It was at the end-of-season awards night for Sydney FC when club chairman Scott Barlow took to the stage.

Before a room filled with players, coaches, sponsors and associated hangers-on, he pressed home how the 2012-13 campaign had been – the signing of a certain Italian aside – a series of disappointments.

Demolition derby: Nikola Petkovic and Seb Ryall show their frustration during Sydney FC's 2-0 loss to Western Sydney Wanderers last Saturday. Credit:Getty Images

“Clearly, missing the finals series was the top of those disappointments,” he told the crowd at Doltone House in Pyrmont. “Our qualification for the finals should never have hinged on results elsewhere in the final round of the season. We'd already had ample opportunity to secure our finals birth throughout the season. To miss out, on goal difference, was particularly frustrating.”

Given Barlow's penchant for befriending players rather than berating them, the message was clear. Not good enough for my father-in-law (David Traktovenko, who pays the bills), not good enough me, and certainly not good enough for Sydney FC.