the blame should be pointed squarely at the owners for taking months to appoint a coach
Far more important that owners got the new coaching appointment right, than worrying too much about whether a young player like Rogerson needed to be contracted quickly or not. Maybe the negotiations with Rudan, just took time - plus from memory he also applied for role at Sydney.
Sure Nix could maybe have handled it better, but is Rogerson currently that great a loss? Isn’t it also potentially a bit of longer term win for NZ football. A young Kiwi gets signed in Europe, hopefully develops nicely in Germany - and could be a handy future AW.
Meanwhile is a decent chance that his squad spot at the Nix, is effectively offered to another young Kiwi. McGarry, Rogerson (and possibly Mata) have gone from Nix (sure not directly if Mata gets there) to Europe. Who knows if that would have happened if the Nix didn’t exist. So impofor NZ football, that the Phoenix survive on so many fronts.
both?
But assuming it was not possible to sign up Rudan earlier, then it was not possible to do both. Watch last 5 mins of this press conference below.
Rudan makes it abundantly clear that he is in no hurry to sign players. No hurry at all.
He seems a guy not to suffer fools easily, and if the Nix had signed up an off contract Rogerson, without him first having had a chance to witness him trialling - the owners may have been torn a new arsehole by the coach.
He is building his own team, and taking his time about it. So if Rogerson couldn't wait to trial in front of Rudan, that's his prerogative.