"Immense speculation" is just the beginning when it comes to Wellington Phoenix's predicament..

But within the shroud of uncertainty surrounding Phoenix's future, the bright spots are emerging through a talented academy. Hence the excitement surrounding the proud announcement of two re-signed players for next season.

He can already boast the most A-League appearances, but without any sign of slowing down Andrew Durante will continue his never-ending A-League journey next season.

To balance experience with youthful endeavour, however, Pheonix also announced the re-signing of Liberato Carace, a full-back with huge raps within the Nix, who have signed him to a new contract in the hope of building around a currently prolific youth set up.

Carace joins Sarpreet Singh, Logan Rogerson and Willem Ebbinge as ones-to-watch among the Phoenix squad next season.

‘’There has been immense speculation around the club in recent weeks," Phoenix General Manager, David Dome, said. 
 
‘’While this is not helpful, we as a club cannot control media speculation, but we can remain committed to working hard to pull together a competitive playing squad for next season.
 
‘(We're) in Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Soccer Sevens with a number of other promising young New Zealand players, we are working on our pre-season trip to Beijing in July and have a few other pre-season plans that are being looked at.
 
‘We are continuing to build into the season 18/19 in a number of areas, including working very hard to finalise the appointment of our new Head Coach.”