You guys are all correct - it is his team and he can do what he likes.
I would like all of you then to think twice when you complain about the NZ quota at the Phoenix if this guy does not pan out and 'signing Aussie kids that are poor over Kiwi kids' ala Shermy, Caira, Galloway, Parkhouse, Downey..... I'll even throw in Italiano because for 5 years that he was getting splinters, he was shown to be quite poor when he got his shot. It may not have worked out better for a Kiwi but at least the by-product MAY have been increased competition at an AW level
Burgess could well be a better signing - but to what degree? One would suggest the gulf between Burgess and de Jong (based only on what I have read and also comparable NPL form) is fudge all. I know who would infinitely benefit more from the professional contract AND as a by-product also be developed for the AWs
I think I have made my point.
I think the answer to that is quite straightforward:
(a) if the club is not for kiwis, why does it exist?
(b) there is clearly a connection between the fans and the kiwi players
(c) we have signed plenty of average aussies and they have been crap
(d) our most successful period came when we had a core of good kiwis
It's not about sentimentality, it's about someone having a long term vision for the club for how to be successful. Long term, I cannot see how we will be successful without more kiwis because clearly Australians are always more likely to want to be based in Australia!
A) The club's primary goal is not the development of NZ players. Its primary goal is to be a competitive A-League side (ideally winning it). Developing Kiwis is a nice side effect for NZ Football though.
B) Yes, some players are more marketable. Winning is far more marketable than any player we've had on our books (inb4 Usain Bolt).
C) Very true but also irrelevant to the current squad - what player of that class is currently on our books? Can't lump Burgess in there just yet and Fox and Lowry, I believe, are both A-League players.
D) Very true but also entirely irrelevant to the current squad.
Its hard to plan for the long term when we have no clue if there even is a long term, we have to take a win now approach because of that. We need a competitive side if we want to continue to exist (maybe slightly less true now)
The way to do that is not to say to the coach "you can only sign X because we need to have at least Y NZers". We need the best players available for us. If Australians are the best way to do that, so be it. We need to secure our short/medium term future before thinking about the long term future.
The good news is, we know Kiwis are part of the club's long term vision because our academy is chock full of them and its actually turned out some decent players in recent times. There will always be Kiwis at the Nix but that doesn't matter if there's no Nix for them to play for.
That's before I even mention that, while I'm sure we'd like to be signing Kiwis, that's hard to do when they don't want to play for us - demanding contracts before trialling and, let's be real, the reputation of the Nix among NZ players is awful. Winning is the best way to fix that, memories are very short in football.