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.
I am not sure if Ricki had ANY decision to make about what style he played. He played the only style he new. In all the years I watched him coached it became quite apparent that he had little grasp, if any on any other style apart from what is being called "long ball".
His style worked up to a point...we got 2 top 6 places in six years but it became increasingly obvious that his style had run its course....the A-League moved on and the Nix failed to advance with it. We are now playing the price for it now....we are playing catchup......and it will be painful for a while.
It will become even more painful when you realise that 5 of our top 6 best players are in their early thirties(Ifill, Stein, Carlos, Siggy, Durante). Ricki failed to rejuvenate the squad(some of which was out of his control) Last year we had easily the oldest team in the comp. Most of these players will be gone within the next two seasons. We will have more rejuvenation and more rebuilding in the next season or so.
So how will it end up? How much patience will the media, fans and owners have?
You can look at parallels off shore. My favourite team Olympic Marseille went down the same path as the Nix. They got a very experianced senior coach in(Eli Baup). They shed many of their older expensive players and bought in plenty of young talent including some very good French U20 internationals. The Board said it will take time to rebuild and everyone will need to be patient. Trouble is we live in a world that wants instant fixes. OM lost every CL game, they are in 5th in League 1, but 9 points off a CL spot. Three months into the season they sack their coach!!!!
I am not saying that Ernies position is even slightly in doubt but you can already feel the rumbles of discontent on these forums and in the media Our biggest burden is not having a comp for the Reserves.....how are we going to develop our Ridentons, Rufers etc with no match time. The truth is we will lose plenty more games, including probably todays match. People will become grumpy. But there is no quick fix solution. We are lucky we have an experianced cool headed coach in Ernie. He will not panic. But he will need time to get it right. It may come together by this seasons end.....but it might require an off season cleanout to get us moving forward.
Keep the faith!!!!
COYN 
