Contracted Players - Return of the Long Pins

I'm honestly thinking that the release of Carlos is one of the most interesting this that could've happened.

Think about it, as soon as he was announced that he was included in the Costa Rica WC squad, the probability of him being poached by another team and earning a transfer fee for the club must've sky-rocketed. The owners who are all astute business people would've recognized this.

So from a $$$ point of view this either indicates one of two things:

1) There is a player who which the nix are close to signing in the near future who either needs the cash Carlos took up in the cap (unlikely due to the owners reluctance to splash it) OR they needed his import spot (indicating that this player is a straight upgrade for Carlos).

2) There may have been a clause in Carlos' contract that indicated that after the contract was signed (or extended) no transfer fee would be paid to the club. 

At this point due to Carlos' likelihood of departure would've only hindered the club in finding a new import player, prompting them to put forward a motion to release him. Because otherwise why would he have been sold? They could've sat on his contract, hoping that a big name club comes knocking post WC with a big cheque.

Due to the timing and tweets from Paul Iffil it appears that it was the Club's decision to release him, with the timing indicating that his inclusion to the WC squad somewhat brought on this decision.

I hope this extra time gives us some time to find a decent youngish player like Alejandro, to grow with the club.

IN ERNIE WE TRUST

Ifill went on to say to someone that piney summed it up well. 

Piney had basically said he is a good player but very disruptive to the team environment that the nix take seriously. Will be missed on field but not off it, and there is no room for drama queens at the nix. 

Sounds like another example of the no cocks policy being enforced for sure. 

I don't think its completely one or the other.

He led by miles in assists last year, and in production (assists + goals) despite not being at his best. 

I think if he wasn't such a cock, we would have kept him. 

But also by the same token, if he was at his best, we also would've kept him even if he was a cock. 

It's the combination of the two that led to him going. 

I have no idea why there were comments on this forum immediately talking about Cunnigham "probably also likely to leave then".  I had no idea that Costa Rican players were expected to share a hive-mind, to borrow a Stephen Baxter expression.

Carlos and Kenny showed quite different attitude and commitment on the field. Others may comment on the off-field attitude, as I am less well informed on that. We may discuss their relative difference in footballing skills, but I cannot really fault Kenny's commitment. He scored us some nice goals, and they were field goals. As the season wore on, he was diving less and protesting less. He made the left flank his own. He may not be a superstar, but if he has no attitude problems then I expect him to stay. Carlos was presumably asked to leave.

Yeah not sure why Kenny would leave just because Carlos did, its not like they're best buds who have spent their entire careers alongside each other. Kenny's work rate and ethic is 100 times greater than Carlos', cant think of anyone who put as much effort into last season as he did. Would be disapointed if we lost him.

No one was ever going to pay us for Carlos. 

He is not going to make any headlines at the world cup. 7 players still need to be trimmed from that squad beforehand as well, wouldn't be surprised if it's him that gets the cut after the rest of his team show him up fitness-wise. 

Even if he does make it, and somehow gets a start, I can't see him making much of a difference against Italy, Uruguay or England.

I also think this was always on the cards and that his selection in the provisional squad had zero to do with it. 

Good decision by Merrick if he wants to move forward with this team, but recruitment will be key to covering the departures of our two most productive players. 

So looks like it was driven by Carlos;

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/10040978/Hernandez-departure-piles-pressure-on-Merrick

Couple of lines from that article;

Ernie: "We were going to try and ride it through, sort it out and get him fit for next year - that was the plan all the way through," said Merrick from Scotland. "But the team dynamic and culture is crucial and there's no point having someone who doesn't want to be at the club. He feels there will be better options for him elsewhere. The club won't stand in his way."

Merrick was confident fellow Costa Rican Kenny Cunningham was happy at the Phoenix and would report for pre-season on June 2.

Pretty simple this.  Carlos asked to be released, thought he'd get a good offer on the back of the World Cup and his family was not happy in Wellington.  Point 1, I can believe he believes, Point 2 may be just an excuse.  But why would you try and keep a sulky difficult player who does not want to play for you.  I think Ernie is totally straight when he says they intended to keep Carlos but he asked to leave.  But you guys think he was pushed?

But that article is spot on - two big shoes to fill for performance on the field.  And you can't be comfortable when Ernie says he has a 20/100 chance of landing any one of the players he is talking to.  Go well Ernie.  I agree our D was an issue, but presuming Riera and Gorrin are a hard working duo in front of them (and Fenton back) I would expect that to tighten up a lot next season.  CAM and striker is the buy list for me, like for like for Carlos and Stein.  Jeez, fingers crossed.

Carlos being selected for the world cup does not make him a better player than he was two days ago ffs

I think most would believe that he asked to leave rather than being pushed. However I also think it's fair to assume that Ernie and co wouldn't have spent to much energy trying to convince him to stay once he'd put in a request to be released.

I'd say the clubs preference for the past couple of months has been to bin Carlos if at all possible due to him being a sulky dickhead

How disappointing. Easily the most talented CM we've ever had. He was the one shining light this season most of the time.

Sounds like he never really got settled and i'd question why this was - he seemed perfectly happy in Melbourne. I wonder if we didn't really help his family settle enough.

People have been ragging on him for being 'sulky' but wouldn't you be if your family wasn't given enough help settling in? I know I'd be pretty moody too.

Guy played at maybe half his capacity with a team full of people that could barely be called 'footballers' and still topped out assists contribution. He will be missed on the field.

There are a couple of things that really come to mind.

1: I read Magic Johnsons book. One thing he says is that in top level sports, character is just as important as talent because if you have one guy sitting at the end of the bench, not playing and getting sulky, that rotten apple can affect others and then you have 2 or 3 that can be that way so I think a big part of this is Carlos' attitude. I understand that the HAL is not at a level where others are about of similar talent (like in the NBA) but the sentiment is the same where if you look long and hard enough, you will find a player as good with a better attitude. Attitude is everything especially when you are trying to squeeze an extra 2% out of a player. In that respect Ifill shits all over Carlos every time. Injured and possibly career done, but is going to give it a try and if not, stick around. That's a winner right there.

2: Considering the club did their bit to help him with his WC aspirations, this is a bit rich. Its like he has got everything he wanted but was not prepared to suck it up in return. That grates me a lot. Adios and don't let that door hit you on the way out.

3: I still think that if he was delivering on what we know he can produce, he would never have been released.

4: I hope a stipulation is that he cannot sign with another HAL club for 1 year. Never let a dog come back and bite you in the ass.

Marginal attitude and performance (while still decent) below expectation = thanks for coming, have a nice day and good luck.

I would be shocked if he didn't go back to Melbourne. Is still wanted there and with Muscat at the helm, he knows what he can do.

He wasn't happy in Melbourne.  By the end he was high maintenance there as well. 

Getting his family settled wasn't helped by him being too lazy to make sure his family had valid passprts.

He turned up for at most 5 of 27 games and we need a player that will turn up for more than that.

He has Premier League ego and self worth but A-League skill.

Bye.

Not getting younger and not likely to get thinner or fitter either. Not a good combination with his tantrums every time he gets subbed off.

Footballers will be footballers. (i.e. disorganised, not that bright)

U wot?

End of the day, if someone doesn't wanna be at the club, then I don't want them here. Adios Carlos, good player, shit attitude.

Fever should have taken turns to babysit Carlos's kids

I just get the impression we would have kept him, as Ernie says, but he gave us the excuse/showed the lack of enthusiasm for being here that meant we were happy to let him go when he asked.  Personally I'd only want a motivated Carlos and would be happy to get rid of him at the first sign he was less than fully committed.

What i am interested in, slightly, is whether Ernie might not have been planning to recruit a new import level CAM until this week.  Or whether he knew Carlos' request was coming and has been on the hunt already.  I guess statements that he was looking for another midfielder, after already having bagged Gorrin, suggest he knew it was coming?  I'd be happier to know that we have been doing our homework on a new CAM, making approaches etc for quite a while, rather than just starting now.  The lack of confirmation that McGlinchey is a target and the comment only that McGlinchey was the sort of player/class Ernie would be looking for suggests we can't be sure they have already been on the hunt?  Anyone have any inside info on that?

Re Carlos, I agree with others, on many counts.  He will be missed on the field for his assists and goals, but he won't be missed off the field and despite his signs of class I think it is easy to argue he did NOT do enough, consistently, to be our number one import.  Plus, I'd add, he had a negative impact on the field that detracted from his positives.  Players had to do a lot to compensate for his lack of agility and lack of interest in doing his defensive duties.  Some-one talked about Brockie's work rate on the threads, but quite often this season I would see Brockie hunting the opposition defensive player on the ball, only to find they had an easy outlet because Carlos wasn't closing his man. Several times Brockie raised both hands and shrugged as if to say "why am i bothering when this guy wastes my efforts".

We'll only miss Carlos if Ernie doesn't find someone as good/more consistent/less cock. 

So pissed off that I could only "This" this once.

I have absolutely no concern with how nice, friendly or happy our players - I just want us to have the best players we can get. With Ernie stating he wanted to keep him, I suggest that he has the same attitude.

Considering he only turned up for (at most ) 5 games and managed 7 goals (second highest in the squad) and 8 assists (well over double anyone else in the squad) suggests to me that he was worth keeping. I am upset by this development and hope that we make a significant signing (better than McGlinchy) as a replacement.

My personal belief is that someone has to be a pretty special player to receive dispensation from the no cocks policy. What we see and what is produced on the playing field is only part of the employment equation, everything in the background [ultimately] has an effect on what we see up front. If he wasn't such a cock [and I don't know if he actually was] maybe the team would have performed better when the chips were down?

Is Carlos the HAL equivalent of that? Was Carlos in the top 6-12 players in the league this season just gone? Most likely not a consensus one anyway.

Move along Carlos.

Mario Baloteli is a legend and a national f*cking treasure. That is all.

The guy topped our assists chart while not playing anywhere near the top of his game - that is special enough to warrant more effort being put in to get him happy, in my opinion. Most of the players of his type are difficult to deal with.

Being 'top 6-12' in the league is a moot point - he was our best creative player; that is a fact. He was the player that other teams were scared of. He could also create more on one leg than any other AM we've ever had.

Of course, if we did put the effort in and he's still not happy being here - then see ya later.

I'd rather have good players who strop about a bit than a team of Ross Aloisi's. We've got big holes to fill with Stein and Carlos' departures. But hey, moving on - maybe we will get a blue-collared playmaker who doesn't cause no ruckus.

I do wonder if the players are enforcing the no-cocks policy too strictly.

Maybe it needs to be enforced like the salary cap with room outside the cap for a Marquee Cock.

It's not how big it is......

We didn't release him because he is a cock, we released him because he wanted to leave. We just didn't bother with trying to convince him to stay because he is a cock.

Last year, One of our best players was Jeremy Brockie. Up there in the golden boot stakes in a miserable season. If he was being a complete cock, would you put up with it? In that year, he was one of our best. Lets not use the fact that we know he just came off a shit season either. You make the decision on what you know at the time. That's what you were just saying about Carlos so be careful what lines your draw.  At the point in time, Carlos was one of the better players but a guy that spend a chunk of the season injured or warming the bench was voted ahead of him. What does that say about how good he was?

I think being one of the best in your team is not enough cause being the best in your team, you could still well be a shit footballer if your team is shit (and the season prior, we were). You need to be one of the best in the league to get away with a bit of crap and have some rope especially in a league where there are only 230 players. You shuffle that shit on and find another guy.