Smeltz saga - now with added hypocrisy.

Not really, probably been put in there so that GCU can be compensated in some way if he buggers off somewhere else.

Jag2009-02-05 09:03:09

But isn't it just a normal transfer then? Club pays money to club, player moves...

Dunno, cos he's still technically our player at the moment, isn't he? I can't really be arsed trying to find the ins and outs of it but what I meant was, the Turkish mob pay us a transfer fee but also have to bung GCU a few bob to shut them up and tear up the 'letter of intent'. Dunno if that's the case here or not.

Jag2009-02-05 09:11:32

SO its off?

looks like Smeltz chickened out. But who knows.

It's pretty rude of them to block him.. $600,000 a year is nothing to sneeze at. Double what he's going to be on, huge opportunity for him.

That might dissuade other players from signing with them if they're going to be such arseholes about releasing players for bigger opportunities.

Not cool.

..........and if he doesn't they may not

seems to me that there has a been a serious lack of ethics and commonsense here...surely the decent businlike and constructive thing to do would have been for the club and smeltz to tell gold coast there was on opportunity on the table and what was their position on it...saves a hell of lot of embarassment and imagine the number of chooks that could have had a day off from laying the egg that will being wiped off various faces...doubt anyone comes out of this well...nix  look to me like like petty squabbling game players...palmers greed centre is daily proving to be an arsehole breeding ground and as for smeltz he just seems inept and poorly advised

yarn from me

Nice, but NZ sports legend? Big call .
He'd have to get us to the world cup and go mad in SA to start that sort of talk

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/02/06/46265_gold-coast-soccer.html aussienixfan2009-02-06 11:36:39

At one level I can understand their being upset about it, we and Tony P all know he is going to the Coast, so why bother going to all the effort of getting involved with the Turks and going outside his usual agent? 

Answer, firstly there is a possible $100g  to be had, not to be sniffed at, for the sake of a few phone calls, easier than selling 4000 season tickets, and secondly they stole a player from under our noses and it must have been good to have a go back at them.

Also shows to them that Smeltz isnt the totally devoted player they might think he is.

GCU, moan and whinge all you like, it was legal, and your boy went along with it




hepatitis2009-02-06 12:24:42

All fantastic stuff and getting close to being a Kiwi legend in A-League if he can produce a few more seasons like he has (hope not), but NZ sports legend has me scratching my head. Snell, Walker, Colin Meads, Denny Hulme, Richard Hadlee, Anthony Wilding......those are NZ sports legends, along with others.
I can't write Shane Smeltz next to them. My kids might ask me "who was he?" and I'd have to reply he was the guy who won the Johhny Warren Medal in 2008......
Royal2009-02-06 12:49:20

i was only really thnking about current sportspeople - not fossils. Anthony Wilding ffs - prob one of the greatest but doubt anyones heard of him. anyway..

Anthony Wilding - Tennis Player - Wimbledon Champ. Recognise the name off the bat.

Or an even better answer might be cause Shane Smeltz said:

"Tony, can you please make it so?"

Don't play up the vindicitiveness/money factor over Shanes request to go there.

I think I've got it about right actually.

The Nix know Shane's agent, seems odd they didn't go through him

We haven't seen anything in the papers from Shane backing this up, or on his desire to go there, or being disappointed that it isn't happening.

 

Smeltz also said days before it was announced that he hadn't signed for Gold Coast when in fact he had signed weeks before that.

Cause Terry, Tony P and the guys that run the Phoneix are all about being vindictive....
We have a hard enough time trying to get accepted over there without trying ourselves to look like twats and piss everyone else off.

I don't think we know what he had signed and when actually.

I recall that that GCU flew to Sydney the night before we played them last for contractual
reasons, long after he had reportedly signed for them. (He didn't play that well for us the next day coincidentally)

As i said earlier in this, Smeltz credibility factor is 2/10 now (and falling)

Agreed but I am very loath to think that the guys that run our team and have been straight up with us from day dot would now turn sneaky just to wave the bird at Miron and Clive just to go 'nah nah nah nah' because they signed Joel Porter and we did the donkey work.

Professionalism... Its not achieved by being a c**t to one of the other franchises.
Agent 472009-02-06 21:47:47

That was because Gencer. were sniffing around.

So when Shane was standing in front of the cameras telling us all of the tugging of his heart strings over the signing circa November 4, in reality, the decision was done and dusted weeks before that (say early October) and he was telling porkies when he said 'I've haven't signed for the GCU'?

Is that a fair statement to make?

I couldn't say with 100% certainty...

But it is a fair statement though.

In that case, he can well and truly f**k off. Lying to us fans...

What happened looks to have been strictly legal,  the club was entitled to negotiate within the contractual period, and they did, so I don't have any problems with it. There was a nice bit of wedge for the taking if it came off, so together with "Shanes request", that is enough of a reason.

I agree that our club has acted well in it's dealings

Put it this way, I can't imagine a backroom conversation that went - "Theyre our mates, better check out  all aspects of this and see if its ok with them" - and that is all right with me too

Mods I think this is a different thread to the Smeltz to Hacppete.

The Gold Coast are very pissed about the transfer read the link ... then remember the MBH wish and the need to have the FFA on side .....

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/a-league/smeltz-row-getting-ugly-171080/

Angry Gold Coast United officials will ask Football Federation Australia to conduct an investigation into what the club considers the disreputable dealings of Wellington Phoenix over the Shane Smeltz affair.

United have penned a letter of protest to the governing body, voicing their concerns at the Phoenix accepting a $500,000 offer from relegation-threatened Turkish top flight outfit Hacettepe for the A-League Player of the Year and Golden Boot winner, despite Smeltz having already signed a three-year deal.

The behaviour of Phoenix CEO Tony Pignata, who facilitated the proposed move to Turkey, has raised hackles both in Queensland and at the FFA where one source said: ��The behaviour of the Phoenix appears to be particularly questionable. We haven't received a complaint from Gold Coast yet but we will responding, if and when it arrives.''

United CEO Clive Mensink declared: ��We wouldn�t be conducting business in a similar fashion to Wellington. We would be more honourable than that and we will be asking for there to be some sort of official investigation.�

Pignata claimed on Wednesday that Smeltz wanted to go to Turkey where he was likely to earn almost triple his $180,000 United pay package.

The Phoenix would have stood to make around $120,000 as their share of the transfer fee, with the rest going to Gold Coast.

Mensink added: "Shane never really wavered in his desire to come here and has been caught in the middle of something not of his own making. We never even contemplated agreeing to any sort of deal that would involve him going to Turkey.

"It�s been unprofessional they way Phoenix have handled it. I don�t why they didn�t contact us when they received the approach for Shane last week, I don�t know why they accepted the offer, I don�t know why they didn�t contact this agent Leo Karis either.

�We like to think we would be a lot more accountable than that and show a lot more integrity in our dealings with others and we would expect others to treat us the same way.

��Clubs need to show some accountability because we don't want to see this sort of thing happen again. It's not what the A-League needs.''

Mensink never had any doubt that Smeltz would remain true to his word, even though there have also been suggestions he was told his All Whites jumper might be under threat should he favour United over Turkey.

��He�s told us he doesn�t want to go to Turkey and we�re looking forward to him stepping out in our strip later this year.

��This all blew up on the A-League Awards night on Monday which we attended. Tony Pignata was there but he never said anything to us about his plans for Shane.

��The opportunity for Shane to enjoy a great personal night was really taken away from him by the turn of events.��

United head coach Miron Bleiberg said: ''Shane will be with us for at least a year, if at the end of that time there is another offer and he still wants to go, then maybe we would look at it because you also have to be fair to the desires and wishes of any player.

''He grew up on the Gold Coast, he likes it there and we believe he will be a big success and happy at the club. ''

So we are just supposed to believe everything GCU say? Can't buy that. A totally biased article.
 I guess Haddin still maintains that the ball hit the bail as well.

Mensink never had any doubt that Smeltz would remain true to his word, even though there have also been suggestions he was told his All Whites jumper might be under threat should he favour United over Turkey.
This says it all really. Nonsensical suggestion.

I thought there was a foreign club buy-out clause in his agreement?

If Gold Coast say, Yes he signed this deal (which includes foreign but-out clause), then a foreign club wants to buy them, and they essentially block a deal already done (supposedly) by TP, that would make them at fault right?

tony should explain himself - he probably played withing the rules but looks to be a bit unsporting like - then again thats how the worlds turning right every man for himself

Gold coast are the biggest sh*t stirrers and they haven't even kicked a ball yet.

I don't see us being found at fault.
We just signed it off. It was still up to them to do the rest of the deal.

It feels like if GCU keep up this type of position with Smeltz/ Griffiths etc then they will create a bad look for themselves. Players want a club thats going to help them grow and as a player, you don't want you're club rejecting transfers that you fancy yourself. just because they don't need the money.

Not saying that is what happened here but they could create that look for themselves

Awesome! I feel this is the beginning of a long and fierce rivalry.. GCU Phoenix clashes will be great from now on! Bring it on this is what we need! Something to really get the crowd invovled at the RoF!

Yeah It's shaping up good. well bad.. but good from a rivalry POV

As long as we kick the sh*t out of them i dont care!

This is funny.

Smeltz signed with them November 4th. Its generally accepted (without hard evidence) from those in the know that he signed before that date. You could say weeks depending on what you listen to.
If you take that as being so, then surely they must have spoken to Shane before October which is the date upon when you can start negotiating with other clubs pending free agents.....

Integrity in their dealings? What reporter decided it was a slow news day in Brisbane...

Very original. The worst comment of the year.