Contracted Players - Return of the Long Pins

I don't see ho anyone can think that having 6 players is either normal or ok

A big chunk of last year's good work has been pissed away

We have seven players not six and five of those seven were key to the team when it was at it's most performant.

The Phoenix are in a unique position where a good chunk of our players don't have much of an alternative therefore players like Doyle will probably be re-signed but don't need to be until the new coach assesses them, there's just not much competition for them.

The only players who're confirmed gone that we'll miss are Krishna and Mandi, everyone else is replacable.

I don't see ho anyone can think that having 7 players is either normal or ok

A big chunk of last year's good work has been pissed away

Hard to be tough on the Nix for this when the main reason for it is out of their hands.

It is a little easier to sign good players if "more than one season" is an option.

We're not all griping about the same things ;-)

But yes, they're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't

Personally I'd have kept Sheridan, worked harder and earlier to retain other out of contract players and signed up promising youth

We seem to think it's a good thing to say to a coach, "hey man, you even have a blank canvass to work with, yippee!"

I'd rather we said to the new coach, "we had a decent season, we kept most of the best parts of it for you, and we left some space for you to shape your team"

But we don't have a football department do we? We leave it all in the hands of one guy and in this case he's clearly been working against us. A DoF would have prevented that. Heck any form of football department would have prevented that.

You talk like all those things were an option

Of course they most likely weren't all an option, but the fact that none at all happened indicates that even if they were, we were not capable of or willing to do so

Retaining Sheridan was absolutely an option. We don't know how hard we worked to keep the others (bar Krishna) so no one can really pass judgement on that without more information.

Not sure i understand how they are supposes to have negotiated with any of the players with the future still not guaranteed despite what some may claim.Love the optimism of some about assembling a competitive team jsut cant buy into it myself until out future becomes clearer.

Citation needed

Okay, let me rephrase. Do you have any evidence indicating that Sheridan wanted to stay?

There's nothing indicate that he wanted to leave, you claim there is. I want to see it.

Really dont get people wanting the club to have kept Sheridan before some others.Not as if he scored a heap or even set up a few,so he played okay a couple of times as a sub. Never took the couple of chances he had as a starter so i just dont get why people want him to take a visa spot.

Assuming that Sheridan wanted to stay is only fair if you're starting from the assumption that WPFC fudges everything up. It's just like those people who assumed that they were offering Krishna $50 and a cheese sandwich, rather than a better deal than either Smurfs or Bitumen Bogans.

I do not think anyone knows what happened and who said what (between Welnix and Sheridan) that amounted to "it's over".  Either way, he's gone.

As far as I know, Sheridan left Wellington without any offers from elsewhere.

The fact is he didn't perform to expectations, he had glimpses of potential but you don't sign a player of his pedigree because of potential. He didn't do enough even on the training pitch to have more than a few minutes of cameo off the bench and didn't really get close to forcing his way into the starting lineup.

well the contra to that are we had a very settled playing group with two strikers who had been working with Singh and Libby since pre-season and were in the form of their lives. There could be a difference if the guy is in the gaffers plans from the get go and given a pre-season.. David Williams seems to be similar to him in some ways tbh.

I totally accept that, because the reality was he did very little for us.

But, IMO he had the ability to tear up the league, but needed a good run in the side to do so. Rudan was totally correct to start Williams and Krishna ahead of him because they were tearing up the league. Of course nothings certain.

To me it seems that, by letting everyone run their contracts down or depart that we either:

1. Had a disinterested one-man recruitment and retention team (Rudan) who was busy working for others and didn't give a crap about us, or

2. ...management decided that offering the new coach a blank canvas was a good idea so decided to let everyone go

Talay said in his very first press conference that he had a say in the decision to let those five players go just before he arrived in Wellington.

Does Stensess deserve a professional contract with us?

Based on his performance against Perth no. But unfair to judge off that would say hes difintely worth a good look.

He's been pretty solid for the U20s

Yup

Think Bell was the better of the two, but Bell is also quite similar to Rufer imo

Elliott looked surprisingly good as well playing in the RB role as well, showed some good touched and positioning. 

All the NIX players looked good. Out of the none NIX players, I would be looking to sign Bell and Pnjanker as both looked good throughout the tournament.

Not going to happen cant see Bell giving up his scholarship in the states and frankly neither should he to play with us.

Bell has this presence, an innate ability, to make it seem like time is slowing down around him - he's so good at being the right position at the right time and slowing things down (in a good way), to make some great footballing decisions. I think he'll go far. 

Last night I thought he'd go even further until he messed up that penalty.

I'd like to add stamina, work rate and balance. If he works on his passing range, he could be our very own Pirlo.

I agree with ballane that he shouldn't play for us. He's on a good path and is going to be far too good for this league

https://www.talksports24x7.com/2019/06/04/breaking-wellington-phoenix-star-striker-set-to-join-atk/

It felt like as soon as it became clear that Krishna wasn't staying, Willo wouldn't either. I just hope we have some positive news about the club soon, ever since Rudan said he was leaving it's all felt pretty flat. 

Is that a real site, fellow striker jobby Justin ? that's an unfortunate name for a striker who hasn't been scoring... 

But agree jazzy, we're in desperate need of something positive. Not much to cling on to at the moment. 

Joel?

SO the club hasn't managed to retain the services of our coach, or any of our key players.  Pretty much sums up our off-field operation

This how the FFA/Federations are expecting the Phoenix to build a future.