Squad for 2008 and Youth League

thats gud then

You do need to remember that the Knights were in the main run by morons.  There may be some good English options (Michael Bridges looks okay) and they shouldn't be written off because of the retarded Knights management.

true i think darren Bazely has putten me off english players forever. what happend to goa lei lei

MyPa in Finland.

You can catch up with Bazeley, Emblen and Hay this weekend against team Wellington.

Quite right. Eastern Europe, South America, Asia, Oceania, and Scandivavia is the way to go.

And we need to do all we can to get Leilei Gao back. He is a brilliant player.loyalgunner2007-12-17 17:15:32

yea leilei gao really empressed me at the knights.he gave them a wee bit of flare

Two things with poms, they know the language and they know the culture. That can really help with on field performance. Look at George and Cleberson, I'm sure their unsettled off field experience didn't help them on the park

Keenan's been decent as welljames dean2007-12-17 17:25:04

true as long as there not old like the ones at the knights. U can say they might have experience though

Yes, you don't have to be old to be experienced...

well yes i guess so. I think a player from anywhere in europe would be good for the phoenix

If English players aren't good enough for the Arsenal team then they are most certainly not going to cut it at the Phoenix.

With regards to next years youth league, if the Phoenix get a team Jeremy Brockie must be in it.

If the age cut-off is 20, like the current youth squad member requirements Brockie will be too old... and he's hardly hammering the NZFC scoring charts.

I think this statement needs a smiley or two.

get 2 Iranians i hear alot of them are looking for new horizons :D

Get some Iraqi youth players - they'll come over, claim asylum, then before they turn 21 declare for the All Whites 

Being competitive next year will happen if the club establishes the goal of winning the damn thing, and makes the necessary adjustments to make that goal realistic. We all know that can only happen by bringing in as many Australian and import players as we can. It was so good to hear Terry S make it clear his aim was to make a grand final in the next year or two, and that will never happen with more All Whites in the side.  If our aim is just to be competitive (in true Kiwi sport 'mediocrity's OK' tradition) - then we may as well hand the license back now.

It does not matter where the players are from provided they are up to standard.
The English players that the Knights had were playing not only in the lower divisions, but the teams were in the bottom six or so.If the people that signed them had done their job they would have known that they were not good enough for the A league

Thoughts not raised so far

1/.  Do we actually need 23 players?  The season is short, we don't play more than once a week and for now don't have a reserve team.  Would 21 be sufficient, with everyone bar the youngsters getting regular playing time?  Under the salary cap we could increase wages slightly, which would aid recruitment.

2/.  Are we sure that all the players we want to keep will re-sign?  I read somewhere that Lia is only on a one year contract.  Ditto Rees.

3/.  The balance of the squad seemed a bit out this year, which probably reflected having to assemble the side in 12 weeks from those available.  We seemed to have an over-abundance of midfielders, and were short defenders and a striker.

4/.  This year we have had a team of uniformly good players, but without a talisman to ignite the game.  Just look how divided the player of the season polls have been.  With a year's experience, an ounce of luck and refs who actually watch the game the Phoenix should be playoff contenders next year, but it doesn't yet quite feel a championship winning squad.

Putting it together:  Out:  O'Dor, Alosi (retirement), Johnson (Retirement), Brownlie.  Can't judge Draper or Spoonley from here.  In: Sigmund, Bertos plus hopefully any Ricki has up his sleave.

I'm replying to a few posts here....

1.  This side has a licence to develop the game and New Zealand players.  The Knights were a classic example of where overseas recruitment and picking up the players from Australia missed by the other 7 sides didn't work.  Chances are in the next two seasons we will have another two Aus sides which will make it even more unlikely we're going to pick up someone they have missed.  Our key differential is that we can sign NZ players and we need to think about that.  Sigmund, Bertos, Mulligan, Vicelich should definitely be on the radar rather than the hope that some unknown currently in the NSW Premier League has been missed by Sydney, Newcastle and the Central Coast.  We have a player base no other side is likely to touch, let's make the most of it and make the club somewhere young NZ players aspire to playing.

2.  This year we definitely needed 23 players, we've even had to sign 1 week loan signings to put out a full squad.  If the FFA move the goalposts and don't play international weekends then it might be okay, but if you then have three youth players (who you say don't get any/much game time) then with 21 you are down to 18 and injuries become a much higher risk.

3.  How can you release O'Dor, he's ranked as one of the two or three best U-20 defenders in Australia ?    Why would you cut him, just so that in two years time when he starts knowing the game better and developing he can be on another sides books ?

i thought che bunce. He would maybe be a good option at right back.

Bunce is not even close to good enough

We were short of players once when we had injury/suspension plus a world cup qualifier.  The question is how likely that combination is to repeat and how many extra players it is worth carrying for those times.  I did see Ricki quoted somewhere as saying that this year we had chosen a 23 player squad, in a way that suggested it remained an open issue.

O'Dor is just a judgment, whether or not he has shown enough promise from the chances given.  Reckon he is an OK squad player, but not yet a regular starter.  Depends on costs and who else is available.

Yeah we need Che Bunce I think.

edit:We don't need Bunce, because, as Hard News pointed out in another thread, Bunce is a central defender and we have Rees and Dodd.loyalgunner2007-12-18 23:17:38

I think the first priority for the Phoenix is to win the A-League. If it takes a team full of Brazilians and Australians then thats no problem for me!

The sports media in New Zealand is at best neutral about football. The only way football will recieve positive publicity is if the Phoenix win regularly.

New Zealand player development is a more long term proposition. That is more of a role for the NZFA. However it is absolutely vital that the money is found  for a Phoenix under21 team in the A-League youth comp. That will be the best pathway for young NZ talent to come through.

Hopefully in a few years those kiwi players will eventually form the bulk of the Phoenix A side.

I have the Dom Post's nix poster on my wall at work, and probably the most frequent question is how many of the players are kiwis... I think it's important to have quite a few Kiwi players in the squad, otherwise people may become somewhat detached from the team and attracting new fans will be harder. IMO.

Howdy Folks ....well I for one would like to see more of our local kiwi players in the Nix squad - NZ has a league full of talent, we have one of the most experienced defenders in the country playing for TW - Can you imagine the support the nix would have if we had a born and bred Wellingtonian in the squad - come on Ricki .....talkt o Stu and look local..... look hard ......and take a punt on some great players closer to home.

ummm would costa not fit your bill or was he born somwhere else?

TW defenders... ah, okay... which one are you related to ?

You can also add Coveny and Brown (although he was born in the UK, he's pretty much all Wellington) as well Bopman.

i don't care if the Nix consisted of 23 Americans, as long as they play well and win more than they lose.

NB: no offence to Americans, you're just not well liked globally cos your president looks and thinks more like a chimpanzee than a chimpanzee does

i wish people would stop bringin up old threads it infuriates me to the point of soiling myself

you soil yourself when you get angry? that's rough...better than going postal i guess

It was a new thread, but it covered ground covered six million times so I moved it in here.

What infuriates me is people too lazy to search for a thread on a subject and starting a new one every two days on the same subject.
Hard News2008-01-06 22:49:33