THE SQUAD is a changin’, but thankfully some things are remaining constant for next season.
Two players have been confirmed gone this week, but five key members of our team have all signed one or two-year contract extensions. We also have a little bloke named Fred around for the rest of this calendar year, with hints from both the club and player himself he could be around even longer...Lei Lei Gao can now go Lay Lay Down somewhere out of the way, and it couldn’t have come too soon; his five percent work-rate and general contempt for the club and the league grew thin pretty quickly.
Yes, many of us Phoenix fans have said ‘he’ll do well, he just needs to buckle down’, but really we knew deep down we were kidding ourselves, hoping more than expecting him to turn things around. Yes he has been there for all of the games we’ve won points bar one, but his impact was far greater in the games we lost, often being our worst player, spending large amounts of time on the ball doing nothing and never tracking back in defence. Rumours he is a target for Gold Coast could be good for the other teams in the league, but I really wouldn’t wish him on anyone.
I’m also excited about the departure of Moss, strange as that may seem to many Australian readers. Few people will deny he is a better ‘keeper than Paston, but it is not enough to matter greatly, hence his inability to displace his elder between the Westpac Stadium sticks.
The fact is Paston is adequate, with a pedigree including time in what is now the Coca-Cola Championship with Bradford. The exciting parts of this move is that it means it will give a chance to one of New Zealand’s talented young goalkeepers, be that Spoonley, Imray, or someone else (something that will benefit both the player in question, as well as the All Whites), and that New Zealand’s best two custodians will no longer be at the same club, allowing for the possibility of more game-time. Yes, I’d rather it was Paston leaving but this can only be good in the long run for New Zealand at least.
Something certainly good for the club in the long run is that we now have a strong base for building our squad next year, with most of the dead weight coming to the end of their contracts at the end of this season.
By far the most exciting extensions were that of Daniel (reaffirming his commitment to Wellington and becoming a Kiwi), Lochhead, and Sigmund. I had the pleasure of meeting Ben at the start of the season, and he talked passionately about the opportunity given to him and he seemed ready to take the chance with both hands; something he has certainly done, being the heart and soul of the team at times and playing with a determination we wish the rest of the team could muster up together.
We now have a strong base set up for next year’s squad; all we need is two good strikers, perhaps another defensive midfielder, and some creative spark. This is why the potential of Fred staying longer is so exciting.
Now that Lei Lei Gao is gone, there could possibly be room under the cap to change him from being a guest player to a full loan signing which I believe would see him allowed to play out the rest of the season. What is even more exciting is that his contract with DC United ends in around about a year; if we take the most optimistic view it might be possible to suggest he could be winging his way back to Wellington on a more permanent deal.
I’ve tried to be positive in this blog, hence the title, but there is one negative piece of news this week that can’t be ignored, the comments of Mohammed bin Hammam on SBS over the weekend.
My personal opinion is that Hammam is ignorant of the situation in Australia and New Zealand, and the financial and developmental benefits to both nations which border on a necessity for the league to run the way it does.
We must also be aware that many people in Asia are weary of having Australia in their confederation, to have New Zealand creeping in as well must be frightening to some of them, and Hammam wants to keep them onside.
We must also be aware of the fact he did not say Australia will lose its ACL spots or be limited to the current two so long as Wellington Phoenix remain in the league, the same goes for promotion and relegation.
Hammam suggested these moves would make the league ‘more professional’. The fact is, to get four ACL places the A-League needs 14 teams: the very number the FFA is targeting as the maximum size of the league.
The FFA knows that the New Zealand presence is necessary for the league to continue growing and Frank Lowy wants to help Oceania, which he well should: Asia was a good move for Australia but a bad one for the Pacific nations, we deserve a bit of compensation.
There are plenty of issues to be sorted out in terms of squad make-up and the club’s ongoing future but I’m trying to remain positive, as should all Nix fans. We are building a great club and the support for our presence seems stronger than the fight against it.
