Mark Judan: Family Time

Yeh think there is some deflection, but also he's angry about the loss and answered the questions the journos asked.

So many cynics on this forum. 

If I'd said pre-season that after 20 games we'd be in sixth place with the possibility of a home final, you'd have told me I was dreaming. Again, if I told you that Rufer, Cacace, Singh and Krishna would be having break-out seasons and that our imports in Kurto, Taylor and to a lesser extent Mandi, would be amongst the top A-League performers, you would have called me an unfounded optimist. 

Basically we've exceeded every realistic aspiration that YF supporters on this forum had for this season. I remember someone labelling this squad for 18/19 as the weakest squad of all time. If you want to see how far this club has come in twelve months, simply think back to this time last year. If I'm correct, we were last on the A-League table, Dario and his Dad had picked up their ball and gone home and to cap it off we had a 17 year old goalkeeper (no offence to Keegan who gave 110%) and Jacob Italiano and Tando Velaphi as back-ups. 

I simply want to give credit to Rudan where it's due. He's got the best out of many of our young players and he's completely over-hauled the culture and approach of the club. I totally disagree with those of you who think that Rudan still has to prove himself. He's more than proved himself both as a man manager and probably to a lesser extent as a tactician. Think of the way he out-coached Corica and Sydney FC in the 3-1 win in Sydney that we as diehard Phoenix supporters didn't even see coming...

Even, if God forbid, we were to miss out on finals, we've put in a season that's changed perceptions about the Phoenix. We've shown we belong in the A-League and have put forward a very strong case for us having an extended licence in whatever the A-League looks like in the future. That certainly wasn't the case twelve months ago. Mark Rudan has been fundamental in this paradigm shift.

Rather than second guessing his motives or drawing assumptions from his pressers, why can't we simply appreciate what he's done for now? I see a bloke who's driven to be the best he can be. He'll leave us not for a better option but because he thinks that the owners, clubs or even supporters don't have the drive to succeed that he has. In short he wants to win and if he thinks that another club is going to better support his pursuit of winning then he'll take that option. Good for him I'd say.... 

Rant over.,,

I don't see many people arguing that we haven't exceeded expectations? Or that he hasn't done great things? Or that Rudan isn't a competitive guy who wants to win and wants the best for his players and for the Club? He's had plenty of credit and praise thrown at him, and will get a lot more before he's done, but it is actually possible to appreciate what he's done and what he's doing and still have questions. 

Ifill picks Rudan to leave ... and to be thankful for what he did. 

Well said.

if he goes we are fudgeed. He will take our best players with him and we we will be left with nothing

If he goes he goes. If he stays he stays.

Of course, I hope he stays - but our licence is a far bigger issue.

Taylor and Fenton are both staying

If he wants out of his contract early I imagine the owners will go ok, but you need to sign a no compete clause for your next club saying they will not attempt to sign any of our players, even if they are coming off contract or something similar.

And while Ridenton might have gone with Ernie to the Jets, it's taken him a long while to get to anywhere near competitive level. I do not see how that would be different for anybody hypothetically moving with Rudan to the BitumenBlondes,

they are contracted sure, whether they stay is a different story. Rudan goes and the nix are goneski, we will not recover from the blow.

Why?

Come March the clubs license should no longer be tied to metrics.

100% this

Rudan is the best thing that has happened to this club in the last four years. He has ambition and drive.....something this club has lacked for a long long time. I agree with Ifill.....Rudan is right to call the management out. Do they have ambition? do they want this club to be top four regularly and actually compete to win stuff? He is putting the heat on the owners and managers. Do they want to step up? Because if they do then its likely he will stay for the ride. If not then he is gone. And this club will just bumble along to its inevitable demise.

IMO the club is at a critical junction. If Rudan gets the backing he needs and stays then he will be able to build on what they have done this season and there will be exciting times ahead. I dont get the negativity on this forum. Do you want more of what we have seen this season or do you want to go back to how things were over the last few years?. THe fans should be putting the heat on the Nix management as well. They should be backing Rudan 100%.This club has been poorly managed for years...enough is enough!!!!!

I agree with some of this but this assumes that Rudan is kicking up a fuss because he wants to stay and wants things to change.  There is also the distinct possibility that he is engineering a move (remember he has a two year contract) and I am not sure that his posturing in the media is in the team's best interests.

Our recent bad run has coincided with constant media stories about Rudan's future.  Remember we gave Rudan a chance at a first A League gig, so personally I think he owes us a bit of loyalty.  By all means agree that things need to change for us to have success, and I have been critical of our off field operation for a number of years, but I am not sure that all of this is working in our favour on the pitch right now.

I will be very annoyed if he leaves; and I don't what would be worse: him signing more players (with every intention of leaving) leaving a new coach little flexibility to sign players they want or not signing any more players giving the new coach flexibility to get the squad the new coach wants but risks losing our better performing players.

maybe, we still know absolutely nothing about whether we get extended past 2020 or not. This, for mine is clearly part of Rudan's requirements to stay. He wants a future to work on and the nix don't offer it. The players want/need this too. With Rudan at the helm I'd be confident in expecting us to be around past 2020. He leaves, with a few players as well and our last season will be awful.

This is still just conjecture; I feel like it's 80% likely we'll stick around now - much better than I felt about it this time last year. Still, things happen so quickly, and the life of the Nix has been such a rollercoaster, that I don't think we can be so confident.

We do know things, the clubs said just today that they are unanimously behind the Phoenix and in a new A-League they will be treated the same as every other club.

Yep, but the clubs need to sell that proposal to the state federations and the FFA. And there's a lot in there (not necessarily, or directly, Nix related) that the state federations will not like, so there'll be a lot of bargaining and politicking before anything's signed off.

Meant to quote this, not THIS it. I think the public confidence the other clubs have just expressed in the Nix is the most positive thing that's happened in … yonks. Sure, there'll be a lot of bargaining and politicking to come, but I'm now more confident than ever that we have a long term future in the A-League, and hopefully Rudan will read it the same way when he makes his own decisions on his own future. 

Any club can have a few bad season, and small clubs (CCM, The Nix) have more of them than big clubs (Victory, SydFC).  In the proposed new league financial stability will be far more important than winning championships every year. The problem with selling the idea of Nix in the new league is largely limited to the state federations or FFA counting every dollar they think we take away from a club based in Australia without contributing equally to it.  That job belongs to Morrison; he would not be on the owners forum if he was not good at that particular job.  If we had a CEO as good as we have the chairman I would not worry about the club.

I'd be more concerned if some of his issues weren't real.  Quite clearly, they are... and it's up to Welnix to do their address them. 

Or not.

https://apfca.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/APFCA-Blueprint-For-An-Independent-League-1.pdf

Just get on and meet Rudan's demands. Agree he's the best thing that has happened to the Phoenix for years.

We want to win the A league - otherwise what's the point ?

Having lived in both cities, the stadiums are quite different.  The Millennium Stadium is built on the remains of the old stadium with some scummy industry removed.  Would be more like building a new stadium in Aotea Square.  

I'd love a waterfront stadium for Auckland though as long as it's not affected by wind like Wellington.

100 per cent this.

However since the inception of the current owners there has been no obvious desire or action to do so.

It will therefore take an enormous shift in attitudes or ownership structure to make this happen.

100 per cent back an employee calling them on this.

Seems like the default is Rudan leaves (he's got good offers and family in Aus) unless these things are sorted:

Family

This is more like a prerequisite than a demand - either they come here (which obviously they'd have to want to do - not just a case of the club 'flying them over') or they make do with things the way they are, or Rudan goes, regardless of his other requirements. He said, in reply to the suggestion an honorable man would see out his contract, "I'm honorable to my family."

Demands / ultimata / requirements

Call it what you like, he's said there's a deadline for certain assurances from the club to him, and that they're in talks. He's mentioned three (others?) and they seem related.

1) 'I'm ambitious; I want a 'big project'

This could mean packing a big stadium every week and having a good go at winning the league. Auckland crowds, all things being equal, should be four times the size of Wellington ones; could relocating the franchise to Auckland (with a new partner and new money) be on the table?

Or it could mean the freedom, money and authority to do what he thinks is needed to make the Phoenix an outstanding club in Wellington.

2) 'Better players'

More money - Nix's squad value is a third of Victory's. Morrison seems committed and active, but who knows what the owners are prepared to spend. New partner needed?

3) 'Lots of things at the club have to change'

So this seems to fall on the GM.  The social media presence has been excellent. But then there's the Academy, Kalezic's appointment, signing Lowry before a new coach arrived (decent player but who decided he was a 'must-sign'?), and Dome's inexplicable presence and prominence at the first few player introductions and sharing of his thoughts on the signings. Not appropriate, and why would he think his opinion on the players was important?

Possibly there are some poor and entrenched practices at the club that Rudan's come up against. He's implying there's a reluctance to change. But whether he stays or goes, the changes he's after are probably needed.

I am not sure that relocating the club to another city and hoping the crowds would turn up week in week out is the way a financially conservative / stable / club should act just to keep one coach, no matter how charismatic / talented.  

Didn't everyone think that Earnie was the new messiah after year one? Rudan is great but also shows his immaturity as a manager in front of the media on several occasions, the last one was borderline embarrassing. He still has a lot to prove in year 2 (if he honors his contract) it would be easier to cash in on his current kudos than risk losing it all next year if he delivers 6th or worse. Don't get me wrong, he is doing some great things and deserves credit, would be very satisfying if he did better again next year so he could get off his weekly media soapbox and relax a bit, no one should be bigger than the club.

He won't stay because the people running the club are unambitious and don't really know anything about football.

If that really was the case we'd be sitting here today hopefully praising Darije Kalezic for getting us to 9th spot this year ahead of CCM or maybe of Brisbane. 

Hopefully.

Are you saying genuinely or that he's been building that story in recent interviews?

Dome said on the radio just a couple of weeks ago that they know what Rudan want's and they're putting together a package to meet his demands, they just can't do it for a couple of months. My guess is it's all around the license, once the license is resolved they'll be able to make long term plans and invest towards that.

If you'd ever talked to members of the ownership group then some of them are very ambitious.

He's also identified the role that NZF can/should play in the success of the Nix; and of the game in this country - so his demands I expect are intrinsically tied to enhancing/formalising that relationship for the mutual benefit of all three.

Dont you love it when people on forums continually drop hints they no stuff but never seem to be able to provide details. The story of YF since forever. LMAO

I'm definitely not claiming inside knowledge. It's been obvious for a long time that the owners aren't interested in investing for success, they target a finals spot and then hope for the chips to fall the right way. The fact they don't know much about football is also obvious from a lot of decisions made in the past. Keeping Kalezic around would have fallen in the "completely boneheaded" range, not the "doesn't know much about football" one.

I don't "no" stuff per se. Wellington is a small city, everyone knows everyone and some of the owners are quite accessible, attending functions and events. Others you meet through work.

Talk is cheap

FFS can we just go back to being positive.

Talk may be cheap but owning the Phoenix certainly isn't.