Sydney Gets Brosque

The Australian reports that Queensland Roar's Alex Brosque has come to an agreement to sign with Sydney FC at the end of the season.

If true it's good personal news for Brosque, who due to Sydney's strength up front will surely be encouraged to move to a wider position on the left wing rather than remain out of position as a striker. It only fuels this speculation that Pierre Littbarski has to date been quite adamant about playing David Carney on the right side of midfield rather than the left, where he is more naturally suited.

Given the restriction of the salary cap it is likely that someone will have to make way for Brosque. For a while now, rumours have been flying around about the departure of unfit co-captain David Zdrilic if Brosque were to arrive. It will be interesting to see how this develops: the Knights are one team with a pressing need for a decent target man, while Queensland's desperation for a proven goal scorer will only increase once Brosque heads south.

In other transfer-related news, the Knights have declared their interest in the K-League. I'm all for high quality Korean players joining the A-League, but quite rightly this new admission from the New Zealand executives is likely to catch the ire of those who imagine the Knights as a vehicle for supporting home-brewed talent. The recent stellar (comparatively speaking) emergence of Jeremy's Brockie and Christie has been one of the few annotations in the plus column during the Knights' woeful inaugural season. Probably half or more of the circa 2,000 supporters still dutifully attending the home matches in Auckland are there specifically to see how their fellow countrymen fare against the largely Australian contingents of the away teams. Nationalism has no place in my worldview, but even I would be happy to concede to pressure from the fans and release a statement or two about the club's scouting activites surrounding around the local game. The Knights have employed scouts to keep an eye on the New Zealand domestic competition, right?

Right...?

UPDATE (Dec 22): The World Game indicates that Brosque may have already joined Sydney for the remainder of the season, which would certainly boost their championship aspirations. If true, this is especially good news for Sydney when you consider that Dwight Yorke is likely to be unavailable for part of the finals series due to international commitments with Trinidad and Tobago.