Here are some cold hard truths for you to ponder:
1. 'Dunedin Tech and Cavy are one of the best teams in the country and therefore = a good Otago United Team'
You are having a laugh the difference between winter football in NZ and NZFC is a big step up (especially from the SPL). You are living in a fantasy land if you think Otago can ever compete with the best 15 players for Auckland, Wellington or most other other teams in the NZFC. Can't put in what god left out for most Otago players which = having a good touch and being able to pass and keep the ball under a little bit of pressure and not chase the ball for 70 mins like a blue ar*e fly!
2. Malcolm Fleming is good for picking up cones at the end of practice. A 45yr old man with frosted tips should not [snip] coach at NZFC level. Fact.
3. Otago is run like a pub team. Always has (going back to D Tech National league days) and always will be a shambles. Always reliant on pokey money (dried up last few yrs due to tightening of charitable trusts) as Chidley and Co couldn't sell ice to the eskimos or half a brain to Horsehead, let alone promote and sell Otago United.
4. Phelan - hot head, chip on his shoulder, speaks before he thinks coach that is actually quite good but expects players to be professionals not amateurs and Otago players to be able to pass the ball 5 times consecutively to each other in practice or in a game. Always get's himself wound up and releases on players at training or in a game aka no man management skills for this amateur environment. Then some players don't like him and his ways - spiral effect.
5. Imports - Phelan can take massive blame for bringing in and overpaying average to poor Imports. With his pedigree and contacts it is embarassing. Noted that it is difficult to get someone to come to Dunedin on less money than they are probably on but track record is rubbish and in a team that is always going to struggle you need your imports to better than you already have - this has never happened and also causes problems within the squad when the sh*te imports are getting 500-800 NZD a week and the other players aren't even getting petrol or boots paid for. The only good imports in recent times (2004 ish) are Lutz, Craig Smith, Orume, Essler and Haggerty.
5. 2010 NZFC outlook on the pitch = not great as has been suggested or the blind 'yay get in behind the lads and support them'... - as usual for Otago, good team spirit and big tickers will limit the damage in games somewhat but unfortunately it is always going to be tough relying on students staying in Dunedin for the summer, sh*te organisation, crap imports, players that wouldn't make any other starting team in the NZFC (yes this is a fact apart from Canterbury) and
now a seriously limited coac with frosted tip and a silver earing.
I don't want to be the bearer of doom and gloom but these are facts. So stop living in a little fantasy land with goody good gum drops falling from trees and realise that it aint gonna change anytime soon - nothing has changed since the national league days (2001) of Roger Brooks and Neil MacKenzie so....
Out