Ahead of the third and final regular season Sydney Derby, Sky Blues coach Graham Arnold has dropped a bombshell undoubtedly designed to shake the Wanderers squad.
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Current Western Sydney captain Mark Bridge returned to the red and black at the start of this season after a failed stint in Thailand with Chiangrai United, and Arnold has boldly revealed Sydney FC was Bridge's preferred return destination.
"Bridgey, at the start of the season, wanted to come to Sydney FC but we couldn't fit him in so he went back to the Wanderers," Arnold said.
Having started his A-League career with the Newcastle Jets in the competition's inaugural season, Bridge would play for the Sky Blues between 2008 and 2012 before linking up with the Wanderers in their first year.
Bridge would go onto score the club's first professional goal, currently holds the record for most club appearances and recent reclaimed the captaincy after the departure of previous skipper Robert Cornthwaite.
Arnold's reveal that Bridge was eager to switch Sydney sides this season may not come as a complete surprise considering how dominant Sydney FC have been over the past 18 months, but with a derby just a day away, it's not what the Wanderers faithful would have wanted to hear.
Western Sydney are of course out for some redemption after a 5-0 thrashing in the last derby and have a golden chance to get some considering the Sky Blues had an Asian Champions League game mid-week and will be without the suspended Luke Wilkshire.
Sydney FC have lost just one A-League game this season and are currently 23 points clear of the sixth-placed Wanderers at the top of the table with Arnold unsurprisingly confident about the clash on Sunday night.
"We expect to win," he said.
"We will playing tomorrow tonight at Champions League level, not A-League level.
"You look at the stats we've got the greatest attack in the league with 50 goals, and they've got the third worst defence in the league conceding 33 goals.
"We go into this game at Allianz with a lot of confidence, a lot of belief and we know what we need to do to win."
