Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA

JD - there is a crucial difference between the directive itself and the communication of the directive.

We all agree that the owners making a  decision to change playing style mid-season and then communicating it to management and players via the media is absolutely barmy. If that's what actually happened then Gareth needs to take a long walk off a short pier (or at least man up with an admission and apology)

However, it seems equally plausible to me that this decision was made pre-season and Ricki Herbert was simply handling it with some caution and discretion, knowing the limitations and sensitivities of his playing group. Gareth got excited and scared the horses a bit, but this is a much less concerning scenario to me. Everything that we have read still fits with it, including Durante's interview above.

And yes, I know I am only speculating, just as you are.

Frankly I hope I never have to read another quote from Morgan on the Phoenix ever again. He needs a lot of elocution work and comes across as a bit of a hillbilly (as much as his background may suggest otherwise)

 Dosnt help people posting that they aware of things yet not posting details.Shouldnt this come under the same rule as slagging off players etc if your not prepared to back it up dont post it.

This forum would never exist then Ballane

James Dean at 10:31pm: "Do you have a scrap of evidence to back this up?" - in response to suggestion that change in playing style might have been agreed pre-season.

James Dean at 11:44am: "Tell us more. I love good scuttlebutt" - in response to suggestion there may be problem between Ricki and players.

Schizo much? :-)

#doublestandards

What have i missed?

I am getting a little bit sick of all the anti Gareth messages out there. We all know now that Terry wouldn't have been able to keep the club going and I'm glad we have a bunch of people who have long term ambitions for the club.

There has been such a big deal about this whole clash of playing style and people are coming out almost saying this is the reason we are bottom of the table. So many other assumptions are being made.

I believe that even if we hadn't changed our style whatsoever, I struggle to believe that we would be much further up the table. We saw what Sydney did to us when we resorted back to what we know. It was obvious that the biggest difference in the 2 teams were the ability of players and one team with a lot more confidence (off the back of their come from behind win).

Talk that the attacking style will scare some of our players and this is hurting their confidence. Well thats the life of a professional footballer.

Please remember Gareth has bought in the Youth academy, wants to get a team in the Australian Youth Leage and in W-League.

Has he got a to learn about running a club? Highly likely. But I like a lot of the steps he has taken and feel a lot more confident in the management of the club than when Terry was the owner.

I felt myself agreeing with most of what you said Tunnel Vision, right up until the last sentence. It is most certainly not a non-story.

I'm with Clone MM and Terminator although its a bit disconcerting that we are left with suppositions and theories because its all quiet in the media front and neither player or owner or management wants to confirm the truth in case turnstile numbers drop even further.

Long term I truly believe that if you can't change the people, change the people and the curent owners whist they pay the bills (gawd bless ya) will have their say. Look at the EPL and how many of the new breed of club owner change out their coaching staff on a frequent basis. If the A league is to grow in the world stage and NZ wants a slice of the action, its inevitable that those owners who wish to keep up with the standard will need to reinforce thier teams.

So where does that us the common fan or the core 5,000 who turn up each game? Keep the faith, calm down and carry on, normal service will be resumed very shortly or at least next season but certainly not before!

He's at least claiming a source - I know you're just speculating (unless you've got a very very deep mole) 

Alright, Rob Morrison sets about putting the fucking house in order...

Ricki Herbert gets backing of Phoenix Board

Highlights:

---

When asked on Wednesday whether Herbert was the right man for the job, a frustrated Morrison responded: "What question is that? If he wasn't he wouldn't be the coach. Of course we think he can do it. Absolutely (we back him)."

---

"There was no directive about the way the team plays," stressed Morrison. "What we looked at was setting an overall philosophy at the club.

"That was pretty simple and it was based on the three-to-five year view because we understand you cannot change things overnight. It does take time to change.

"There is an overall club philosophy that we would like to play attractive, possession-based football. We think that that done well is a winning way of playing.

"Ricki presented to the board on the style, formations and tactics that he wanted to implement. He's done a lot of work on that.

"It wasn't anybody saying 'Ricki go and play this way' or 'we'll set the tactics for you'. That is simply not the case and has never been the case."

---

Morrison admitted they were trying to balance short-term pain for long-term gain.

"Trying to get alignment between short-term objectives and longer-term objectives doesn't always happen," admitted Morrison.

"But what is clear is that the short-term goal is that we do want to win football matches.

"There is no excuse for us not winning football matches. Ricki has been told that he has to win football matches.

"We're backing him to win those games and we're backing the players to win those games."

Oh yeah - ex good source.

*snigger*

Ok cool, glad we got it clear now - Ricki has just done a terrible job.

where does Morrison state that the players are fully supportive of Herbert in there?  I think that the source was claiming that as being the case, not that the board are not supportive of Herbert.

If this is case (and it seems that the performances over the last few weeks back this up) then we have some very real issues.  Look at the difference in Chelsea under AVB, to the performances when they went on to win the Champions League?  Players not playing for a manager is a massive problem - at the top levels of sport (and the A League is the top level of football in Aus/NZ) someone not putting in that last 5%, whether it be tracking the man for the 30th time in a game, or making that final sprint to close down an opposition player in possession, will get punished.

Once this situation has happened, the only way to handle it is to get rid of the manager, or get rid of the players, as the status quo is not sustainable.

Gareth on with Vietch at 7am. Sounds like another pre-recorded job. Really wish he would just shut up.

Interesting that the Rob Morrison interview was given to 4-4-2 and not to the dom post...

Would be great if someone would post the choice elements of Gareth's latest interview.

Listen to that interview if you have missed it. Some of it was reasonable but calling the fan base pathetic, lacking in sophistication and having no knowledge of football isn't a great idea.

 ah, bless.

Thought the two blokes afterwards were excellent.

 Seems Gareth and Welnix are the ones who just dont get it.Good luck with your New Zealand Phoenix welnix.Cant wait for their attention to be turned to the hurricanes if their season goes belly up.

This should get interesting...

Yup. Morgan made a couple of valid points but a lot of dumb ones. He may as well have said " the fans mean nothing to us and we will never care what they think"

One of them was. But how are the wire marks you have across your ass? That fence must have been pretty uncomfortable.

Yeah, ignoring the whole retardedness of his calls about the fans...

The basics are there, the club needs to be self-sustaining. The timing is just awful, and I fundamentally disagree that we'll be able to do it with with natural attrition. We're running at a competitive disadvantage in having many factors not going for us (Location, ACL, lack of FFA support, whatever, whatever) going our way, and it would take a long time and a hell of a strategy to be executed well to pull it off. Short term losses are fine, I just think that with some spend they could minimise that short term, and come up in the blue much faster. With no spend I think they'll leave it too long-term for growth, and that'll be at a big disadvantage for the fans, the reason they operate the club.

He's a polarizing guy at the best of times, and has made himself more-so with a complete lack of respect there, which will piss off a LOT of people. Idiotic things to say, but then, if the plan is as long-term as it is looking, it's (crazily) a minor detail (for him).

Did Chotey really talk about the way that Herbert rolls?

Really their strategy must be hold on for this season and then reap the benefits of the new TV deal which will cover most of the cap.  From then on you've got most of your big fixed costs covered generally.  Fine for the bottom line but I don't see how that's going to lead to any kind of year on year improvement without being smarter than the competition - ok that's what the academy etc is supposed to do but we're actually miles behind other clubs in this regard not ahead of them and our overseas recruitment has generally been terrible.

But this has to be the most defensive strategy you could and might keep us going in the long term but what does this actually mean for the playing squad?

I think if you want to make this work you have to have REALLY good people executing this.  i.e. if you can't pay big bucks then coaching and recruitment are what are going to help you rise above the median for that investment.  Or they had proper plans for a true academy that will deliver in 5 years.  But there's just none of that - they're focussing only on costs instead of even thinking about spending to potentially improve performances and income.

I think they're saying there is more value to be extracted from the current spend and, by implication, additional expenditure would just be good money after not so good.

When you estimate what some of our higher paid players are being paid compared to what they are currently delivering on the park, and are now saying they are incapable of delivering (a higher standard of possession based football), I find it hard to argue with that view.  

P.S. I wonder to what extent Gareth's disparaging comments about supporters sheets back to what he has read on this site and, in particular, the "world owes me a football club" type posts i.e. just happily hand over your $s and leave running the team to those who know better.

Gareth Morgan slams fans for lack of patience

Morgan slams 'pathetic' fans

That didn't take long!

#dontstopbelievin?

yep, agree with this