Your Dream Phoenix Lineup

Your Dream Phoenix Lineup

I know this is a very open topic, but who do you think will be lining up come August?

We going for an XI or the full squad of 23 Selekta ?

whatever you feel like hard news!

hard news, are you auckland based?  if so, do you also attend nzfc games?

Wellington these days.  Commuted from here for A-League games, and season ticket at Team Wellington (deserve a medal for that alone).

absolutely! well, i guess your in a good position to compare players standard-wise between the nzfc and wellington. will be interesting to see who, if any, you include in your squad...

I had a season ticket for Team Wellington as well and went to all the games (when they didn't change the time at the last minute). Not sure I can go to all the Phoenix games and Team Wellington, hopefully they'll work together and we might see TW as a curtain raiser.

Difference between NZFC and A-League is the difference between the English Conference and The Premiership

Yeagh not so much a small gap....more a Gulf The size of the Pacific!

Good call mate.

Will make a dream team later

Hard News is a very experienced fan and has a wealth of knowledge on the Kiwi game. If you have more questions on the state of the NZ game he is the source to go to. At one point I'd probably seen more Kingz games here and in Australia than anyone apart from the players (first two seasons) but I lost interest when the Rufer's were replaced and the Kiwi content quickly reduced. Hard News was there til the end..an amazing feat of patience and support. A top bloke and you must make good use of his skills down in Wellers. I'll be happy to see the Kiwi player roster be re-established by Riki Herbert with a solid base of Australians and of course the 3 QUALITY imports the rules allow us to have. It would also be great to see a side that has some players with a bit of character and personality, who can interact with the supporters. This was one thing the Kingz had in the first two seasons.

-------------------Paston----------------------

-----------------Paston---------------

Chris Killen should be in there - a good Wellington lad. Slight injury problem at present but time to recover. 

If you're a shoe-in for leading goal-scorer in the Scottish Premier League before injury, you're not heading back home to Wellington no matter whether we have the greatest fans in the world or not...

-----------------Paston---------------

Lads - Buess ?  Gibson ?  You'd want someone to be pretty good as a reject from another A-League side.  If Frank Farina cuts you, you have to be pretty dreadful.

We doing what we'd like to see or what we suspect we'll be stuck with ?

-----------------Paston---------------

Moss
Barron
Totori
Coveny

I've chopped and changed on this for days now.  This is where I'm at today but it will probably have changed by this time tomorrow.

Other names I'd consider for the squad (as of today):
Hard News2007-04-02 00:31:26

Buess didnt get ' cut' as such.

He should have been.  He was awful at times this season.

Like Hard News' lineup. Id be happy to have Ferrante in the centre of midfield, he was a class act in season 1.

You've got to remember that with 20 (23 now) man squads and salary caps players are going to get cut sometimes. Guys like Gibson were probably on bigger contracts than Farina would want to renew. Don't know whether you'd want Buess, hes fair rubbish but guys like Gibson, Ferrante, Spencer, Byrnes or Brockie would definitely be worth looking at. They can definitely play and weren't given the opportunities they needed at other clubs for various reasons. You'd be crazy to think that anyone who's been cut from another A-League club isn't good enough for you. That said you don't want to build a team completely of A-League rejects. Need some new blood from overseas and local New Zealanders mixed in. And as few NZK players as possible.

A few i liked from last season for the Knights were Marcina, Salley, Johnson and Gao Lei Lei. Obviously we can't get Gao so the other 3 would be fairly good signings if available. Also another that impressed was Steven O'Dor who filled in a couple of times. He looks like a solid young defender that could really help.

Salley has signed with Adelaide. Marcina is with Puerto Rico who's season doesnt finish til deep into the A-League season. Richard Johnson id definatly sign.

Shame Salley went there he showed the difference in how good he was compared to the other midfielders the Knights had last year after coming back from injury. Hopefully they look to get someone with flair and also a hard tackling midfielder to really intimidate the opponents midfield. Will be interesting to see who they choose to stick at the back. I'm in agreement with the no Hay movement. Did anyone see his column a while back in the Sunday paper. Saying that if Wellington get it no one will want to come to Wellington.Now everyone wants to play here. He is a loser and he abandoned the Knights to play for Perth he doesnt deserve to play here he hasn't earned it.

Yeah we dont need Hay. He does enough damage for the All Whites.

Yeah they would be the best bet. Thinking about quality or even solid NZ right and left backs is a tough 1 there arent a whole lot in that department unless Old joins and plays one side and Hickey the other but i think thats a waste putting Hickey there out of position.

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That team looks good NZKCantu. Probably bring Tambo on for Hay and forget about James and put an import in the centre of midfield.

 .......................M Paston ...........

H Josimar ....... R Nelsen .......P Crouch (would do a job if asked) ..... N Hickey

Marius Lakatush2007-04-02 17:51:00

josimar was a right back btw, but an impressive display of footy knowledge nonetheless!  scifo was one of my favs too - would be great to see him and milla line up together, with brown an effective foil.  crouchie at the back - excellent!

Not John Filan, Is 37 and will want to retire at the end of this season. We got 2 really good developing Kiwi keepers in Moss and Paston. The more game-time they get the better they will become.

DannyPHOENIX2007-04-02 18:13:42

We have to look to build a team that can win the title.  Obviously that will take time but some of the names being bandied about smacks of creating a team that will be "competitive" or worse...

good idea james. (like ricki) i forgot about oughton.  would go well anchoring midfield too.  as for elliott, i agree.  michael brown has also been signed in his spot and is now captain.  they do seem to rate elliott over there though

The thing I suspect with Oughton and Elliott is that they may feel they owe the fans of their current clubs after being out long term with injuries.  Pretty sure Oughton is captain of the Crew and when he returned last year the fans went berserk as he walked back out.  Even for a local lad it must make you feel pretty special.  I imagine the reason Ricki hasn't called him up is that he's played less than 10 games in two years.  Fit he'd be there.

Elliott may have the same loyalty thing, but more importantly he'll have Premier League wages which could make or break his life after the game.  I don't think we could justify spending marquee money on him when we despertely need goalscorers and if he isn't the marquee you end up spending a lot of the cap on one player and having to scrimp on the rest.

I'd love to them both here but I suspect it may not happen quite yet.

Does anyone know what length contract Elliot originally signed?

I'm not 100% but I thought it was the half season plus one, then they offered him a new deal for two at the end of last season which replaced this year and added next year.  Could be wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure one of the papers said his deal ran for next season.

For some reason I'm in my own dream line up - I play striker and score a hat-trick every game before I wake up.

Elliot got another year on contract I think - we're dreamin'