So we should just hand out contracts to nz players who haven't got off their ass to find their own team?
Is cory spent his winter training with the nix, and plenty of people flew themselves here from overseas, then why could Aaron come up by himself.
You need to get invited to trial, otherwise every man and his dog would be trialing. Aaron obviously was not asked. He managed to get a trial with Melbourne Heart last year but its pretty hard to get one of the overseas spots.
You have to pretty naive to think its that easy to get trials. Clubs do not like wasting there time looking at anybody. And when European clubs have hundreds of footballers with similiar ability who would all be within an hours drive of the club, why would they waste their time with a non-professional footballer all the way from New Zealand.
The majority of Kiwis playing over in the states have come through the University systems, and they therefore have the contacts etc. But even trying to get a contract with the American second divison is not easy. Talk to anyone who has trialled. One example, someone had to drive 8 hours after renting a car, turn up and play a trial game, score 2 goals and then be told yip your exactly what we are looking for, but im sorry we don't have room for you as an overseas player. As well the money is not good and a lot of them need to supplement their income during the off season most often with coaching kids.
The biggest issue Clapham has is he has only really played in the New Zealand Football League. You need something a bit better than that on your CV if you are to have any interest overseas. Think of it like applying for a job, you might be amazing for that job and have all the skills, but if you havent got the required experience on your CV, then they are not going to look at you.
It is very unlikely that Clapham will ever play for the Phoenix under Herbert, he is not his style of midfielder and I agree with Smithy, Billy Harris has done him no favours. But that does not mean he is not good enough.