I think that is all very self - serving and lacks much self awareness/criticism. This was my favourite part - being lectured on football by football visionary Gareth Morgan (TM):
"The first half of that game and the one the week before was fantastic – any serious observer of the game would see that see that our players are bloody good professionals. Such observers should be intrigued by what’s evolving and be fascinated week to week by what the players are doing. Those whose interest goes only so far as instant gratification each match won’t be capable or interested in this process."
Jesus wept JD, the guy has given you a very full answer to your question and you're still complaining (the second time he has done so in recent weeks, I doubt you would get the same courtesy from many other A-League owners). Of course his answer is self-serving. Your question was self-serving.
Gareth Morgan is a smart, successful guy who is used to being his own boss. He has a new project (the Nix) that is clearly very passionate about. He likes to talk about it - a lot! He is also on a very steep learning curve when it comes to football, so he has said a few stupid things along the way. But hell, if there was one person in the country I'd back to get themselves quickly through a learning curve it would be Gareth (and some of his Welnix mates).
There's been some poor communication around this playing style thing but so what? Even if it had been all been well communicated pre-season there's every chance we'd still be struggling with it now. That's just football (something we all seem to have lost sight of was that success this season was never guaranteed). And if Welnix want to hang on to Ricki then so be it. They are the ones paying the money and they are a hell of a lot closer to the situation and privy to a much greater level of information and insight than any of us.
Had everyone come out at the start of the season and said 'We are going to try to play a different brand of football with these players this year. At times its going to be good, at times its going to be bad. We are doing this in the interests of not settling for always being a play off team. We want to win the league and the style we used was most likely not going to get us there. Bear with us as it could get bumpy but we have a plan and how we want to execute it". At least we would have gone 'Right, this is the lie of the land, we know whats coming'
As things have gone, the indication it gives everyone who tunes in is that there does not appear to be a plan with an execution strategy because of poor communication and now its a case of 'well I'm not involved in this and I know nothing of that and thats him' and the other side is saying the same. Hence all this angst comes up because the communication of it or even the execution of it (depending on your view) was just a disaster from a public perseption point of view. Considering that the public pay the bills with bums on seats, you have to make sure you are crystal clear with them or else they will throw their hands up and go 'fuck this for a game of soldiers'
I think this has been a rather large execise in how to cock up your communication and I do wonder if the same guys that advise NZC also advise Welnix... I will finish this with one thing.There needs to one mouth when it comes to talking about future strategy. Hopefully the club have figured that out. Whether its the coach, the GM or the Chairman is for them to decide.