R10 vs Roar Saturday 5:30pm

As a born and bread Wellingtonian it hurts me to say it but it but when I come back to Wgtn now from Europe  the city seems like a sleepy little windswept village. You are not going to attract any half decent player because of the lifestyle. Having lots of cafes is not a novelty...every town on the planet has cafes. The weather sucks big time and other facilities like public transport are substandard. There is a sense of not much happening.

 

The reality is that for any half decent players Wellington would be close to the bottom of the list. Ernie arrived, fired up to hire a gun midfielder.....as time went by it became more and more obvious that they were having big difficulty finding anyone willing to come to wellington.

We are more likely to attract the likes of Huysegems...older player with a family. He was going to go to a club in the Ukraine but once he saw the environment he decided it was not the place for his family. What the club needs to do(if they have the budget) is actually send Ernie to Europe next year and sell the prospect of playing for the Nix directly. We had our best year recruiting when Ricki and Tony P went to the UK and did their homework and came back with ifill and Greenacre

This season's results do pretty much vindicate Ricki's decision to play the style he did. Probably the best way to win games with the squad we had.

Agree it is misleading in isolation but with the rest of my post what I was trying to get across is that,  yes Ricki played "hoofball" (Jeez I hate that Term), but it was a style of play that was successful albeit moderately for the type of players he was able to recruit to play here. It has been mentioned numerous times that we are lacking several quality players to play the version of football that Ernie seeks to implement at the moment, despite Ernie having a hand in recruiting almost half of our current squad. Happy for the current path to continue, but surely there comes a time when someone says woah this aint working, and then looks for a way to play that does suit the players we have or are able to recruit.

And Australian Cities do not have Cafes and overall closeness? And better beaches?

Things they do not have:

Wellingtons reputation for Shit Weather

2 x Wooden Spoons

10 hours travel twice a week for away games

Bus trips to Napier for Home Games

An additional 4 or 5 hours flying time for a trip home where ever that may be.

While we would hope Wellingtons isolation s not the deciding factor, it very clearly is a factor, and no matter how often you say lalalala with your fingers in your ears, that fact will not go away.

Adelaide is nice.

As a born and bread Wellingtonian it hurts me to say it but it but when I come back to Wgtn now from Europe  the city seems like a sleepy little windswept village. You are not going to attract any half decent player because of the lifestyle. Having lots of cafes is not a novelty...every town on the planet has cafes. The weather sucks big time and other facilities like public transport are substandard. There is a sense of not much happening.

 

The reality is that for any half decent players Wellington would be close to the bottom of the list. Ernie arrived, fired up to hire a gun midfielder.....as time went by it became more and more obvious that they were having big difficulty finding anyone willing to come to wellington.

We are more likely to attract the likes of Huysegems...older player with a family. He was going to go to a club in the Ukraine but once he saw the environment he decided it was not the place for his family. What the club needs to do(if they have the budget) is actually send Ernie to Europe next year and sell the prospect of playing for the Nix directly. We had our best year recruiting when Ricki and Tony P went to the UK and did their homework and came back with ifill and Greenacre

And Newcastle, Gosford, Townsville and Adelaide are fantastic places to live.......

I know I'm kicking a hornet's nest but I must confess the six months I once spent working in Wellington got me down. As an Aucklander the thing that got to me was the lack of horizons. Everything was closed in. You always seemed surrounded by hills in Wellington with a thick layer of cloud above and bloody wind most of the time. It reminded me of Ireland. And the town seemed so small and quiet. To be honest I find Auckland small, particularly when I come back from LA or Europe, but at least there's a buzz of things going on, the whole multi-ethnic parade, good beaches and blue skies (most of the time). Unless a player is seeking a peaceful retreat for his family what's the attraction of Wellington? Phoenix can't pay the kind of wages Sydney FC or Melbourne Victory can so who of real standard are you going to attract? I understand there's a great sense of togetherness at the club and some imports, like Ifill, have thrived. But I also think a lot of others will struggle with living there. You're very different from the Australian cities so you tend to get players who can't find places in other A League clubs. It's a difficult one because lets be honest, you're not one of the glamour A League sides and don't have the money to out bid the ones that are. That's probably why your best bet is home-grown players, the trouble is finding enough who are good enough. All threats of serious bodily harm on a postcard please and addressed to JV.

Yeah both JV and Leggy were getting on a bit and soon ended their careers in the lucrative American Colonial League a thousand or so years after that game
They both did well to last so many turns of the sundial in such heat without getting subbed.

Xerxes was trying to introduce a more flowing style of play after taking over from the philosopher  Rickius  the Cynic, well known for his hoof ball tactics. That's according to the ancient Roman footy parchment  "IV IV II".

 Xerxes's Persian Firebirds dominated but eventually lost 1-nil to the Spartan, erm Spartans, who where down to 300 men, due to injuries and a few hundred thousand red cards. Friggin Greek teams with their high paid marquee players, Achilles, Heracles, etc. Remember the chant about Heracles? "Your Dads a golden shower! Your Dads a golden shower"!
 
Mind you that A league was tough,  that's the "Amphictyonic League" obviously.

The Persian Firebirds always struggled, but then the weather in Persia is terrible and the local Colosseum rubbish it's no wonder they couldn't get anyone decent. No decent nightlife or chariot racing.

Now Pergamum - that's a city with a night life...
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**Applause Emoticon**

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Just changed it a bit "golden shower" work's better than 'shower of gold" obviously. God I wish I'd just go out and cut the lawns instead of writing sh*te on this forum!!

As a born and bread Wellingtonian it hurts me to say it but it but when I come back to Wgtn now from Europe  the city seems like a sleepy little windswept village. You are not going to attract any half decent player because of the lifestyle. Having lots of cafes is not a novelty...every town on the planet has cafes. The weather sucks big time and other facilities like public transport are substandard. There is a sense of not much happening.

 The reality is that for any half decent players Wellington would be close to the bottom of the list. Ernie arrived, fired up to hire a gun midfielder.....as time went by it became more and more obvious that they were having big difficulty finding anyone willing to come to wellington.

We are more likely to attract the likes of Huysegems...older player with a family. He was going to go to a club in the Ukraine but once he saw the environment he decided it was not the place for his family. What the club needs to do(if they have the budget) is actually send Ernie to Europe next year and sell the prospect of playing for the Nix directly. We had our best year recruiting when Ricki and Tony P went to the UK and did their homework and came back with ifill and Greenacre

Each to their own, I find Auckland to be spread out, boring and soulless, Wellington has a great vibe, the hills add character with narrow streets and awkwardly perched houses. They also break up suburbia, most peoples properties are too steep to do much with so they are covered in bush, making it very green, very compact, and unique. The city itself has consistently got the most satisfied population, beautiful harbour, lots of stuff to do, a vibrant compact cbd.

I worked in San Francisco for a bit and have spent allot of time in a few European cities. I hate north America, love Europe but can't fault Wellington at all, its all around probably the overall best place in the world to live. And I don't mean there's anything spectacular about it, much like New Zealand allot of mediocrity sort of adds up to a place which is just has what you want and life is easy.

What you were saying about it being quiet is odd because its kind of the opposite of what most people say when they move here.

I know I'm kicking a hornet's nest but I must confess the six months I once spent working in Wellington got me down. As an Aucklander the thing that got to me was the lack of horizons. Everything was closed in. You always seemed surrounded by hills in Wellington with a thick layer of cloud above and bloody wind most of the time. It reminded me of Ireland. And the town seemed so small and quiet. To be honest I find Auckland small, particularly when I come back from LA or Europe, but at least there's a buzz of things going on, the whole multi-ethnic parade, good beaches and blue skies (most of the time). 

Time for some bullsh*t hypothetical formations. How about this:

                            Moss

Muscat     Sigmund    Durante   Riera

                   Lia        Huysegems

       Ifill           Hernandez         Kenny

                         Brockie

I know we've had problems playing only 2 holding mids this season but that was with young inexperienced fullbacks and a lack of ball-playing ability in the middle. With Manny and Reira at full back we should have more defensive solidity which will allow our attackers a bit more freedom. Huysegems in DM is an experiment but we've yet to win so why not experiment a little? He might not be great at the attacking aspects but he's comfortable on the ball and the extra experience at the back should make up for it. He can hold the ball in tight spots and pass well which should translate okay to that role.

I don't think this'll happen but I'm just playing the pre-match forum game.

 Last time I heard there was a bit of a financial downturn in (especially Southern) Europe and I could imagine a decent Spanish player could be tempted to play here as a way of getting away from it all (for example Riera works as a paramedic).

Wellington gets on average more than 100 extra sunshine hours per year than Auckland. Guess perceptions can simply be wrong.

You know what, because of all the issues we have had, I would welcome this. Riera I think is better at LB and Manny... well he speaks for himself. You don't play Stein as a DM, you play him as a through and through link guy. He receives from the back 4/Lia and shuffles on out wide or to Carlos.

I guess it depends which site you looked at. I've just seen two and one says Auckland by 40 hours and another says they are the same.

I can agree with a lot of this, particularly about North America. There are certainly a lot of shit-hole european cities as well, having lived in a few of them previously. never regretted moving to Wellington and love the place.

Disagree. Riera has been good for us in the midfield, but I've been unconvinced by him at FB. It also seems to me, a bit like the thinking by the Ricki in Honiara "we've got too many attacking players, but if we play Killen in the midfield we can get them all on the park..." Huysegems in AM played ok, but further back would be a huge risk.

FWIW I'd go with...

                          Moss

Fenton   Sigmund   Dura    Manny

                   Lia          Riera

     Ifill             Hernandez           Kenny

                     Huysegems (or Brockie)

Bench: Brockie, Hicks, Boyd, Boxall, Italiano

Quite an off-topic thread, this.

LOL  its called displacement activity. 

We are talking about the Wellington, the weather, recruiting etc because we don't want to confront the fact that our team is not going so well and we are likely to get dicked big time by the rampant Roar on Saturday.

Agree. We were discussing our chances against Roar, which led us to discuss what we see as problems (tactics vs players available), and as we generally agreed with minor exceptions that the tactics are right but not with (all) players available we then proceeded to comment on what players might be available in the January window, which led us to discuss the reasons useful players might want to come here.

I agree that at some point this went off topic as it became a discussion of weather, but when would you have drawn the line?
The reason I like the YF forum is because each thread is like a long chat in the pub. This means we may go off topic for a while in the context of the overall discussion. At what point do you say 'bugger off to another table and have a chat with someone else about this topic'?

For this Saturday, it seems we may end up missing Riera, which is a shame as I think he adds a decent dimension to the midfield. If Hernandez does not train until later in the week it may not be great to put him on the park at kickoff - he may get re-injured.

My main objective on Saturday is to look carefully again how Brockie performs - it may be that he does not fit into this kind of play, as others have commented. While we collected the wooden spoon last year he got us the highest number of goals scored, from the school of 'direct' football.

I'd be deliriously happy with a scoring draw. While Brisbane are beatable, it may not necessarily mean "by us".

Caira omitted. Carlos, Manny & Boyd return.

Oh and I wonder who gets the least experienced referee again ....

Nix under Shaun Evans, P3 W1 D0 L2

Ifill and Reira all ok?

Both listed in the squad for the weekend.

I wonder if this may be the last season we see Paul Ifill lace up his boots. Like Greenacre, he can choose to go out with his head held high if it is soon. The unsavoury debacle across the ditch concerning Lucas Neill or Harry Kewell makes me think of excellent players who chose to hang on for too long, despite their body not allowing them to play to their full potential anymore.