Daloras, interested to hear what you think has gone well this year??
The question is not whether this season has been as good as last season - obviously not - but the question is whether this has been bad luck or bad management. I lean towards the former. Sorry to re-open an old thread, but I really don't think the Nix could have done anything to keep Kosta, given that he barely got a game last season - and the argument isn't about what we did wrong last season, is it?
The other point is - just like all property developers are up to their arses in hock at the moment, not just Terry - all A-League teams are in the crap financially. The Roar are floundering money-wise (perhaps after buying Kosta a private jet and his own island or something). The Furries are virtually gone, the Jest almost went, Cold Ghost have no fans. I count our continued existence as a victory given the circumstances.
I think Ricki himself has admitted that recruitment didn't go right, but you take your chances. I remember HN rolling his eyes when Ward was signed, but Nicky's been one of our best players once he got his act together. For ever Toto there's been a Big Mac. We should also point out that "the wind and the rain" are one of the main reasons why great players might think twice about coming here (remember Bambang?)
Injury troubles haven't helped either. Please also note that our #1 goalscorer and our #1 keeper have been crocked for a goodly part of the season, and our former #1 winger has been the walking wounded for a long time.
I would listen to "dump Terry" stuff if there was someone else with a truckload of money willing to blow $1 million a year on a pro football team in New Zealand who wasn't a dodgy property dealer. I would listen to "sack Ricki" stuff if anyone could name a better Nix/AWs coach who would want to live in Wellington and earn what we pay Ricki.
Tl;dr: I'm not overjoyed with this season but I don't actually see how it could have realisticially been better given where we started from in August 2010. It's self-defeating to believe that everything that goes wrong is our own fault.
Daloras - I like your post a lot and I'm sympathetic to your point of view.
But I disagree with quite a lot of it. On Terry, I want him to stay on and I'm not advocating he get chucked out. I wish he'd keep us off the pages of the papers for the wrong reasons and I wish fans would stop pretending there isn't a problem and accusing the papers of some grand conspiracy. I think it makes us look naive. If he can't afford to keep the team going I would hope he does the best thing for the fans and sells up (or investigates the possibility). But I want him to stay, no questions.
Kosta has been done to death so will leave that one.
On recruitment, playing style, injuries etc I think a lot of it stems from a very poor off season. Clearly a lot of that has to do with the world cup whcih you have to take a hit on because as kiwi fans we loved it but it's still a factor.
What I am not happy about is that clearly Ricki had his head turned after the tournament, basically he came back and did nothing while he waited to hear about the West Ham job. We did no recruitment at that point and he stayed away. Then when he didn't get that job he made a big song and dance about re-signing with the Phoenix and turning down other offers. It is clear that was the only job he wanted. At some point in time the nix job and the AW job need to be separated. Maybe after the WC would have been a good time to do it
The season before we had great success with signing 2 great pros from the UK. I will never understand why we didn't go back to that market and exploit our contacts. We had 2 senior pros who would have preached until the cows came home, plus the kiwi dollar is at 2-1 to the pound so the pay gap is good. Instead we had a succession of triallist who came and went - none signed. That to me smacks of bad management and is symptomatic of how things have been run since Tony P left.
Ward and Vukovic have worked out well but both were opportunistic signings. North has been more of a mixed bag but basically the same. We still lack the creative midfielder that we were crying out for last season and the guy signed to play there last year, and the guy signed to play there this year (Diego and Toto) have had about half an hour between them. That's not bad luck.
Yes keeper and top scorer have been injured but we have had more than adequate replacements in Vuko and Marco ( who may not have had the same chances if Ifill and Leo were fit).
Yes other teams have problems - I still think there are things we could have done better.
