Ernie Merrick - former Phoenix manager

I want to know what Doloras thinks

No you don't. :)

But seriously - looks like I was wrong about Ernie being all washed up.

To be fair to you, I don't think anyone predicted the club would be in this position. "Youth schemes", reserve side, strong 1st squad and 3rd - all before he was signed 18 months into his first gig. The club is very very sound.

Ernie had a plan, that was the whole Herbert issue, no long term plan. Imagine the different meetings those two coaches had with the management? Herbert low on the ladder, try to implement the football the management wants. Merrick coming from Hong Kong full of unfilled ideas for the national team, ideas for modern attacking possession based football with a few A-League titles in the bag. Ricky always tight lipped, grumpy and defensive in press conferences vs Ernie talking about teaching them winning mentality. Easy choice.

The interesting thing is that Morgan got a lot of hate for saying 'total football' and that most fans have no idea about football, but let's be honest at the end he was right, he got what he wanted. Changes often pisses people off, now everyone is happy. Good management is to find the best man for most important Phoenix employer: Ernie Merrick

I remember when all the anti sack ricki crew said who else is out there whos better than ricki? Thank god logic and sanity prevailed in the end

What I found amusing was the notion that, in the space of a couple of years, the game had progressed such that it had left a coach who'd won the league twice behind.

It was if it was no longer 11 aside played with a round ball and the ability to spot , recruit , nurture and motivate talent was the foundation of a winning team.

Ernie Merrick, Super-Coach, Coaches the Black Caps in his Spare Time: 

"I don't like draws"  (Ernie Merrick interviewed on his football philosophy December 2014)

BLACKCAPS @BLACKCAPS                                  19 hours ago

Very honoured to have @wgtnphoenixfc's Ernie Merrick presenting Test caps before the Basin Test @YellowFever_NZ ^RI

Big Pete 65 wrote:

Ernie Merrick, Super-Coach, Coaches the Black Caps in his Spare Time: 

"I don't like draws"  (Ernie Merrick interviewed on his football philosophy December 2014)

BLACKCAPS @BLACKCAPS                                  19 hours ago

Very honoured to have @wgtnphoenixfc's Ernie Merrick presenting Test caps before the Basin Test @YellowFever_NZ ^RI

looks like he's measuring width of wickets - or something.

My big mistake was thinking that MVFC must have known something we didn't. But then I assumed that Terry S knew something we didn't that made WGA trustworthy. I continue to underestimate the stupidity of those in positions of responsibility.

Did he run out of ideas ?Yes. Did things need changing?  Yes. But to rubb8sh what he did achieve is an insult to him and those of us who enjoyed what he and his squad achieved

Can't imagine it is easy keeping/assembling a squad and staff when they aren't getting paid regularly. 

people have short memories that is for sure. 

Wasn't there talk that we signed Downey because he was willing not to be paid until Sept/Oct as we had no money? Could all be bullshark tbf.

I'm not saying Herbert was rubbish, where did I say that? I just say he had no idea to change the style of football. The same thing happend to his NZ job, now we have fresh face with new ideas, if it just empty words? We don't know, yet. The players seems to buying in, video analyses of their games, fancy and very modern ;-)

http://www.3news.co.nz/sport/video-ernie-merrick-full-interview-2015010318#.VKd4x0ccxWs.twitter

It can be difficult to compare the two - given that they largely worked under different owners and NZF has also altered their view of the Nix somewhat since Ernie's been around (reserve side etc).

We've had some good and not so good times under both coaches. 

Poor Downey hasn't played since leaving us, as far as I can tell.

(Heh, even poorer, he comes from Gympie. A Downey from Gympie. A Gympie Downey.)

I "this'ed" this paragraph.

Not about "total football" he wasn't.

Agree about fans not having an idea (table watchers I think was the sub-theme) - did he say "most"?

Not knowing the Board discussions with the coaches, my impression was that Ricki did not have the same resources available to him as Ernie.  Maybe Ricki did not have the same vision and strategy to achieve the vision as Ernie but as another poster has stated - different times, different resources, so comparisons are entirely spurious and based on the posters' prejudices.

There is no other coach I would swap Ernie for right now.

I think the owners did very well when they got Ernie. Looking at the names thrown around- Phil Moss, Papas...this was in a league where punts on guys like Mike Mulvey were seen as good bets and where Miron Bleiberg had still had a reasonable chance of getting a job in the league. Simply put the standard of coaching and playing across the board seems greatly improved after the Ange revolution.

I think everyone was mostly happy when Ernie was announced, but were waiting for some proof in the pud...

todays game sums up how far things have come since the park the bus/longball era :)

It was as if 2012/13 Nix and Brisbane had swapped shirts.

While I was always in favour of considering Ernie as a prospective new coach once Ricki quit, I thought changes would come swiftly. I was feeling truly anxious when better results were not coming our way for a loooong time (last season, anybody?).

So instead of feeling like a wise sage I also feel like I've learned a lesson this season: a complete change in playing style takes a long time with old personnel, and that the new personnel takes a long time to bed in.

Especially when it is so hard to offload and recruit players. Perth have followed a similar trajectory: Disappointing year, people questioning the new coach, said coach gets rid of dead wood, recruits really well, and gets the team playing good football.

So true.  Also bear in mind that we had no depth last year as our injuries showed with our drop in form.

This year with a squad that is pretty much Ernie's choice and a reserve team to back up the first team, we are seeing the benefits.

Critics of the previous management would do well to ponder that before gobbing off.

For me I saw enough last season. Even though we ended up near the foot you could always point to that little stretch where we had those fantastic results. If we came at the foot and didn't have such a golden period then you would have to ask questions. I didn't expect this season to be as good as it has been but I saw enough last season to have some degree of confidence for this one.

Re-sign the man!

Actualy, yes, and I hope Welnix are working on it, while Ernie is still publicly saying he is interested.

Imagine the money other clubs will be waving at him now (after he previously missed out on a job at AU to Gombau).

Also, people were more confident about Totori than when he arrived than the near-universal WTF? which rang out when Krishna arrived. I would say both had raw talent, but Krishna has shown better mental fortitude.

The point is that Ricki made calls as he saw them, and some turned out well and some were disasters, same as any coach.

Agreed completely, both for Ricki and Ernie.

Good point - here's a list of all Alex Ferguson's 99 signings for Man Utd by year with ratings out of 10:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/sir-a...

For every Cantona, Schmeichel or Rooney, there's a fair few rated only 1, 2 or 3.

Taibi, Jordi Cruyff or Bojan, anyone?