Posted March 05, 2019 23:03 · last edited March 05, 2019 23:03
I didn't see it as him having a go at Eastern Suburbs, more NZF for not making what he thought would have been a better choice with Auckland United. Think Eastern Suburbs reply is quite telling though.
Maybe if he'd made some comment about Eastern Suburbs importing a team this season..........
But at least it's a team of mostly young promising Kiwis, with exciting futures. Not 70% overseas hacks.
He didn't just say 'they shouldn't be in the league', he said it was a missed opportunity and rightly points out one of the reasons they made it in because they had the $ - while also suggesting clubs be made to work a bit harder on growing their support base.
Missed opportunity/Shouldn't be in the league is really the same thing when he is implying they were only let in because they had the biggest cheque book. There is a reason for that in the league and that is because think how many currently clubs are financially struggling, its not perfect of course because this could be solved by some of his suggestions with growing crowds etc, but that isn't their fault that NZF choose them and used that as the main reason for teams to join on its expansion.
All I'm saying is I can see why they got their back up and gave that reply after his article, at least to me and probably to them as it seem like it was saying they shouldn't be in the league because they were the wrong choice. I do agree that the league and clubs can do more to make it a better experience and they could have replied better but some of the twitter accounts of clubs are pretty bad with their reply and comments. Known others to make stupid comments too.
I didn't see it as him having a go at Eastern Suburbs, more NZF for not making what he thought would have been a better choice with Auckland United. Think Eastern Suburbs reply is quite telling though.
Maybe if he'd made some comment about Eastern Suburbs importing a team this season..........
But at least it's a team of mostly young promising Kiwis, with exciting futures. Not 70% overseas hacks.