WPM 2025/26 Squad Speculation, Confirmation and Mutual Termination
2692 replies·170,418 views
3 months ago
How long do we have Piper on contract for currently? I'd be looking to extend now, to be honest. I've been really impressed with his performances and growth this season.
The Castle is an underrated city in Aussie in my opinion. That's based off a short 4 day visit about 10 years ago.
Great beaches, and enough cool venues downtown to have a vibe. I loved the historic ocean lap pool, that was fed by the sea. Been there for years apparently. Traffic not manic like Sydney. Be a good place to be, if you were a family man.
Nearby inland you have some wineries, and pretty countryside.
How long do we have Piper on contract for currently? I'd be looking to extend now, to be honest. I've been really impressed with his performances and growth this season.
I don't begrudge someone wanting to try something different. Roy Keane often brings up that he now wished he took up offers to play at other clubs like Bayern Munich for the experience more so than anything else. NUJ are not Bayern Munich, but it will be a different experience at the very least.
Expires 2025/26 Carlo Armiento Fin Conchie Dan Edwards Ifeanyi Eze (V) Hideki Ishige (V) Manjrekar James (V) Nikola Mileusnic Kazuki Nagasawa (V) Ramy Najjarine Josh Oluwayemi (V) Paulo Retre Alex Rufer Luke Supyk
Expires 2026/27 Anaru Cassidy Luke Brooke-Smith Alby Kelly-Heald Lukas Kelly-Heald Xuan Loke Corban Piper Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues Jayden Smith
Expires 2027/28 Isaac Hughes Tim Payne Matt Sheridan Bill Tuiloma Nathan Walker
Ditto, based on a short holiday last year. That pool is impressive! Seems a good place to raise a family. (Edit: Newcastle. Not the pool).coochiee
The Castle is an underrated city in Aussie in my opinion. That's based off a short 4 day visit about 10 years ago.
Great beaches, and enough cool venues downtown to have a vibe. I loved the historic ocean lap pool, that was fed by the sea. Been there for years apparently. Traffic not manic like Sydney. Be a good place to be, if you were a family man.
Nearby inland you have some wineries, and pretty countryside.
Expires 2025/26 Carlo Armiento Fin Conchie Dan Edwards Ifeanyi Eze (V) Hideki Ishige (V) Manjrekar James (V) Nikola Mileusnic Kazuki Nagasawa (V) Ramy Najjarine Josh Oluwayemi (V) Paulo Retre Alex Rufer Luke Supyk
bolded players I'd be working hard to extend! I'm 50/50 on Josh.
He has a bit of that Armiento type energy and drive. Plus strangely enough he seems a bit more composed in front of goal than LBS.
Man, if we can come through the rest of the season better than par and not lose to Auckland, this might be one of the better season’s experiences. And if we can get everyone fit and firing and into the finals…
It feels like we’re really up against it, but not without hope.
Expires 2025/26 Carlo Armiento Fin Conchie Dan Edwards Ifeanyi Eze (V) Hideki Ishige (V) Manjrekar James (V) Nikola Mileusnic Kazuki Nagasawa (V) Ramy Najjarine Josh Oluwayemi (V) Paulo Retre Alex Rufer Luke Supyk
Expires 2026/27 Anaru Cassidy Luke Brooke-Smith Alby Kelly-Heald Lukas Kelly-Heald Xuan Loke Corban Piper Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues Jayden Smith
Expires 2027/28 Isaac Hughes Tim Payne Matt Sheridan Bill Tuiloma Nathan Walker
Eze, James, Nagasawa, Rufer, Armiento the definite resigns. Ramy, Edwards, Conchie, Mileunsnic all depending how they go the rest of the season.
Ditto, based on a short holiday last year. That pool is impressive! Seems a good place to raise a family. (Edit: Newcastle. Not the pool).coochiee
The Castle is an underrated city in Aussie in my opinion. That's based off a short 4 day visit about 10 years ago.
Great beaches, and enough cool venues downtown to have a vibe. I loved the historic ocean lap pool, that was fed by the sea. Been there for years apparently. Traffic not manic like Sydney. Be a good place to be, if you were a family man.
Nearby inland you have some wineries, and pretty countryside.
I did a degree at the Newcastle Uni in mid-nineties. Cannot say many bad things about the place, and it has gentrified significantly since then. Was always a bit of an industrial town but it is better than most. I experienced the Dec 1989 Newcastle earthquake (not in the itself city, luckily) so obviously I just had to move to Christchurch for an encore of 2011.
Actually, getting outplayed quite a bit these days
Expires 2025/26 Carlo Armiento Fin Conchie Dan Edwards Ifeanyi Eze (V) Hideki Ishige (V) Manjrekar James (V) Nikola Mileusnic Kazuki Nagasawa (V) Ramy Najjarine Josh Oluwayemi (V) Paulo Retre Alex Rufer Luke Supyk
bolded players I'd be working hard to extend! I'm 50/50 on Josh.
Waste of time bolding Eze no way are we going to be able to keep him unless he decides he wants to settle in Wellington.
Should have had an option in the clubs favour in his contract. Coming from Iraq he was always going to be boom or bust and Wellington would have been remarkably appealing by contrast to playing in Baghdad
Should have had an option in the clubs favour in his contract. Coming from Iraq he was always going to be boom or bust and Wellington would have been remarkably appealing by contrast to playing in Baghdad
Or maybe he chose wellington ahead of other options he had. Not sure why you think the club can put things in a players contract if he dosnt want them there. To Ezes credit he has been up front about his ambition to use this contract to put him self in the window and get a contract somewhere else.
Eze was pretty up front when he signed, he is here in order to try and get a Euro move. If he performs and gets his desired move, we have his visa slot to find a replacement.
Speaking of visa slots, with the uncertainty over Chief's job, I would be surprised if we re-sign any of the visas other than maybe James. If we replace Chief, having 4-5 visa slots would be rather handy for his replacement.
Well AFC had one year contracts with their imports and managed to have options.
Sure, why not. Why do you think Verstrate is still in the A league.
It’s not that hard this guys coming from Iraq, not Madrid. Wellington must almost be like a paradise.
And of course every pro has ambitions to play in the premier league and would consider the A league a stepping stone.
What pisses me off is he will probably end up in Australia at Western Sydney.ballane
AucklandPhoenix
Should have had an option in the clubs favour in his contract. Coming from Iraq he was always going to be boom or bust and Wellington would have been remarkably appealing by contrast to playing in Baghdad
Or maybe he chose wellington ahead of other options he had. Not sure why you think the club can put things in a players contract if he dosnt want them there. To Ezes credit he has been up front about his ambition to use this contract to put him self in the window and get a contract somewhere else.
AFC left out contract lengths from their announcements but AV did some digging before the start of last season and reported that Verstraete was on a 2 year deal.
May & Sakai only had 1 season deals. Maybe they had some options.
Well AFC had one year contracts with their imports and managed to have options.
Sure, why not. Why do you think Verstrate is still in the A league.
It’s not that hard this guys coming from Iraq, not Madrid. Wellington must almost be like a paradise.
And of course every pro has ambitions to play in the premier league and would consider the A league a stepping stone.
What pisses me off is he will probably end up in Australia at Western Sydney.ballane
AucklandPhoenix
Should have had an option in the clubs favour in his contract. Coming from Iraq he was always going to be boom or bust and Wellington would have been remarkably appealing by contrast to playing in Baghdad
Or maybe he chose wellington ahead of other options he had. Not sure why you think the club can put things in a players contract if he dosnt want them there. To Ezes credit he has been up front about his ambition to use this contract to put him self in the window and get a contract somewhere else.
Your just making assumptions though so not sure what there is to be pissed off about. Again if a player dosnt want that clause in his contract he just wont sign. Maybe the guys AFC signed were happy to have it in their contracts. The club dosnt hold all the cards when making deals Again maybe he chose Wellington DESPITE having other options on the table so may not have been interested to have that clause in his contract. He stated pretty clearly at his signing announcement what he was looking for would be very surprised if he wasnt upfront with the club as well.
Once it was a letdown if a player went to another club, he was disloyal. Now, it's more unusual if a player stays all his career at one club. If Rufer wants to go elsewhere, to another location, A league or further afield, good on him, it's his life and career.
Once it was a letdown if a player went to another club, he was disloyal. Now, it's more unusual if a player stays all his career at one club. If Rufer wants to go elsewhere, to another location, A league or further afield, good on him, it's his life and career.
Agree but i for one will be bitterly disappointed if we lose him to another A League club.
ananaveragestembrbrookemHalf a PintLG+6Mainland FC, Oi Oi Edgecumbe, Southernix, theprof, WanderingSheep, WhoStoleMySock
3 months ago
ballane
hepatitis
Once it was a letdown if a player went to another club, he was disloyal. Now, it's more unusual if a player stays all his career at one club. If Rufer wants to go elsewhere, to another location, A league or further afield, good on him, it's his life and career.
Agree but i for one will be bitterly disappointed if we lose him to another A League club.
Agree on all the sentiments, if another team in the league want to offer a contract that is better for Rufer and his family and we don't want to match/get close, I won't begrudge him for leaving. He's at the age where he has to start looking out for him and his family.
ananaveragestemAucklandPhoenixBullioncoochiee+11dunnix, HattyCW, KiwiMancunian, LG, Mainland FC, mjp2, Oi Oi Edgecumbe, Since2007, Southernix, WanderingSheep, WhoStoleMySock
3 months ago
Guessing this wont satisfy some people as he is on a loan deal. Nice to see some intent from the club maybe its not all the doom and gloom that some like to suggest continually.
ananaveragestembrbrookemLGMainland FC+5mjp2, Oi Oi Edgecumbe, Southernix, WanderingSheep, WhoStoleMySock
3 months ago
Wasn't super impressed with him when I saw him play for Hearts, but that was under Cathro and their most recent crazy period, so probably a bit unfair to judge. I think he should do well here, hopefully settles in quickly! Things coming along very nicely this window!
I see we've had to agree a mutual with Ishege to get the import slot so can't have got it through as an injury replacement. Ishege is staying in wellington to rehab
ananaveragestemkwlapLGmartinb+5Oi Oi Edgecumbe, Southernix, WanderingSheep, WhoStoleMySock, YellowAndBlack
3 months ago
WanderingSheep
Mainland FC
Smeltz4PM
theprof
cant see why he'd go there, makes absolutely no sense given his "off shore" aspirations, surely he'd want to go to a different league??
I'd think so too, but who knows. He'll be 30 in the off season, has a young child, if newcastle came and offered him a 4 year contract paying more than the nix are willing to then perhaps it'd somewhat scratch that itch while still being relatively close to his kiwi family and feeling enough like something different
There is a decent argument in there. Durante might have also felt that way when he left for WU - it would have been at that time a potential platform for a future with wider / better options, perhaps.
in fairness to Durante, he was leaving for something completely new. Couldn't say the same about Newcastle. I'd always been under the impression newcastle was a sharkehole? Either way, I'd be disappointed if he left for another A-league club, not sure the club can do much if someone throw ludicrous amounts of $ at him. Personally I hope he stays, but if he goes, let it be outside of the A-league.
Durante was drinking to much Rudan Kool-Aid at the time.
"Ishige has had his contract terminated by mutual consent to allow the Phoenix to sign an additional visa player but will continue his rehabilitation in Wellington."
"Ishige has had his contract terminated by mutual consent to allow the Phoenix to sign an additional visa player but will continue his rehabilitation in Wellington."
I see we've had to agree a mutual with Ishege to get the import slot so can't have got it through as an injury replacement. Ishege is staying in wellington to rehab
lol reading this makes me feel less like an idiot….. still an idiot but just slightly less
"Ishige has had his contract terminated by mutual consent to allow the Phoenix to sign an additional visa player but will continue his rehabilitation in Wellington."
Yeah this is weird. Why couldn't we get him as injury replacement for Ishige? Seems to tick all the boxes?
I see we've had to agree a mutual with Ishege to get the import slot so can't have got it through as an injury replacement. Ishege is staying in wellington to rehab
weird, you would think the injury replacement rules are specifically for instances like with Ishige.
Whatever the rules are, they should certainly be more liberal - especially in a salary capped league.
I’m not sure what the rules were, but I seem to recall some commentator in a game talking about Ishige having to earn some high salary to activate a direct foreign replacement
"Ishige has had his contract terminated by mutual consent to allow the Phoenix to sign an additional visa player but will continue his rehabilitation in Wellington."
Yeah this is weird. Why couldn't we get him as injury replacement for Ishige? Seems to tick all the boxes?
I thought it would be borderline on whether he earnt enough to have us qualify the injury replacement criteria (something like 300-350k - I can't find my source for this but RR will know the amount).
Good on the club though for being proactive and realizing there was a need for a replacement signing to be made, but then also doing right by Ishige and paying him out and having him stay on for rehab.
While we very rarely pay a fee for any incoming players, this situation is effectively doing so incognito - A lump sum payout, and probably a fair portion of Sander's wages. Guess we're not so hard up for cash as some might suggest. 🤷♂️
"Ishige has had his contract terminated by mutual consent to allow the Phoenix to sign an additional visa player but will continue his rehabilitation in Wellington."
Yeah this is weird. Why couldn't we get him as injury replacement for Ishige? Seems to tick all the boxes?
I thought it would be borderline on whether he earnt enough to have us qualify the injury replacement criteria (something like 300-350k - I can't find my source for this but RR will know the amount).
Good on the club though for being proactive and realizing there was a need for a replacement signing to be made, but then also doing right by Ishige and paying him out and having him stay on for rehab.
While we very rarely pay a fee for any incoming players, this situation is effectively doing so incognito - A lump sum payout, and probably a fair portion of Sander's wages. Guess we're not so hard up for cash as some might suggest. 🤷♂️
Welcome along for the ride Sander!
I think the bit about paying Ishige and having him to stay is why I like this club. Others would cut him loose, but it will also be positive for Nagasawa I'd imagine, being able to still have a compatriot around albeit in a different capacity. Top work Nix.
+2
