2014 Friendly Discussion - China & Thailand in Nov

Will Bertos even be fit? He didn't play for awhile because of injury.

Booked flights today! Excited!

Is there any sort of Fever/White Noise thing being planned?

Flights Booked. Excite!

Are we going to see Henderson? A bit of a mystery why he's had as few chances as he's had.

He's been injured for 99% of his career. 

Is he injured again? I mean since he came to NZ to play against Wellington.

Craig Henderson: Actually has been fit 95% of the time since he returned to the Mjallby side in August 2012 after that long lay-off:

http://int.soccerway.com/players/craig-henderson/48607/

Appeared in: 12  league matches 2012 season (returned part-way through season)

25 league matches of 30 played 2013 (a few he just stayed on the bench)

4 of 6 played for Stabaek in Norway so far this season (he last played Easter Monday last week)

Not in squad for last weekend's home win vs. Bodo - Glimt

It's only when people ask on here if he's injured that he get's injured!!!

It truly is the silly season for international friendly speculation - it's actually a news story today that "The All Whites Won't Be Facing Colombia" because the BBC mistakenly list it as a friendly on their website.

At least the media are interested in the All Whites.

NZ football say they have had no contact with Colombia what-so-ever and a fixture as described a few days before playing South Africa on May 30 would be logistically impossible:

https://nz.sports.yahoo.com/football/news/article/-/23049741/football-all-whites-wont-be-facing-colombia/

TV3 made a song and dance about it. Those muppets even nearly bought that fake facebook Ange Postecoglou/Eagar story a lil while back

Too much reading between the lines.

Dickhead

http://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town-news/25146/smith-to-take-much-needed-summer-break

Should strip him of the captaincy tbh

I thought he was only the stand in for Reid? Much like others have been stand in for Nelsen?

Thinking about sending this email to their website - but want to make sure I'm not out on a limb. Is this how everyone feels?

--

Just a quick comment in relation to your story here: 

Tommy says “The people in New Zealand are happy with that."

Well, just speaking for fans down here, he's wrong. 

The upcoming international is a rare opportunity for the All Whites to play in front of their home crowd. It's very disappointing to have a couple of our best players selfishly choosing a holiday on the beach over playing for their country.

No doubt Tommy will be desperate to play for his country when there are FIFA tournaments with associated pay days for him in the offing.

We (fans) don't think he is right to pick and choose.

And we think he should be stripped of the captaincy of the national team for his attitude.

He probably won't care.

Can totally understand that ITFC fans would want him to rest up. But just wanted to give the other perspective. 

It's tough work being an All Whites fan. They're shithouse mostly. A lack of commitment from our (former?) captain certainly doesn't help.

Cheers 

Yellow Fever (Phoenix fans) and White Noise (All Whites fans).

+1

Why send it to the website? They are just quoting Tommy. If anything, send the email to him.

Haha! Nice one!

I must admit I am not on board with this although I definitely understand the sentiment.

Yes, I want him to play for NZ and I agree that he should not be able to pick and choose when he plays (too bad there is a precedent there). I also think that he and others may need a break. When have those players last had one I ask? When are they likely to next get one? I am in favour of them missing this game to take a decent break if it means they are in top shape to help us qualify for 2018 but then it needs to spelt out to him "You will be available for the next few years on this 'break' period to ensure we do qualify and we do have a decent build up."

I also think he needs to be careful the language he uses because as you say, the people of NZ are not on board with it.

Edit: I also do not view him as the captain. Winston Reid is and Tommy was a fill in. His agent should also get smart and tell him to shut up quickly. If the truth is that Wood is looking to miss it as well, at least he is not carping about it in the media.
 

Well put Jeff, I agree with pretty much all of that. Although I think Smith is a knobend for missing this game, I'm still a little uncomfortable with making it personal. At the end of the day it's his call and I don't think a personal attack on the guy will achieve much.

I think it's a dick move to miss this game, but I don't think he is generally, and so even though I disagree with his decision in this case I don't think that justifies a personal attack generally. I just don't see what it would achieve is all.

You can send it on behalf of Smiths... well, those who's first initial is not T.

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with you sending that Smithy cause fundamentally, he should not have the right to pick and choose (which is counter to my position I guess). I just ask are we seeing the forest for the trees before we start launching grenades?

When you think about players that are going all year round in our own ASBP and then winter league, at some point the players take time out. Danny Robinson and James Pritchett are two players that go all year round, Danko another (I am trying to think of others that would play significant mins - Russell Kamo, Adam Cowan?) At some point, if they do not take time out, they will burn out. It is harder to take time out when you are looking at a 44 game club season (is that right) vs 1 or 2 national games. I think this brings into wider play an issue around player welfare management. Do you say to some guys one year 'hey we wont pick you because we think you could do with a rest for an eye to the future' That's not happened in this case and Tommy's execution on this one has been extremely poor in running his gob but that's something that the next manager could possibly monitor perhaps. A smart guy would have said nothing and requested to not be considered on the quiet or made some excuse about rehab. I know in 2010 they had the WC, can't remember 2011, 2012 was Honiara and last year escapes me again (old man memory) so I don't think the request to take a break is unreasonable, just the execution of it. For that, he definitely deserves a boot.

Haha, if you're that committed to democracy then to be honest I think you're probably in the majority. I wouldn't be particularly upset if you sent something on behalf of fans, I just thought I'd add my personal opinion. If you and/or others feel it's still worth sending then by all means go right ahead.

If I were to be slightly more constructive in my feedback - If you're looking for consensus I'd say that as a fan group we're all pretty disappointed by Smith's decision. Some of us are outraged, while others like myself disagree with the decision but don't see it as quite so big of a deal. But overall, we're all pretty disappointed. That's the vibe I'm picking up anyway.

Some people might think that an expenses-paid trip to NZ from the UK for ONE non-competitive game of football is kinda like taking a bit of a holiday.