Contracted Players - Return of the Long Pins

Take off your tin foil hat for a moment, you were also certain that wu had signed six Phoenix players.

While Rudan has been a manipulative dick I have no doubt that what we're seeing is nothing more that Hanlon's razor.

O Judas, our Judas

Just shows that Rudan can really talk a good game and maybe Doloras is right and our future isnt as certain as some of us hope.Find it very strange after all that he has put up with here he decides ti finish at a new club.Rock on maybe our defence will tighten up now.

 Could also be good in another way in that he wont be around as the senior pro to undermine Talay should he not do things the way he likes.

Dont bother telling me he is a club legend,club legends DONT do this to the team they have helped create.

Rudan had motives to come here and none of it was about the Phoenix  he is a scheming  lying B A S T A R D.

Just on this - they did end up with three, and were well in the hunt for two others before bigger money was offered from elsewhere. It's not exactly a huge swing and a miss.

Wish I could this this more than once.

Well, they're a new club. I'd be surprised if they weren't talking to all off contract top tier a league players.

I had heard that WU had signed six Phoenix players. As it stands, they have signed 3, and two of the others who were rumoured to be going there have gone to India instead. This is not the slam-dunk against my credibility you think it is.

HAHAHAHA jinx, I owe Boxey a coke.

Anyway, what's this about my "negativity"? James Dean, for example, doesn't get accused of negativity although he regularly complains that the Nix back office are stuffing it up, a conclusion I don't share (I honestly think they're doing as best they can under the circumstances). Tinfoil hattery, I'll cop to that, but I'm actually more positive than many.

I'll do it for you

This is a great opportunity for the club to move on without baggage. I had always suspected that much of the trouble the club had over the years had something to do with Durante because he was the only constant at the club during periods where we kept having the same problems when we had different coaches and different players. I think El Grap might have a feeling on this theory going on his recent posts.

I still think he will sign mandi as well. So that will be 4

With Rufer winning that 'Spirit of the Phoenix Award' and nailing down a starting place in the midfield (especially with Mandi and Burgess gone!) I think that he is coming to a certain maturity to captain us next season. Realistically once we all get over it we aren't losing a huge amount of quality in Durante and I would honestly have been surprised had he played a starting role next season at the age of 37 going soon to 38 though I do agree that this leaves a huge gap in the experience and club culture side of things. Really if we try to think about this as a good thing it means that Talay is going to be given a relatively young and blank canvas to build the club in his image.

Shane Smeltz is a club legend, as is Vince Lia and Manny Muscat. They all went elsewhere as did Brockie, Boxall. Shall I go on or keep exposing your foolishness?

Club legends do move on, it happens the world over. Usually because they have this mental 'I can play longer' than their usual club want them to but they have delusions of grandeur.

Realistically, how many games will he play there? 37 and slowing....

So Doyle has to be a dead set to be resigned now. He can play as a left CB along side Taylor. He is definitely good enough

I think the biggest kick in the guts here is the fact that 1 or 2 seasons ago the CLUB funded Durante's trip to the USA and got him taken round all the MLS clubs to find out how their back room staff operate etc. The fact that he hasn't chosen to use that experience here once he retires is a real kick in the guts to not only us as a club but also Rob and the owners who funded said trip and have had it thrown back in their face. For me, this is where Durante's credibilty should be called into question.. 

I would ask any sane football person 'is he not worthy of a spot?'

He sits in our backyard so we don;t have to compete with signatures. Lowball him and use him

I think Storm Roux has got Aus citizenship so doesn't take a visa spot.

Doyle is a player that gives everything for the shirt, and has A league experience. I'm surprised he's on the outer. 

With only 7 signatures (off the top of my head) Doyle sticking around wouldn't be a bad thing at all - every player counts ecpecially if they're somewhat A-league quality.

But seriously low on quality when it counts. That said, we're not currently in a position to be picky. Not yet anyway.

You never leave a job after getting professional development?

Doyle would be decent if he learnt to control his impulses/rash challenges.

i don't get the no Doyle business. He is kiwi and worth a squad place and shown he can play at this level. Instead we sign an Ausi teenager when we already have a teenager in that posi

Unless it is something he has done off the field. He had a bit of history when he was young but I thought he had matured

Where and when did piney specifically say Doyle was gone

Bit of both- Dura is becoming accesory to Rudan screwing us. A legend...but a definite footnote. None of the others had such potential to affect the clubs survival.

He should have re-tired. Thanks for some good years, no thanks for some crazy seasons.

Good luck Durante. Thanks for the service and giving everything for the shirt. It's a definite rarity in this league to have one player give such long service to one club. As for the choice of club however, well it's just another reason to hate the bastards, but that's neither here nor there. I hope we smash them when we come up against them this season. Wipe that bloody smirk off Rudan's face completely...

As much as it sucks to lose someone of his experience, Talay pretty much has a blank canvas to work with now (as if he didn't already) so I look at that as a positive. Good mix of youth signings and four import slots to play with I'm still confident we'll have a good squad come the start of the season. Wonder if it's now a case of seriously looking at going stateside and having a chat with the likes of Boxall, Musa, or even Brotherton? Should be able to offer some enticing coin, especially if we've got a few youthful players lined up already. Even Nikko down in the Danish 2nd Division, although I think he'd like to give another crack at chasing promotion to the Danish top tier as Viborg are getting closer. Purely hypotheticals but I'd like to think they'd be giving those guys a look.

Didn't he just visit all MLS clubs Kiwis (AWs ex team mates) were at?

Probably just stayed at the homes of Tuiloma, Boxall, Marinovic, Huddo & co. Bus man's holiday

Rob probably spends more each month criss crossing the Tasman on NLWG business, and the like.

Who's to say he won't come back and do that when his playing days are over?

It's quite feasible Talay told him he won't get on the park but Durante feels he can play another season.

Hard to argue with that.

For some reason the Durante thing really hurts. OK he was at the end of his usefulness as a player and probably wouldnt have played much next season. But it is the symbolism of whats happened that gets me. Durante is a club icon, skipper for years, he's toughed it out through the really down times at the Nix when he could easily have got a gig elsewhere. He would have been acutely aware of the scenario that has been played out over the last few months regarding that rat Rudan. If he had retired and gone back to Australia.....or even signed for another year as a player at...say his old club the Jets then I could have worn that. But to go to WU with that rat Rudan is a complete slap in the face to the Nix club, to its supporters and to this city which he called home for many years.

I had hopes that Dura would ease into management and eventually become CEO of the Nix(god knows we could do with someone who knows how to run a football club) There is something seriously amiss in this club.

You can dress up Dura going to WU anyway you like but for me it is gross treason. I am gutted!!!!!!!!!

I'm going through immense amounts of cognitive dissonance. 

Yeh- it was always Dura- 5-0 in Adelaide or 75 minutes into a hard slog in Perth. Never running away. Through thick and thin. It makes us feel like the club isn't going to last.  Without him who are the 'Nix? We're asking Talay to build us from ground up. Fudge Rudan and his BS. Maan.

Stop blaming Rudan... it's pathetic.

Everyone that has signed with him are grown men, capable of making their own decision. They obviously felt that what he and the club offered was better than what we were putting on the table. That's not Rudan's fault, that's ours as a club.

That would be if the players were talking to other clubs in a "level playing field" situation. This was not the case here. This was more akin to insider trading, since Rudan was in a position of trust where he had information and leverage that other clubs did not. It all looks perfectly legal but many of us have a lingering bitter taste.

All of the above is based on nothing but speculation, we don't know what Rudan did or didn't do. What we do know is the NIX have known since day dot how long their players are contracted for and there was nothing stopping them from signing players to longer contracts from the start if players were interested.