What there are are plenty of fans reading the conjecture on these forums and on the even more stupid facebook groups and assuming any of it is fact.
Most of the whining and angst is based on the opinions of a sea of knockers (interestingly many of which don't even live in Wellington) who invent rubbish like the owners not wanting to spend money or Rado should have been kept, or Darije quit because the board didn't like him demanding more money, or the football committee don't know anything about football.
The club did an exhaustive search and Kalezic gave all the right impressions had the right credentials and seemed a reasonable punt. Very few people on here raised a red flag because we thought the same thing. Then they added Rado - now I suspect that they signed Rado knowing that if things went wrong he'd be a pain in the arse because he is but to be honest you've backed your squad and your coach to be competent so you'd be selling yourself short if you didn't take a punt on Rado - and most people celebrated.
Unfortunately things start going wrong. The signings that were meant to be A-League quality were not - Kosta had gone because his Mrs couldn't stand being around his mother (allegedly) Gui couldn't find form/didn't want to be here (allegedly). Rossi never gave a shark. Galloway looked like an Aussie journeyman not great Australian hope he was meant to be. They deliberately avoided signing NZ players to avoid a clash with a busy year for the national side. They signed Italiano based on the clamour of people who never really watched him play ASB Prem and Rado became a pain in the arse.
The club had backed Darije and when it came to a Rado or him decision they kind of needed to stay by their man particularly as Rado is not a head coach and would likely be a pain in the arse for anyone else as well of course this meant Dario as well.
They gave Darije a chance without those influences but also without key players, the defensive line destroyed by injury, Italiano was as expected and the players got frustrated with the coaching style and Darije's lack of ability.
Sure some of this was the clubs fault. Italiano should not have been re-signed as number 1, the decision to avoid NZ players was foolish and hurt our identity and the chances for NZ players. Signing Rado was a mistake but as I said if you don't back yourself to win and avoid the issues Rado can cause why are you even trying?
However there is an element of the club being a victim of circumstance. They backed the man in charge and the team to win and not have the Rado issue. How could they know Finkler and Rossi had just given up? They had done due diligence how could they know Darije would go wrong? How could they know we'd spend the first half of the season with 9 defenders on the books and at times only 3 of them fit and even then not fully fit? On paper Burns is a superb signing, on the pitch he's been frustrating. Colorado unsettled Krishna (no they are not entirely innocent here but rest assured the guilt is at best evenly split between all the parties involved).
Just remember NZ Football had Hudson for 3 years and never clicked he wasn't up to the job, the Phoenix realised it and took action within 8 months
I'll also give you the fact that the decision to move the last game was dumb (exacerbated by the late notice of the move) but even that is only because two other outside Wellington games fell through in circumstances beyond the control of anyone at the Phoenix be it playing side, back room or WelNix.
While I'm going of on one people calling for WelNix to go, the board to go, blaming Huawei really need to step back and think this through. We have a club by the grace of these people and organisations. Our ticket purchases do not come close to funding this club.
Huawei are a massively credible sponsor and financial contributor for the club and I imagine they are having some concerns about re-signing for the coming season which won't be helped by people on Social media slagging them off despite them doing all they can to keep a professional club going in New Zealand.
We have a better youth set-up than any other club in this league, there is work continuing to try and make a Women's team viable in the W-League without any of the FFA support Australian clubs get. We are also by no means the poorest funded side (or the cheapest squad) in the league and have an ownership group and model that many of the Australian clubs envy and they look to Rob Morrison as a leader in the ownership group.
I'm all for people having their voice and fan power but we need to be careful not to get carried away on a sea of righteous indignation without taking a step back and evaluating the full facts. Yes there are some errors being made but the sky is not falling. We're not going through a head coach a week as some of the chicken littles would have you believe, we're not close to being wound up, the FFA aren't close to kicking us out. Yes we need more (and a stable) back room staff at the club, yes we need more NZ players getting a chance, and yes we now need a new coach. None of these things are insurmountable and it's certainly not a 'list 1 good thing the club have done in 12 months' bad. Most of the things they had done prior to 10 weeks ago were being celebrated by the same people now demanding the club be folded.
