A book marking the first decade of Adelaide United, A Decade United, contains a revelation that is not news to football fans in the know: Namely that Kosmina did not want Romario for his four-game guest stint.
And given how it all turned out, he was not wrong.
In those ‘heady’ days of the raw and young A-League, where there were only eight clubs, one team per city and 21 rounds of football, clubs were also less sophisticated as to how they tried to recruit players. The marquee concept was heavily trumpeted, and then came the oh-so-brilliant idea of bringing in guest players to rouse interest in the league. There was speculation linking everyone who has been anyone to come and play and hopefully drive crowds up.
Adelaide United topped the A-League in its first season but fell short in the finals. In season two, it was clear early on that they were not going to keep it up and really only finished second by default due to other events such as Sydney FC’s salary cap busting, Newcastle Jets only starting to play a third of the season in. Kosmina attracted fan criticism for tactics and selections and was accused (not unreasonably) of playing his favourites. Nobody was surprised by the manner of their grand final defeat to Melbourne Victory, only the magnitude of it. Consequently, the tone was set for Adelaide United on and off the field until the arrival of Josep Gombau.
Romario’s four-game guest stint coincided with a lean period, and he only scored in his final game which was also the only one of the four that United won. Kosmina’s remarks about club management seemingly being more concerned with the glamour of a guest player than results should not come as a surprise. It looked at the time this is how A-League clubs thought – and remnants of that attitude remained until quite recently in terms of signing marquee and guest players. Only Newcastle Jets could have possibly outdone United with the Mario Jardel fiasco, but that was even less surprising.
A more recent example of this was the two years of Alessandro Del Piero at Sydney FC. A fantastic player who delivered undeniable quality, but the overall impact at Sydney FC? The mediocre results and often worse performances delivered in those two years tell the story. Is there a place anymore for the idea that A-League clubs need to attract ageing superstars to bring in fans? Is it really the right way to do it?
There is, in principle, nothing wrong with such marquees, but it must not be the be-all and end-all of a club. Such investment does not necessarily translate into long-term gains. At Western Sydney Wanderers, for instance, Shinji Ono delivered quality in his two years at the club, but the Wanderers did not revolve around him or anyone else. The A-League is far better off combining local talent with a respectable level of foreign recruiting, and yes, even the odd superstar. But the Romario saga should be a sage lesson about the pitfalls of big-name hype that football, especially in a country like Australia, can easily be caught up in. After all, it is the football clubs and its supporters who will still exist long after they have gone.
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