Sydney FC’s new Head Coach Graham Arnold has laid down his expectations for the season ahead after taking the Sky Blues for their first pre-season training session of the year.

Sydney FC-s new Head Coach Graham Arnold has laid down his expectations for the season ahead after taking the Sky Blues for their first pre-season training session of the year.

Arnold said the first session was all about clearing out the cobwebs after the players had a six week layoff and the Championship winner said he wanted to push the players as far as they can go this 2014/15 Hyundai A-League season.

“First day at a new club for me, it-s exciting to be here,” Arnold said.

“It-s good to get the players back in there, they-ve had 6 weeks off, and we-re getting them started again and I-m getting to know them.

“I had a chat to the boys and a presentation before training about what my expectations are and what I want to achieve this season here and it went across well,” he continued.

“My expectations are for success. I-ve got high standards and I demand high standards so success means ACL [Asian Champions League].

“If the standards that you set are mediocre then you-ll only get mediocrity. I want to push these boys as far as they can and maximise what we can get out of this playing group.”

With a long offseason ahead, Arnold revealed how he would handle the pre-season schedule and he said the first part would be all about getting the team closer to each other through team bonding sessions.

“I think one thing unique about the A-League is the long offseason,” said Arnold.

“We-ll break it up into three blocks and fortunately for the first of these blocks we have something to aim for and that-s the game against Newcastle United in Dunedin and West Ham in Wellington.

“Then we-ll taper off after that for a few weeks to freshen up the players again before we go into a seven or eight week preseason for the competition.

“It-s a long time, the first part will be a lot of team building and bonding and we start that on Thursday with a bit of paintball shooting.

“Getting the boys close together and mateship is important to me.”

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