Sydney FC remains in the hunt to add a central defender to their squad during the transfer window, while they continue to monitor the situation with Perth Glory’s Caltex Socceroo Rhys Williams.
Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold hinted last Sunday the club were hopeful of landing an experienced overseas defender in time for this weekend’s Sydney Derby against the Wanderers at Allianz Stadium.
While that hasn’t eventuated, Arnold revealed the club were still looking at various possibilities to strengthen their squad in January.
“It’s still big [chance of happening]. We have one foreign spot available,” said the Sky Blues boss when asked about adding an international player.
“We have enough money for two players and we’re working hard to find the right player to make us even stronger than what we are at the moment.”
The Sky Blues have also been linked with former Caltex Socceroo defender Michael Thwaite and also Rhys Williams, who is out of favour at Glory.
“It seems that Rhys is unhappy. It’s clear he’s not playing over there and for me Rhys is a national team player,” Arnold said of the situation.
“I haven’t had any personal contact with him. I can only see from afar, but when he’s playing youth team for Perth I can imagine he’s not happy.
“Would we like to have him? Yeah if they don’t want him we’d love to have him but it’s out of our hands.”
Sydney is still awaiting results of an MRI scan on defender Seb Ryall’s hamstring injury, although Arnold is confident he’ll return “in a few weeks”.
For now, the focus is all on Saturday night’s massive Sydney Derby against the desperate Wanderers.
The always fiery clash has some added spice with the fact the clubs swapped goalkeepers this month – Vedran Janjetovic joined the Wanderers with Andrew Redmayne going the other way – while ex-Sky Blue Terry Antonis also joined the Red and Black.
Arnold denied either club would be able to garner any inside knowledge from their respective new signings and insists there was no bad blood towards Sydney’s former duo.
“They have made their choices and good luck to them…Vedran and Terry come back to Allianz for the first time. It will be good to see them.
“There’s [no animosity] from us and not from the players but from the fans maybe. Vedran was a fan favourite behind the goal there in the Cove and maybe that’s not the case today.”
