In an interview with au.fourfourtwo.com yesterday former New Zealand international Danny Hay said Phoenix should not have allowed Smeltz to leave the club.

He said upgrading the striker's contract to marquee status should have been pursued but the club revealed today that they had made that offer. It wasn't enough to prevent a switch to Gold Coast United though.

Tony Pignata told au.fourfourtwo.com: "He was offered it (marquee). There was a blank sheet there when we sat down with him.

"He thought about it and in the end he decided to move on and explained his reasons why.

"As I've said before, we did everything we could to keep Shane Smeltz at this football club but we have to deal with it.

"Players move on. Wayne Rooney left Everton to go to Man United and Berbatov left Spurs for Man United.

"But we still have Shane for the remainder of this season and hopefully he will carry on scoring goals for us.

"We are now searching for a new striker."