Phoenix Ownership - Rob says FTFFA

Media manager. So obvious. Don't think the club are interested though. 

Oh. I think the club are interested, i just don't think the owners will pay which is a bit of an indictment on their interpretation of the last 6 weeks.

Isn't that the same thing? 

I guess it's a bit like saying they're interested in a marquee, but don't want to pay for one. 

They're interested in winning the league, but don't want to pay for it. (Oooo angsty)

Etc. 

You've kinda summed up Welnix in one there Tegal.

I guess its like anything really. If you want something, you have to pay for it. The quality of the product you get is usually directly dictated by what you paid for it.

Don't get me wrong, it'd be great if they could manage these things without paying for them. 

However the model they're looking to follow kind of reminds me of smaller market MLB teams. Where they have a realistic chance of winning the league for a couple of seasons every 10 years. 

It's interesting though isn't it?

The A-League is a ten-team salary-capped league. All other things being equal each team should win the league once every ten years.

But not all things are equal. Other teams can afford to invest a bit more in things like marquee players, coaching, other technical support and facilities. So the odds for a team like the Nix get even worse.

Is a big part of the problem simply our unjustifiably high expectations? We've actually only been in existence for six years. What on earth makes us think we can beat those odds? Arrogance? Stupidity? Pure blind faith? Maybe after 15 years would be a better time to start getting worried?

Not sure where to post this, but here's the bus shelter ad for the upcoming games:

 Yes.  So we'll see the Charridy strip for RADelaide.  Assuming it won't be primarily Red then.

But Term, most other teams have had 7 complete years meaning only 2 more than us (with the exception of WSW and jam tards)

I don't think our expectations are out of line but when as a club you are going to stick within the absolute limits and not take advantage of exceptions that other teams do, you instantly put yourself on the back foot.

From then on, how can you compete?

Charity match because we are going to gift them 3 points?

 Depends which Adelaide turns up from the Adelaide random performance generator.

Compete? Or win the league? They're two different things.

Of course we can compete, and actually we do that reasonably well. In a ten team league, over the long run, our average finishing position should be 5.5 (as should every other team's). In our first 5 years our average finishing position was 6.2 (after adjusting for slightly different numbers of teams each year). Even if we finish last this year it will still be 6.8. So that's about right - we are about as competitive as could reasonably be expected.

The Welnix approach to winning the title, however, appears to be to try and gain some non-financial advantages to offset our financial disadvantages. For example, spend less money on players but spend it smarter, the "Moneyball" approach. Stein Huysegems was probably the first obvious attempt at this but has been a failure. We will have to do much better this off-season. Two other examples of non-financial advantages are the distance other teams have to travel to play us and our famed team spirit. Unfortunately both of those seem to have gone south on us this year.

The problem is that even if we can get some serious competitive advantages in these other areas they probably only bring us back to par. Unless the owners suddenly decide to open their wallets, and/or our crowds suddenly increase to Melbourne Victory levels then as fans I think we should only reasonably expect to win the league once every ten years, if that.

That fact doesn't bother me in particular. There's still room for plenty of good, entertaining football along the way, and we just make sure that we go appropriately nuts when we do actually win it.

I can't argue with that sir although is Stein a failure, or the wrong man for our system?

 Haven't looked in here for a couple of weeks.

We still got a team then?

Yeah, possibly harsh on Stein himself. The point is if you're going to try and do something like "Moneyball" you have to get your recruitment spot on, because you're expecting the 'smartness' of your recruitment to make up ground on clubs spending more than you. Maybe Stein still has a future at the club if we do see a true change to our style off-season, with recruitment to match.

we've got a collection of people running around in uniforms, not a team as such.

I don't understand, if we're going to be wearing the competition winning strip, why haven't i been contacted yet? I'd expet a couple of tickets to the game and being introduced to the crowd as the winning designer. Sack the organisers!!!!!!

He hasnt  been contacted yet knows he won?

I'd have thought that the 'LifeFlight' on the ad would be a bit of a giveaway...

You know you can edit your posts right? You don't have to quote and change it every time. 

I'm not arguing definitively that he should stay in a non coaching role but I am definitely saying that all options should be carefully considered before dumping that much knowledge and experience. How do you know he wouldn't actually be very well suited for another role? Have you worked closely with him? Have you interviewed him? Do you know the detail of what other role(s) the owners might have in mind?

This is not an EPL club. This is not even the Melbourne Victory. This is a tin-pot little club in the back of beyond punching well above its weight already. Our very existence is something close to a miracle. We train on Newtown Park No. 2 ffs! We simply cannot afford to sack people willy nilly, simply for the sake of conforming to a ridiculous boom-and-bust, hire-and-fire cliche that is actually the root cause of many football clubs' problems around the world (and which even the likes of UEFA and the EPL have now realised is unsustainable and needs to be fixed. New financial break-even rules may encourage even the most impetuous of owners to think longer-term). Which is not to say people shouldn't be sacked, but it should definitely be very carefully thought through first.

Termy, your posts are fantastic. Well reasoned and well though out, I enjoy reading them.

I enjoy both Termy's and JD's posts. They both have actual opinions.

Stupid onions. Actually onions are pretty great.

I like onions.

And turtles.