Sydney FC coach Steve Corica believes his past success should be enough to earn him the chance to spearhead the Sky Blues rebuild over the ALM off-season.
Sydney FC coach Steve Corica is backing his past successes with the Sky Blues to earn him the chance to overhaul the A-League Men's squad.
Sydney's underwhelming 2021-22 season ended on a disappointing note on Tuesday as they fell to a 3-1 loss to fellow strugglers Brisbane Roar at Moreton Daily Stadium.
It means Corica's men end the season eighth on the ALM ladder and having suffered a club record six-straight defeats including their Asian Champions League campaign in Vietnam.
It's the first time in six seasons Sydney have not reached the finals and facing an off-season rebuild, with several members of the squad coming off-contract.
That list of off-contract people includes Corica, but after leading the club to three straight grand finals in his first three years at the helm he's confident he'll be offered a new deal to stay in the role.
"This season has been disappointing and you've got to take responsibility for that but I think the first three seasons of mine, we've made the grand final every year," Corica said.
"Three in a row. I'm not too sure how many other coaches have done that.
"But this year has been disappointing. We obviously need to pick it up next year. Make sure we get the recruitment right and we'll come in fresh again next year and then start again."
Brazilian veteran Bobo has already called time on his career while 33-year-old left-back Michael Zullo is also being tipped to retire after playing just one game in the past two injury-wrecked campaigns.
Corica says he's also facing some tough conversations with long-serving club legends such as captain Alex Wilkinson, Serbian schemer Milos Ninkovic and English forward Adam Le Fondre in coming weeks.
"They're conversations I'm going to have with the players next week," Corica said.
"There's going to be a fair turnaround I think from this year.
"There's a lot of work to do in the off-season but we'll worry about that when we've had a little bit of a rest and a think about it and start working on planning for next year."
