February 02, 2009

VITEZSLAV Lavicka has been Coach of the Year twice in the Czech Republic and now he's coming to Australia to turn Sydney FC into a super force again in the A-League.

The 45-year-old former Sparta Prague coach and Czech national under-21 manager has been hand- picked by new Sydney owner, Russian businessman David Traktovenko, to replace John Kosmina and has already signed a contract.

Former Socceroos captain Kosmina was sacked by the club's new regime on Saturday.

He receives a $225,000 payout as he still had another year of a two-year contract to serve.

Lavicka, a former player in the Czech Republic for 16 years, was in Sydney nine days ago to watch the Sky Blues' match against Newcastle and has been sent DVDs of the team's performances over the season.

Traktovenko was never interested in former Manchester United midfield star Roy Keane to replace Kosmina as some reports suggested.

As former Zenit St Petersburg chairman, Traktovenko is said to have a passion for football and has never liked Sydney's playing style.

He believes that Lavicka will bring a different approach to Sydney's playing style and will help entice the missing fans back.

The Czech becomes Sydney's fifth coach in five seasons.

First there was German Pierre Littbarski, then Englishman Terry Butcher, Branko Culina had the shortest reign (nine games) before Kosmina was brought in by the Lowy family, then major shareholders of the club.

At least there was stability in the inaugural season when Littbarski and marquee player Dwight Yorke mastermined a championship.

Sydney players turned on Butcher and on Culina and a big part of Kosmina's undoing was in the dressing room.

His war with marquee striker John Aloisi has been well documented but even captain Steve Corica didn't react too kindly when Kosmina started to see the former Socceroo being more of an impact player and had him coming off the bench.

In defence of Kosmina, long-term injuries to Simon Colosimo, Mitchell Prentice, Terry McFlynn, Adam Casey, Brendan Santalab, Jacob Timpano and the retirement of Tony Popovic made life very difficult.