Ernie Merrick - former Phoenix manager

Worked out well for Chris Wood at Leeds so far!

Ernie's success in playing style and results in that season with Burns, and then honesty and sheer likeability while the club was being threatened with being scrubbed out of existence (seem to have forgotten that some of you yeh?) and then some promising recruitment- Kosta, Krishna and Roly running forward, Rossi at the back- Gui an unknown quantity, but possibly a goer- which hasn't fired so far this season. 

I think someone made the comment somewhere- salary capped teams fall on their weakest links, rather than rise on their strongest and I think that the 'Nix have been a case study in that.

Ernie was a big draw card for players to come to New Zealand. He was a known, proven successful A-league manager with good connections. The difficulty recruiting players to Wellington isn't going to change. It may, in fact, be more difficult.

Loved Ernie but his tactics were running thin, great guy on and off the pitch and changed our play style for the better. I hope we snag Ramon, he'd be great!

I would of preferred he had stayed until after the next 2 home games, and if we lost them then fair enough... as is I'm unconvinced this is a good thing.

Ramon would be an interesting choice (if he wants it). The problem is he seems to be a guy who gets good imports, who he knows can play the style he likes. With the import/salary caps (and the owners tightness/small budgets relative to other teams) the A-League might not suit him so well? Is he capable of making this current squad fit his style?

http://www.a-league.com.au/article/graham-arnold-sad-at-ernie-merricks-shock-wellington-phoenix-resignation/1ejqie6gppwa61ops71bckxj6q

http://www.a-league.com.au/article/brazilian-great-roberto-carlos-ponders-coaching-in-hyundai-a-league/16xwr51nw97ad10vngxfepm117

a job has just opened for you Roberto!

Of that list, I think Tranni is the only one currently without a coaching job.

Ramon and Tranni would be the only realistic candidates - Ross Aloisi doesn't have much coaching pedigree does he?

And Hudson is obviously unavailable.

An Aussie coach would be ideal going forward because most of the team's future signings are going to have to be Aussies (not enough decent Kiwis available) and he'll need contacts across the ditch to scout players.

Papua New Guinea's Danish coach Flemming Serritslev is the most distinguished coach in Oceania (including Australasia) and has coached Denmark u-21 successfully for several years and been Denmark national team assistant coach.

He completed one year as PNG coach a few weeks ago so may be available - however Serritslev turns 70 in February.

May be good for the rest of this season and for next season.

Coaching in PNG must be tough and he seems to have coped well at his age.

Yeah, appoint someone even older than Ernie who turns 64 in January (six years older) !!!

Just signed on as Australia u-23 coach in recent weeks.

Ross is supposedly the brains in the Brisbane Roar operation, he coached in the NPL quite extensively I thought?

Hudson might be unavailable but he's been applying for jobs left right and center including the CCM job so I wouldn't discount him having a look in.

any chance of someone internal like Hedge or Temple?

https://soundcloud.com/trackside-radio/football-si...

Simon Hill reckons Ernie offered his resignation after the Victory game

A lot of nonsense being spoken, Ernie resigns so our license should be taken away!! Does a four year license mean anything to anyone? 

If I follow the process of how this would play out in my head, he offers his resignation, Welnix say 'hey hold on a couple more games'
He does that and they drop points in what should be a winnable game and he lets Welnix know that he is going to resign now.

That seems plausible if I speculate how it would play out.

And we should move to Auckland. 

Just listening to that interview. Really do not get the whole argument that the Nix are taking a spot that could be filled instead by an Australian team. It's a 10 team league, just add more teams - it shouldn't be a case of either or.

Turmoil! Honestly fifteen minutes of bullshark I'll never get back

Also as Midfielder pointed out in another thread our ratings in Australia are the highest of the regional teams. He's saying that a lot of people want to get rid of us but it seems like it's a small amount of vocal people. When we were threatened virtually all of the supporter groups rallied behind the team and that's probably the reason why we're still here so I think it's the opposite.

There's a reason why it's a 4 year deal to show improvements, and that's because the FFA recognise that it takes time to make these changes, it seems like Ernie has also recognised that and has give the team the most time he can to appoint a replacement who can make the required improvements.

Does always seem to be Fox Sport employees who jump on that bandwagon.

I agree with the sentiment that it would be a bad year for us to finish last, what we wanted (and I think this was borne out by the off season transfer activity) is a strong showing to emphasise that we are a club going places.  But seriously, every member of staff at the club is replaceable so Ernie resigning, or the commercial guy resigning, is not the end of the world!  It's just ridiculous that we are still talking about this stuff...shows how uninformed our emdia are to be honest

Also the Phoenix back office might be smaller than other organisations but they have made huge strides so far this season with their social media presence and fan engagement so people leaving isn't indicative of where the organisation is moving.

I don't think anyone is upset that Nathan Godfrey is leaving. 

Point is no-one mentions the central coast commercial manager resigning and think, that team is in TURMOIL!  Oh and glad to see EARTHQUAKE TURMOIL also got a mention

I'm happy Monk got boned, he's doing wonders for Chris and Leeds Leeds Leeds ATM!!!

I value the improved engagement with fans.

I think his resignation was compounded to some extent by refereeing decisions and the AW internationals that the bloody FFA would not reschedule

BUT 

He did sign the players out there, chose where and how to play them (Krishna taking pens, we all know he's sharke at them), opted to keep Ricki's captain, Durante when maybe it was time for a new person in charge and as much as I like him, kept Doyle when maybe due to his "Tin Man" factor should have maybe been let go and a decent LB signed instead of another AM.

Anyway, thanks Ernie for turning the Academy and training side of the club around.  They will pay dividends long after the current rosters/coaches and maybe ownership have gone.  Enjoy retirement.

Hudson wouldn't want to fail twice at a low club level.  It would be curtains on managing in Europe, let alone the UK which is good news for the Nix.

The new manager has to come from outside the club and will need to replace both Greenacre and Durante.

Would you want Durante to leave the club or just relinquish his captaincy?

Who are the alternatives?

Step down as captain but keep playing as he's playing better this season then of late but to be fair, he must only have a season or two left anyway.

So, who are the alternatives? Lia, Moss, Kosta, WeeMac, Roly, Gui, Krishna, Rossi?

The point was that interview painted the Phoenix back staff as inefective because the comercial manager left, so yes we should take heart because the back staff are improving..