Milos Ninkovic can expect boos and late tackles in the Sydney Derby, thanks to his move from Sydney FC to Western Sydney Wanderers – that’s exactly how it should be, says Roy O’Donovan.
It took a few goes but I reckon Milos Ninkovic got it right eventually when he was asked this week about the reception he’ll get from Sydney FC fans at the derby on Saturday night, after his move to Western Sydney.
“I’m not sure,” he said a couple of times, and then finally he admitted they will probably boo him.
Of course they’ll boo him!
There’d be something wrong if they didn’t. Football without tribalism is an empty vessel, and when you cross the divide of a city then the consequences are pretty clear.
That’s all the more the case when your exit from the other side is a sour one. It seems to be like a marriage break up (or so I’m told), where a long period of harmony is obscured by the final months and the anger of the separation.
Maybe that’s why Milos has been so keen to cultivate the Western Sydney fans who until one surprising day in the offseason had previously hated his guts. To them, initially at least, I’m sure it would have been a case of: he’s a **** but now he’s our *** (you can insert your choice of expletive here). But actually they seem to have embraced Milos for his willingness to hang out with the Wanderers fans, which is going to make Saturday night even more… interesting.
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The whole question of players’ relationships with fans, their own club’s and their rivals’, is an interesting one. When I started out at Cork City in Ireland we wouldn’t even crack 10,000 at our games; we did win the league for the first time in more than a decade in my debut season, so there was a certain kind of local celebrity. In the main, though, it’s low key and friendly.
But nothing prepares you for immersion in the cauldron of an area like the North East of England, where football in a city like Sunderland is a religion. If you lose you have to be very, very careful where you go out, if at all. Even when you win, it’s a goldfish bowl where you know you’re on display every time you leave the house. People invariably know where you live, and you quickly learn to be very wary of who to trust. When you travel or visit another city, you’re aware that fans of other clubs will know who you are. It takes a lot of getting used to, though I wouldn’t change a minute of that experience.
I think though that its one of the reasons why players from Europe like coming to the A-League, because there is tribalism, there is emotion, but not to the same crazy intensity of some places back home. If Milos had gone from Red Star Belgrade to Partizan… well, it doesn’t bear thinking about.
Nonetheless, it still causes an almighty stir when a player switches sides across an A-League rivalry; ask Vedran Janjetovic, Kosta Barbarouses or Marcos Flores. When I moved to Newcastle from the Mariners, I respected the Central Coast fans even more for their hostility to me. The message was simple, that they cared for their club more than any one individual. The banners, the road signs that were used to stir things up were brilliant, and the fans way of letting you know that no one is bigger than the club.
Even so, I was nervous as all hell once the fixtures came out and I knew my first game for Newcastle would – of course – be against the Mariners. I completely backed my ability but I was jittery right through the build up, probably until two minutes into the game when I’d had a couple of touches, the boos had washed over me and the focus on the game took over me.
In the end it was a great experience because, individually and as a team, it was a good day at the office, and I got to enjoy a crackling atmosphere. But this is the challenge now for Milos, who I am absolutely certain will be feeling a heightened sense of emotion ahead of the game.
He knows he will be booed, he knows there’s some sharp tackles coming his way. He obviously also is still carrying some level of hurt from the way he left Sydney FC. But on top of all that he has to produce a performance that winds back the years to his absolute Sky Blue pomp.
In front of dignitaries from both sides, he has to make it clear why Sydney were wrong not to move heaven and earth to keep him, and Western Sydney were right to sign a 37-year-old. Even the fact that he’s back to play at Allianz Stadium, but it’s a brand new venue, underlines the way the world has moved on its axis for Milos Ninkovic.
The stage is set, that Allianz canvas is blank. I can’t wait.
