As an outsider looking in, you have 2 choices. Pick locals or win. There seems to be a lot of whinging about locals not picked but yet you want to win. If you look at the history of the comp, you can't have both so pick your poison and deal with it.
You are intimating that having de Jong junior in the squad will result in a better chance of them winning? Personally I think this is big BS and NZ football is in a sorry state (like we didn't know). Pick a young local over massaging de Jong senior any day IMO.
The reality is that Andre is a good player, not sure how he will go at Canty but he was consistently one of the better players for Wanderers.
I think he has more pressure on his shoulders because of his last name and I would say so far has succeeded without much assistance.
It's good that you've chimed in Chopah. Ellerslie and Fred and all - no sense of bias. But I'm being facetious and no harm is meant. Taking a step back and looking at your words.." without much assistance.." - what are you on? Freddie and Willy are tight as. Can I quote the Specials? "Are you so blind that you cannot see?" And then you say "Andre is a good player" Yes he is. But is he really that gooder than what's down here? Return to the Franchise model and how it was rolled out by NZF way back when. And see how far NZF have caused us to stray - that's what I say. We have a situation where an Auckland coach is bringing down Auckland players to a strong football region at the expense of local players. You might sit up at Michaels Ave sipping on your whatever and just loving that - but for us down here it's just another nail in the coffin of football outside of Auckland and Wellington.
1: Willy has zero love for the class of 82 of that, you can take to the bank.
2: We have seen De Jong play in Auckland consistently. Both of us think he will be a good player for this team. He will take pressure of Clapham and make you less of a predictable one man band (and lets be honest, with out him, your team has struggled). How often have you seen him play?
3: If was what was down there was working, you would have made more than 1 final, right? It may not work. Cool. Maybe Stu Kelly is the answer but I got a whole bunch of seasons that suggests that as much as Stu Kelly is a good player and has got a lot of player accolades, like every other CU player before him, he has zero rings. Is this the right move? Maybe not, but doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the epitome of stupidity. Do you want a different result or do you want to be sitting at home watching the final on Sky with all the other losers?
I know that Cantabrians love their people and their province and I respect that parochialism because its stronger there than it is up here and that is indisputable. In the cold light of day, do you want to pick locals and be all cool with the rah-rah Canterbury line or do you want to win? When you think about that, figure it out and make a choice, then comment objectively on these players coming in.
That's a decent rant, but you missed my point and didn't answer my question. Maybe you should consider a career in politics - but perhaps you are a bit too naive and a bit too binary for that. You reckon Willy doesn't get on with Fred, but why does that even matter? Willy is smart - and a political beast himself. And he's very ambitious. Taking Andre down to CU further strengthens his ties to NZF. Well that's what I think.
But back to my question - so somehow you think Andre will give CU a stronger chance of winning? I like him as a player. You assume too much BTW, for all you know I might live in Auckland and work in Christchurch on the re-build. Assumption is the mother of all fudge ups they say - which makes you a bit of a fudge up king.
And perhaps other readers would like to discuss your interesting thesis. So it's 'pick locals or win' with nothing in between is it Mr binary? And if we pick one local out of a squad of 22 and bring the rest in from Barcelona are we still going to lose because of that one crap local?
Oh yeah and when you reply - think before you type because what you said is just plain ridiculous.