Niche Cache already looking at next season.
https://theniche-cache.com/football/2025/3/6/shifting-the-focus-to-next-season-for-the-wellington-phoenix-blokes
Is Giancarlo Italiano Still The Bloke To Lead Them?
https://theniche-cache.com/football/2025/3/6/shifting-the-focus-to-next-season-for-the-wellington-phoenix-blokes
Is Giancarlo Italiano Still The Bloke To Lead Them?
Chiefy signed a two-year contract when he stepped up to the head coaching role at the Wellington Phoenix. That means that, as things stand, he only has a couple more months to go. It was surprising that they never managed to sort out an extension off the back of 2023-24’s success despite constant chatter about ongoing negotiations. That could be something that Italiano lives to regret given what a contrast his second term has been to his first. Stock prices may have dropped.
Italiano was recently asked upfront whether he expects to still be the coach next season and he made it bluntly clear that he does. But there was also a joker flying a Cheify Out flag at the last home game and there’s no doubt that the fans are getting tetchy. The results are one thing but the style of play has also come under fire for its perceived defensive excesses. Is that a fair assessment? That depends. This team has only scored multiple times in 4/18 games so far and have scored the second-fewest goals in the competition. They also rank second-last in possession and expected goals (xG), and last for big chances created, accurate crosses, touches in the opponent’s box, and attacking corners. The evidence is damning. The results have been nasty and they’re not much fun to watch.
But is that the coach’s fault? Clearly he holds some responsibility but also he’s got a squad that’s much weaker than last season and which has been regularly hampered by injuries. There’s nothing about their style of play that’s drastically different to last season when nobody had a problem with it (even though they weren’t a particularly good attacking then either – it was all built on outstanding defence). Chiefy just doesn’t have the players to make it work. If they suddenly start scoring goals with Geraldes and Rojas hanging around then the focus would surely have to shift towards squad-building deficiencies. If not then yeah maybe the tactics will need to go through the washing machine.
As far as the Nix hierarchy is concerned, there’s another aspect to this and that’s whether they’d be able to find anyone better. The usual course of events at this club is to promote from within which would probably lean towards Adam Griffiths. To be honest, that wouldn’t be a bad hire. But that’s supposing they decide to move past The Chief and taking recent emotions out of the equation, what he achieved against the odds in Year One was a lot more unexpected than the downfall of Year Two (for which it’s not even clear how culpable he should be). Surely he’s earned the opportunity to take the good with the bad and try figure it out in Year Three. Continuity is a hard thing to find at a club with player turnover as high as this. You’ve gotta be very careful not to unnecessarily spoil it any further.