Surely we are going for a lot better quality player than Payne !!!
A young man who played in the reserves or u21s in a championship side and didnt get a look in for their first team.
Happens to be picked in midfield for All Whites - big deal
I dont get the fuss over him
Like our big off season recruit??
The reason why I've always favoured kiwis is:
- you can only sign 5 foreigners
- kiwis are foreigners in both Asia and A-League so you're more likely to keep hold of them and they have less options so noty as much salary pressure
- we apparently have to overpay to get Aussies to Wellington
- we're a NZ club and that's important for the club identity
I personally find it surprising that when you have a guy available who is going to start for the national team you can't find a place for him at the Phoenix. There may be reasons for why he isn't being picked up, but to me, they have to be pretty good reasons. The idea that we already have other up and coming players in his position is an explanation, but when those players aren't as good as him then that is a failure of recruitment strategy. It was always likely he would be available at the end of his time at Blackburn, if so why didn't we sign Hicks on a one year deal, see how he goes and then he could be replaced by Payne if he was available and the deal could be worked out?
There is a lot of confidence in Welnix to work out the off field stuff, but I personally haven't seen a lot of really great decision making or strategic thinking when it comes to running the club I'm not saying it's an easy job, but there definitely have been some odd decisions. Here's a short list - not all of these are wrong decisions but they do to me indicate a lack of clear direction and some of them are quite odd:
- signing Hernandez under Herbert when it was clear Herbert wouldn't be round the following season rather than leaving that cap + overseas spot available for an incoming manager
- giving Hicks a 2 year deal straight off
- not replacing Riera when injured
- a 2 year deal for Krishna and then not playing him at the end of the season
- re-signing Vince Lia, especially for another 2 years
- signing Gorrin as foreign player when he's so inexperienced
- re-singing Italiano when you have both Williams and Spoonley available, both who seem more than adequate as backup and are NZers
- choosing not to sign a RB and converting Fenton
Anyway, enough from me on our current recruitment. I think we still need 3-4 starters to really improve on last year, a fullback, midfield playmaker, a wide player (I think we're crying out for some width) and a central striker.