SYDNEY FC will attempt to re-sign all of their quintet of foreigners for next season, as the club bids to avoid its record-breaking squad fracturing at the end of this campaign.

Though coach Graham Arnold emphasised that the club had secured “a core” of around a dozen players for next year, all five of the visa players are off-contract and able to talk to clubs here and overseas.

Arnold revealed that each of Milos Ninkovic, Bobo, Filip Holosko, Milos Dimitrievic and Jordy Buijs would be offered new terms for next season, though he insisted that none were putting pressure on the club to finalise a deal.

media_camera Filip Holosko (L) and Bobo (R) and form a lethal combination.

Ninkovic in particular will be offered hugely lucrative deals from the Middle East and China after an outstanding season that is likely to see him crowned both the club and A-League’s player of the season. Sydney are set to offer him one of the marquee positions to stay, and hope that his family’s wish to stay settled may sway him to re-sign.

Holosko will have to come inside the cap to get a new deal, but has already made clear his desire to stay, while Arnold believes that Bobo could mine an even richer seam next season after getting used to the A-League’s pitches and physical style.

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Arnold is mulling over whether to seek an Asian player as one of his visa players, given the “3+1” rule employed in the Asian Champions League which Sydney will play in next year.

The Sydney coach said that resolution either way with all five existing signings would most likely wait until after the end of the season, with the Sky Blues aiming to add the Championship trophy to the Premier’s Plate already secured.

media_camera Milos Ninkovic (C) has been close to the competition’s best this season.

“Hopefully all five,” Arnold said when asked which of his visa players he hoped to keep. “We’re talking to all five. All of them are patient and happy. Ninkovic, Bobo, Holosko, Dimitrijevic, they don’t want to really have discussions until after we win the grand final.

“They’re not pushing us to put any contracts in front of them or anything, they just want to keep playing and keep winning.

“At the moment we’ve got five foreigners — four Europeans and a Brazilian. Obviously in the ACL you can have an Asian. We’ll sit back and just wait until the season is over to decide that side of it. But we learnt a lot of lessons out of last year’s ACL, and we’ll discuss that after the grand final. At the moment it’s about winning these next five games.

“We’re talking with a number of players, but we’ve probably got the core of 12-13 players resigned and we’re in discussions with players we want to keep. We’ve already started looking at recruitment for next year — it never stops — and looking at how we can strengthen the squad.”

Bobo sits joint fifth on the overall scorers’ list with 12 goals, plus five assists, and Arnold said his return was more than commensurate with his marquee status.

“I’m extremely happy with Bobo,” he said. “The stats and history has always shown with foreigners that it can take six months to a year to settle in (with) different weather, pitches, the travel. But Bobo for me has been consistently very good this season.

“He’s got 12 goals, five or six assists. If he’d taken all the penalties he could be on 16 or 17 goals. He’s done exceptionally well and I couldn’t be happier with him at the moment.”

Originally published as Fab five! Arnie’s grand plan for visa stars