Sydney FC CEO Dirk Melton has made his first big mistake. In an interview published on Sportal Melton delivered a rightly circumspect whip to the players but a rather stinging putdown to a growing group of Sydney FC fans.
"(Coach Viteslav Lavicka) has been here for three years and been given an absolutely dignified farewell and given an opportunity to do what he needs to do for the rest of the year. If people find any difficulty in that then they probably need to look in the mirror."
Melton has not been at the club long enough to tell the fans what to do. Even if he is right, and I do not believe that he is, those are poorly chosen words for the thousands who have clearly given up on the Lavicka school of football. Bluntly bagging fans for criticizing the coach, cruel as they may be, is a stupid thing to do at the best of times.
To do it in the name of dignity is particularly galling. If Sunday's game was a horse race Sydney FC would have found dignity behind a tent and a shotgun. They played with intent for less than half of a home match against geographic rivals.
By contrast the fans have largely held their tongues. The Cove has not chanted for Lavicka's head. The banners have not risen against the once-successful Czech. The venom is reserved for the people most to blame: the players who continually fail to deliver on their potential.
It is true that Sydney fans take too much delight in booing their own players. I wish it were a club that cheered on losing Sky Blues at half time. I wish that confidence players were given more than 30 minutes to change a game.
But changing that culture (a worthy mission that needs a different strategy than Melton's here) will take time and Sydney have bigger problems. Melton is smart enough in his remarks to hold back from trying to take the motivational reins. The players are Lavicka's problem and Lavicka has to deal with it.
This failing squad is Lavicka's responsibility and many fans, if not most, have lost patience with Lavicka's tenure. It's nothing personal. It's simply football.
For two years Sydney have been a bottom half side. They don't deserve a place in the finals this season, and they didn't deserve one last season. The evidence is quite obvious.
Since Lavicka claimed Sydney's sweetest title, the club has played 50 games, won 14, drawn 16 and lost 20. Those results do not include the club's desolate Asian Champion's League campaign.
Last season Sydney finished 9th. Right now they lie 7th and no one is tipping them to rise higher.
Sydney have won a single game in their last nine matches. They've lost 5-2 and 4-nil at home. The Sky Blues have kept four clean sheets in 20 matches. In the last nine games they've conceded 22 goals.
For the last two seasons the crowd rises slightly when success beckons or Brett Emerton debuts, but flee when Sydney lose. Football's Capital demands success with style. They've had neither for two weary years.
Melton would find it hard to find a fan who dislikes Lavicka as a person (although the man who threw his membership card at the Czech when he withdrew Nicky Carle against Gold Coast might volunteer). Lavicka is well-known and liked for the way he speaks to fans and applauds their efforts, particularly on away trips.
Obviously Lavicka's character and his debut double, combined with the front office's long-stated desire to stabilize a previously-bloodthirsty club, has stayed the knife. But Sydney FC is toxic now. The mood amongst the players seemingly matches their performances and the atrocious results. The crowd will shrink until only the malcontents remain because no one wants to watch a good man leave in disgrace.
Melton said Lavicka has been given an absolutely dignified farewell and an opportunity to do what he needs to do.
It won't be dignified if Sydney continue to lose. It may sink the club further into footballing disrepute. What Lavicka "needs to do" is find a way to win matches with one of the most expensive sides in the A League. A double in the first season is not enough to offset shame in the last.
And Lavicka's "dignified" long goodbye smacks of spin more than substance: perhaps the club wants to avoid a Melbourne/Durakovic situation while it hooks Graham Arnold or a big foreign fish for next season.
Saturday night's match against Perth should be a big occasion - Sydney fighting for a finals berth against a side brimming with talent. But the crowd won't reach ten thousand in "Football's Capital".
Pontius Pilate-like, Melton has appealed to the angry mob for mercy. But Lavicka's fate really rests in the hands of his supposed disciples: the players. Only they can save him from bitter, pathetic disgrace.
As unfair, undignified, dishonorable as it is, if Sydney fail against Perth, Lavicka should carry the cross - provided Ian Crook or Steve Corica are prepared to take the burden for the rest of the season.
Unfortunately this cannot even happen. Melton may be trying to re-shape Sydney FC, the most fickle club in the land, into a better place. I applaud the intention but today's interview is a serious misstep along a difficult path. The decision to name the Clubman Of The Year Award after Lavicka might reflect "core values" but it has effectively taken Melton's only option away.
Dignity and loyalty are things to be exchanged between players and fans, not ephemeral concepts to fall back on when poor decisions create a vacuum of leadership. Nature abhors a vacuum - this one has been filled with disaffection and vitriol. It started with the thousands of members who refused to renew their membership for this season, despite the recruitment of Emerton.
Melton struggled to understand that then. He surely has to understand now. Can he wash his hands of a good man's demolition? If Sydney FC fold against Perth, Melton should give the mob their head.
AMENDMENT: Dirk Melton replied to me on Twitter last night saying he's been misquoted and wouldn't disrespect fans. (You can see this on his Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/#!/Dirk_Melton).
As a former journo I know how things can quite easily be taken out of context. I hope this is addressed and corrected by Melton and the website in a more formal way.
You can see an additional post explaining what happened next here: http://afootontheball.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/meltons-look-in-mirror-comment-not.html
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