How to rebirth the Phoenix/The "What can we do to improve?" thread

<p>Our best season by far was the 2009-2010 season and we're 7 years on from that and we've gone from having good turnouts, classy football with players that played exactly what was expected of them, a stadium which opposition sharkted themselves when playing in and finishing 3rd place...</p><p>To low attendance, bog standard and frustrating football, players that don't live up to expectations, playing in Westpac being a easy game for top teams (with exceptions... 3:0) and finishing 9th last season and currently trailing 8th.</p><p>It's just slowly degenerated. I think we need to press the restart button and sort everything out.</p>

a) Some Terry enthusiasm, b) get rid of the mental 'if we lose we're gonna get the axe' thing that hangs over us every game, c) miracle 2018 World Cup qualification would also help cover all sorts of problems, d) find some better players, e) get a decent penalty taker (FFS), f) get a world-class marquee, g) build a better stadium, h) find a coach, i) find a rival...

none of the above is going to happen with an ownership group who wants to turn a profit before all other things.

And they need to learn, you have to win things to turn a profit. Proper investment in decent players would be a good start and a decent coach.

What? We're not CCM here spending the minimum, this team is very expensive it's just not performing. In fact, our ownership group has never expressed any desire to make a profit - let alone make one before all other things. They've said that the end goal is for the team to be self sufficient, right now they're spending millions a season on it. 

I know for a fact that at least one of the consortium sees the Phoenix as purely philanthropic, and others have expressed in the media their desire to do this for Wellington, and to use it as a vehicle to do more for the city.

What we need though is a decent coach who is given free range, no more of this football comity business. We've seen time and time again what a good coach can do for a mediocre team, and this team is in fact a good team that is underperforming so there is a huge amount of potential.

It's weird to have owners of a football club who aren't passionate about football. I think that for all that WelNix have committed to the club they still don't come across as fans of the club. They only seem to care about on field results as a means to the end of a self sufficient club rather than as the primary goal of a football club. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this is necessarily true but it's the impression I get, and I wonder if they have been more tolerant of poor football performances than an owner who loved football would be.

I can only say rubbish!!!!

The fact that the team is expensive only means that the Nix ownership don't know enough about running a football business and they are not successful at it.

And I'm sorry, a good coach can do nothing for a mediocre team that is lasting, one or two good performances perhaps but at A League level you need good players that perform - full stop.

The view that this is a good team is just a fallacy, absolutely no evidence to support that. At almost every turn they are shown to be wanting and not up to A League standard. Some of you have to stop deluding yourself, the table doesn't lie especially when we are filling the bottom slots every bloody year......

The best thing we could do to improve the football is to require the entire Welnix consortium to attend and watch all the home games.  If they had to put up with what we are putting up with they'd soon either fold or sort it.

Four exclamation marks? Must be true!!!!

I'm not saying they're good enough to bring home the toilet seat, however just a few games ago we had one of the best defenses in the league, there was another stat bandied about which showed us as being one of the top teams for shots and shots on target, so it would appear as though we are underperforming.

Wellington Phoenix football committee intends to meet this week, where they plan to map out the club's future. They are ruling nothing out.

— Simon Hampton (@SimonHampton9) February 19, 2017

ominous :/

Sooo we didn't have a future mapped out before this? Is that why the entire club looks utterly clueless? 

Move them to Auckland

Switch to basketball?

If Welnix do throw in the towel, like many want, and no-one else does a Terry S to save us at the last minute, and the licence goes to Canberra or Woollongong, I hope you'll all be happy following TeeDubs next summer. (I'll be following the Lilywhites, much classier.)

No seriously: I agree things are sharkhouse and have to change, but putting Welnix in the "designated scapegoat" box is ignorant. Everyone sucks at our club. Top to bottom. Including the Fever. Especially the Fever!

Again, seriously: I repeat my theory of Phoenix Syndrome, where a top-quality player just stops "trying" after a while with us. Current sufferers: WeeMac; Roly; Kosta; perhaps Krishna. This can only be due to a club culture which, perhaps, is inherent in living in Wellington, a city which has prided itself since ages ago into telling ourselves that shark-house things are great (like the weather or the economy).

No one wants Welnix to throw in the towel. 

Oh crap, I this'd this before I read the last paragraph and want to unthis. I have no idea why you're so insecure about your life in Auckland but taking pot shots at Wellington at every opportunity isn't going to help.

Some people are pretty ungrateful about the fact that we do have people willing to spend millions of dollars of their own money to (hopefully) entertain us, I would definitely be having second thoughts because if the fans don't want the team then why bother?

Think she got Wellingtonians mixed up with Aucklanders.

if our crowds continue to dwindle, you'd have to wonder if the thought had crossed their minds.  Does come back to the team doing the business on the park though, win consistently and those that walked away will find their way back.

Yes an interesting theory from someone who cannot spell Jaffa

Except WelNix are in the best position of anyone involved to drive meaningful change throughout the pub. 

And there's a middle ground between wanting WelNix to walk away and wanting them to keep the club on its current trajectory (which realistically is the same thing, but more drawn out). 

My English football club, Plymouth Argyle was brought by someone who like Welnix, did not have a clue about football. He's turned the club around.   Not being a football tragic means he does not have rose tinted glasses and leaves the dirty work to football people.

I think the Nix main problem is that maybe Welnix get themselves involved too much.  They really need to get in a top football admin guy from Europe somewhere who knows the business inside and out to replace what the Nix currently have or don't have.

His name is Tony Pignata

With the results as they are I would have thought they would be meeting every week

Well, if I'm wrong and it has nothing to do with overall Wellington culture: why do so many great players come here and turn to crap? Especially in the last three seasons: I list Weemac, Roly and Kosta again as my prime examples. Is it just a club culture thing?

That is some crazy connection, plenty of Wellington teams perform including the Hurricanes and TeeDubs, and even the Phoenix on the odd occasion (and in seasons when they played more games in the region).

dp

My own uneducated theory is that of working for a second class outfit:

- If you are good but slightly lazy, they will keep you even if you don't pull your weight, 'cause they're afraid you'll go somewhere better. 

- If you're motivated but not very talented they'll keep you because you're cheap and nobody else wants you. 

- If you're not very motivated and not very talented you will get a season's wages or more if you do not need a working visa.

I don't particularly care about winning. But I want to see dedicated team with some ideas have a bloody go at Winning. Obviously that doesn't include last night's shark.

look Melbourne City is full of sharks trying to break Ridenton's shoulder (what a loathsome creature Brandan is, bloody wish I was marking him), or Doyle's nose (what a legend Manny is, bloody glad I'm never marked by him!) 

They've kicked the shark out of their opponents this season to 3rd so far. 

I don't know if I really believe this, but if we're not playing Burns ball, we sure as F can't be coming off second best in our physical game. 

It's an alternative plan. Not pretty. Not what the board ordered. But a combination of Manny/Siggie/Lia/McKain and then Bertos/Ifill/Greenie linked by Tim B was Herbert ball...

If we had Manny at right back, sure as F Brandan would be rolling on the ground moaning and complaining, but not injuring our players with cheap shots. 

I don't want the 'Nix playing this way, but it is one plan.

And if we're not going to play that way we have to buy a complete squad. Can't start the season without right or left backs, or short a striker like we've been the last couple of seasons, or missing a DM. We've got to get a full squad

Melbourne city gets the rub of the green, we don't. If we played like them we would have gotten two red cards last game.

I think you are wrong about an overall Wellington culture thing, but are right about a club culture thing.

The back office has had a big turnover of staff in the last couple of years which points to something not quite right

The fact we have a football committee that makes the decisions (which was shown when we signed Smeltz and extended 2 other contracts after Ernie resigned and before Buckingham\Greenacre were officially appointed) shows that the owners don't really have a clue. If they want to operate this model they need a Director of Football who will take ownership of the decisions. That they don't have this or seem unwilling to give a manager the run of the football side of things has probably put a few potential bosses off.

We really need a strong figure that will come in and not just sort out the football side but push through a major culture change in the club 

a Graham Arnold type would be ideal

I thought it was reported that the Smeltz deal was done while Ernie was still here and he was Ernies last signing?

But there were a number of signings at the time, and in the past when we had no coach between Herbert and Merrick we re-signed Bertos.

Tom Doyle.

I really believe the leadership group needs an overhaul (as well as the coaching staff). There cannot be something right with the mentality anymore.

I would love to see the club sign Boxall and make him captain; rebuild again. With perhaps Roux as vice captain. New blood. Fresh ideas. Not associated with a losing mentality of the past few seasons.

I think there's plenty to say about what needs to be improved on the field, but here's an off-the-field thing we can improve on: 

Our target audience. With the new Fox deal, we've had a lot of Saturday night games instead of Sunday afternoons. As we all know, the Phoenix brand them self as an extremely family-friendly club and most of their marketing seems to target specifically family's and kids. Unfortunately its easier to take kids to afternoon games, instead of the abundance of night time games we've had this season. 

What if the Phoenix marketing staff turned their focus to more teenagers/young adults? They could really focus on the Yellow Fever experience, the chanting, drumming, drinking etc. Right now to a lot of my friends (who are around 19-21 years old) they think the Phoenix are quite 'lame' and 'cheesy'. This could be down to both how the club performs on the field and how the club markets itself. 

You can see the effects on the Wellington Sevens attendances before and after it was advertised as one big party. Perhaps the opposite could be true for us? Or would this alienate the family/kids we have been targeting for awhile? 

The problem if we target the Friday and Saturday night markets and build that audience (and garage project is probably a step in that direction?) then there is no guaranty we get those timeslots next season.

Doyle coulda had two on his own too yesterday!