ADP played and made an effort towards the start of his tenure with us, it was more towards the end where you could see he couldn’t give a crap and was waiting to leave.
Anyone who cant see what ADP did for this club is crazy. Have a look at anything, pre ADP crowds, memberships, revenue, media space, global recognition…to post ADP.
OK, he was playing at a level above everyone else, not really a reason to hate on him.
1 Like
I think ADP showed that you can get too good a player in the aleague.
everyone else around him was in slow motion.
Anyway moving on, could have been a better performance but starting with a draw isn’t the worst.
Watching ADP was an absolute blast and he was super unlucky not to take out the tards in that final (his last match for us) at Etihad where Finkler stole it at the death. Despite peak ROT we were on a decent run and could’ve actually done something had we just got through that game…
His individual contribution is always going to be unfairly diminished by the ROT and maybe the fact that the noisy neighbours were also in their honeymoon period at the time. But don’t forget, we narrowly missed out on signing Arnie right before him, for of all reasons because we weren’t going to let him bring Clarkey & Crawley with him. I remember siding with the club at the time, but fuck me, isn’t hindsight 20/20? 
It’d be frightening where we would be now had we landed Arnie 2 years earlier, there’d have been no Socceroos temptation earlier either as Ange was still rightly preferred throughout that whole period. As it is I still wouldn’t change a thing, the ROT gave such a new appreciation for what was to follow.
3 Likes
I’ve often thought this as well. The ROT has made me appreciate where we are now, but I’d love to see a parallel universe where Arnie joined back then just to see what we could have done.
Mind you, I think Arne also needed the stint that he had with Vegalta Sendai to ground him, but also to confirm that his approach to focusing on the culture of the club was so important.
3 Likes
If Arnold joined back then, I very, very much doubt ADP would’ve happened at all. We all know the kind of marquees that Arnold likes to go for and ADP did not fit that mould whatsoever. But it is nice to dream of the possibilities.
This. No point wondering about it as arnie would not have come with ADP here and would not have accepted his signing . It went against his whole philosophy. That said, i feel fortunate we got to see ADP week in week out in syd fc colours in the first year; he was pure genious and pretty much the only bright spot in the darkest years .
And arnie needed his japan stint and a pretty ordinary first year with us before the peak Arnie we ulimately saw . Feels to me like it everything fell into place at the right time .
First year was fine once he brought in a couple of good foreigners in the mid-season window - we gave Melbourne a pretty decent chase after a horrible start, and were absolutely great to watch.
It’s that 2nd season which was horrid.
Second year. 
That first year with Janko we were 3 points off the plate and only 1-0 down after 82 minutes of a GF with a patched up backline. Even though his 2nd year was a real slog in the HAL we topped our ACL group and were only a Zac Anderson brain fade away from making the QF. With the squad we then put together we’d have given that shit a shake.
1 Like
To be fair, I think a number of things fell into place around the time of/after ADP…Arnie, Clarke, Crawley, Pignata, Traktovenko/his son in law taking over, the fans mobilising…heck, even the WSW, but I don’t know how anyone could look back on the ADP years with anything but fondness and appreciation for where we are now.
There were some fucking grim times before then, lest we forget.
My fondest memory of ADP’s time with us: Farina & Rado coming up with the donut formation so ADP could play “in the hole”.
2 Likes
For every shimmy of ADPs hips that we were privileged to see there were multiple frustrations of him retaining possession instead of trusting a teammate.
He played his entire career up to then for Juventus and the Italian National Team. He had no experience with playing with players that were two to three levels lower then him and no idea in how to mix them into the game.
Compare him to Yorke and Ninkovic. Individually he stands head and shoulders above them. But he couldn’t match their contribution to ‘team’.
And it is a team sport.
2 Likes
Thanks for correction , clearly muddle headed there
My most striking memory (not fondest) memory of ADP’s time with us was him taking a throw-in near the corner flag, and Marc Warren on the first touch, immediately passed it back to ADP, who was of course offside. His face was absolutely priceless
1 Like
The fact that Marc Warren was on the same team as ADP is mind blowing. And it wasn’t some sort of charity match, it was a competitive league game. Embarrassing really.
You know I don’t think MW should have felt that way.
1 Like
There was a time when Warren and Sainsbury went to Sheffield Utd trials together. That is mind blowing.
And Warren got the contasct
Sheffield United’s drop down through the divisions makes sense now.