark Bridge came to Sydney because he was offered a get-out clause that states he can go for free if an overseas club offers to sign him, something that Con Constantine at Newcastle was unwilling to offer. Musialik didn’t quite get the same deal, with Sydney Chairman Andrew Kemeny explaining that while Sydney wouldn’t make millions from a transfer, they won’t have to give him away for free.
Speculation on where Disco Stu will play for Sydney has been rife, a persistently discussed option is to have Colosimo drop back to central defence, however Kossie has been dropping hints that while Colosimo is perfectly capable of playing in that role, he has a few other ideas in mind saying “Simon is more than willing to play at the back if I need him to, but I also can’t see any reason why Simon and Stuey can’t play side by side.”, and “…I actually think he’s got a bit more to offer and a bit more to learn about the game if he played higher up.”
I get the feeling that Terry McFlynn will be riding a lot of pine come next season, but I remain unconvinced that both these guys can play in the same formation in midfield without some fairly radical restructuring of someone’s game.
It all sounds great, but as usual there’s some things that should give Sydney fans pause. First and probably most important is Musialik’s very clearly articulated view that Sydney is a stepping stone to greater things, this suggests that he’ll bugger off to Europe at the very first opportunity (much like Bridge), in a way it’s a compliment that he sees Sydney as a better shop window than Champions Newcastle, but it’s also clear there’s a very mercenary mind at work under that Supercuts training session he calls a haircut.
The other concern is around his off-field activities, its rumoured that Disco Stu is fond of a tipple and maybe even pops the occasional disco bickie. Supposedly some of his training and match day ‘stomach cramps’ were self-inflicted by the previous nights excesses. Pim Verbeek dropped him from the Olyroos squad after he was a no-show for the trip to the US, something that he stated was a greater concern for him than Danny Vukovic’s love-tap on Mark Shields. Is there a professionalism/discipline issue there? I guess we’ll soon see.
By the way, where’s the fucking Left Back Kossie?