Smeltz and other Gold Coast recruiting

Fixed.

Cheers HN.

I'm a little tired of the knockers saying he has gone when nothing has been confirmed. Interesting that there has been no follow up to that article since it was 1st posted. You'd think they would trumpet it from the sky if it were true.

Some of our fans should be careful as humble pie doesn't taste that great

It seems to me that the longer this goes on the less likely that Smeltz will sign with us. We have offered him a contact and if he was happy he would have signed straight away, secured his future, allowed him to get on with his game and made us all happy. It seems that if a contract has been signed with GC it would be kept quiet to not upset the fans/team mates.

Not sure if Smeltz's family is now in Wellington, but a delay in making a decision could be so that he sees how his family settle in Wellington.

f**k

http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/88255,smeltz-goes-for-gold--official.aspx

He'll regret that decision.

He's a gonna...drop him to the bench cos his mind is not on it.

Over him already.

i'm not just yet

They just announced it as a news flash on radio sport

Well, we better start searching fast for strikers.

we desperately need to snap up Joel Porter now

it's up on the nix site as well now

http://www.wellingtonphoenix.com/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&id=24644

We could try get Nikita Rukavytsya, probably look to move the Europe though. 

Et tu Smeltzy? 

Is he redeeming the New Zealand vs Wales blue away strips? I'd feel dirty wearing it if he was at the Coast. Time for those new signings Terry, before the bad on bad news gets too much.

Is he redeeming the New Zealand vs Wales blue away strip? I'd feel dirty wearing it if he was playing for the Coast. Time for those new signings Terry, before the bad on bad news gets too much.

goneburger - oh well, Covs has scored one goal in 5497 games for us...

Well she is the second highest scoring striker at the ROF... and the most goals in a single game... not te mention she can actually shoot the ball at the goal - not to mention get it in... I think it could fly

"Oh no Tony, I swear, no no I strenuously swear I haven't signed with them."

F*ck him off, sit him on the bench. He's been playing like a busted ar$e for the past month, perhaps the conscience thing of not being about to front up and admit he's going was getting to him.

Better off fronting up Costa now and sitting Smeltz on the bench.  No doubt we'll hear Ryan Nelsen from his 14 bedroom mansion in the north of England pipe up about how the Phoenix are doing nothing for New Zealand soccer and poor old 'superstars' like Smeltz don't get enough 'cred' and so have to move on.

He would be almost at the end of his professional career if Ricki didn't save him from the doldrums of English football. Screw him.

I wanna see some bluddy Draper.. and/or bluddy Brockie... and/or someone (or two) else who can put the bluddy ball in the back of the bluddy net on a reasonabluddy regular bluddy occurence.

Bluddy.
 

I hope Gold Coast get flattened next year, I really do.

 Im sad to see him off but I dont see the point in bagging him now!  He is still our top scorer and if he gets benched were F*%ked!!  Aus teams would laugh at us even harder!

Eh, he hasn't done sh*t all since his mind has been on the Gold Coast anyway.

Smeltz - you could've became a Wellington football god - but you chose surfing instead.

well he must've been doing alright to get signed in the first place

You seriously haven't noticed a drop in his performance over the last few weeks?

haha great video reference. His good form has been while playing for the Phoenix, Ricki is the All White coach and we offered him the same amount of money so what else does he want from a team? There is no promises about how well Bling 2 will go.

cos we're hurting

I don't begrudge him the move, even if his personal circumstances were different. Keep him on the team and give him our best wishes when he leaves.

were all hurting - but i guess he is trying to further his career????  They mentioned his family in the 442 article - maybe this is a big factor for him - he has 2 young kids i think.  Maybe we shouldn't lash out that he is going to Bling - there could be a lot more to it than Football!

Least we've got a real rivalry.  And I don't care if its a one way feeling.

Exactly.

I could appreciate it if Shane was moving on for a better career opportunity, such as a good league in Europe, in which case it would vindicate Ricki Herbert's faith in him to take a punt on an under performing lower league cellar dwellar with mixed reviews, but to move onto another lower league team after all that?

Not buying it.  Bench him.  Costa and Draper.  Let's look to the future.

I say give our best to our best player!  Sad to see him go - a true talent that did take a while to come of age but so what!  Lets not hope he turns to Sh*t when he leaves - he wont anyway.  He still represents NZ and and we should give him our support for the last half of the season and when he plays for the AWs!