I'm guessing a lot of it comes down to Chief showing faith in young players this season, and for plucking him from the club's 3rd team to start with. GSR goes to Auckland or overseas, and basically he has to start all over again from the bottom.
With the Nix the coaches know him well, and will have made some promises (depending on performance) about mins next season. For all we know his dad (coach in Hong Kong) plus agent, may have quietly made some demands on playing time that the Nix have within certain parameters agreed to.
Plus GSR knows the other players in the squad, as performance benchmarks to get mins next season. Auckland sign some big name marquee attacking players that expect to start each week, and GSR's playing time there could be very limited.
If after a few years (or even a standout starring U20 WC), he knows the Nix will let him go for a fee if a big money overseas offer comes in. But for the next 3 years & his continued development, he needs to be playing as much as possible. The big money deals can come after age 19!
https://wellingtonphoenix.com/news/young-history-maker-signs-maiden-pro-contract/Sloane-Rodrigues will become the seventh player to graduate from the academy into the first team since Giancarlo Italiano took over as head coach.
“It’s difficult for a coach to have that much faith in young players, but it’s been working.
“He trusts his young players and it makes us more confident.
“He always tells me he doesn’t care if I make mistakes as long as I keep working hard and don’t put my head down.”
He started training with the first team during pre-season after Italiano spotted him playing for the Phoenix thirds in the Capital Premier League.
“I felt as though he had a little bit of x-factor about him,” Italiano said. “He was doing things different to what the other players were.
“He was taking on players, dribbling, switching the ball on the run and I just felt like he had a point of difference, and I liked it.
“When he first came into training he showed the same thing which I saw in the game so that gave me a lot of confidence.”
Giancarlo Italiano believes the step up to professional football will be “a big jump” for Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues but he has the “potential to be a real point of difference for us”.
“He needs time, but after two years in this environment he’ll be flying.
“I would like to see him build gametime next season…a bit like how Oskar van Hattum has progressed this season. I see that sort of trajectory for him.
“Once he scores and he gets a bit of belief I think he can do really well.
“I also want to see him make the next national team for his age-group.”
