Matt Ridenton Joins the Welly Nix Exodus
Eventually there’ll be something happy to report from the Phoenix beat but for now it’s more of the same drudgery and frustration. There still isn’t a new manager in place. They’ve only had, like, two months to make those phone calls after all… and it’s not as if they didn’t go through the whole process a year ago. What, all the other candidates from last time got new jobs and changed their phone numbers?
Granted there have been a few distractions with the ol’ licence dramas rearing their ugly head once again, but yeah. The most important offseason in the club’s history and there hasn’t been a single step forward yet, only continued stumbles to hold their ground. Two-thirds of the first team squad is off contract now and they don’t wanna go signing players without a new manager’s permission but those players still have to eat.
We’re only a week removed from the Grand Final but already other clubs are announcing new signings. Brisbane have snapped up Adam Taggart. Western Sydney have signed a trio of ex-Melbourne City dudes (Tongyik, Fitzgerald and Kamau). Newcastle have signed some bloke called Ridenton. Storm Roux gonna be with the Melbourne Victory next term. Plenty more signings are rumoured. But all the Phoenix are announcing is who’ll be next to leave.
Marco Rossi and Mike McGlinchey made sense. Each had their moments in the yellow and black but were coming off poor and injury-riddled seasons. Neither shapes as an easy fit into next year’s first XI and yet both would have commanded decent dollars for their reputations. Sorta suits both sides to bid farewell then. Rossi will go back to Italy. Wee Mac… it’ll be pretty curious to see if he stays in the A-League or what. He’s still an important player within the All Whites set up and we need him playing on the regular.
Then there are the rumours about Andrija Kaludjerovic. All of the imports last season were signed on single year deals, excluding Roy Krishna’s in-season extension, which means that every one of them, at best, is as likely to leave as they are to stay. Word is that he’s on trial with Bidvest Wits over in South Africa. The Clever Boys (great nickname, btw) managed to avoid relegation this season and are looking for someone to bang in a few goals next time and help them keep it cosier. Jeremy Brockie famously went from scoring sporadically for the Phoenix to scoring for fun in the South African Premier Soccer League and Michael Boxall made a good go of it there as well. No shocker that another team’s trying to drink at that well.
There’s only one more game this PSL season so Kaludjerovic is obviously getting a head start on getting signed for next time, suggesting that he’s got no intention of returning to Wellington if things work out. All goods, Kalu scored some nice goals along the way but nine goals in 23 games is nothing special. Remember, also, that he’d scored eight in his first 11 and then only scored once in his final 12 games. There are plenty of good strikers out there. No dramas at all here.
Same with Keegan Smith dropping off for a few months. His pro deal doesn’t kick in until next season so he can still go play amateur footy without the stand-down period and therefore he’s been allowed to go play Central League for Lower Hutt AFC before re-joining the Nix as a full professional later in the year. Gotta get a young keeper some games, mate.
As for the rumours about James McGarry heading to Europe for trials, it’d be a shame to lose one of their better prospects but he never got a showing while others were being promoted down the stretch of last season. Could be that he was already looking elsewhere by then, Greenacre was clearly trying to reinforce the future of the playing staff so that’d make sense. Best wishes to him if it’s all true. Every kiwi playing professionally is a good thing.
But Matt Ridenton. That’s a different one.
Riddo missed just one game last season, only Goran Paracki played more minutes. It was a breakout season for the 22 year old having spent several years on the fringes waiting for his chance and when he finally got it he thrived. Didn’t always make the right passes, didn’t often have the finishing touch. But those are things that come with experience. The stuff you want to see immediately from a young player are energy, ball control, aggression, creativity… he ticked all those boxes. He’s a quality midfielder who is primed to get a lot better in the next few years but now those years will be spent at the Newcastle Jets instead of at the club that identified and developed him.
At Newcastle he links back up with Ernie Merrick and he joins a club that should suit his style of play. There won’t be an easy starting gig there with plenty of solid midfielders already on the books of the Grand Final runners-up, but with scorpion kick maestro Riley McGree probably going back to Club Brugge in Belgium that oughta help the cause. Matt will be a visa player, of course, which is pretty interesting. Ernie must really rate him…
Ernie Merrick: “Matthew is an excellent player, and having worked with him during my time at the Phoenix I know the sort of potential he possesses as a player. He’s also a great person and character, I have no doubt he’ll fit into the club and the community really well. Matt will offer plenty for us in the middle of the park, provides great depth for our squad and I look forward to seeing the contribution he can make over the next two seasons.”
We don’t know the circumstances of his deciding to leave. Could be that the club lowballed him, which sounds like short odds. The Nix can be stingy bastards what with that dripping axe hanging above the club’s proverbial neck and all. The Jets might simply value him higher than the Nix did while also offering more stability in the long run. Or maybe the Nix couldn’t afford to match what Newcastle had in the bank. Or potentially a 22 year old lad preferred to go see another part of the world for a few years, wouldn’t be the first.
Regardless of the why of it, the club’s 2017-18 Under-23 Player of the Year just buggered off. Joining such past recipients of that particular accolade as Troy Hearfield, Marco Rojas, Tyler Boyd, Roly Bonevacia and Jacob Tratt. None of whom had long careers with the club. Dylan Fox, who won it two years ago, is still there and playing as well as he ever has while Louis Fenton (who won it way back in 2012-13) will get another chance.
Doesn’t really paint the prettiest picture of the club’s player development. They do well to find these top notch prospects but then most of them move on to bigger things after a couple years. Which is still something to be proud of, sure. West Ham fans brag about their academy all the time but Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole and Jermain Defoe all did their best stuff elsewhere, while who stayed? Bloody Mark Noble is who.
Tyler Boyd’s scoring goals in Portugal, Marco Rojas has won the Johnny Warren Medal and is scoring goals in Holland now, Kosta Barbarouses has won multiple championships with Melbourne Victory. All the great kiwi players of Nix lore were signed after they’d already established themselves as pros. Andy Durante was domesticized as a New Zealander after a few years, so you could even argue he’s the most successful kiwi product the club’s ever produced as far as club legacies go. Wouldn’t be a kiwi without the Nix. But let’s not go down that slippery slope.
Point being that academy grads tend not to fill out first teams. Unless you’re Manchester United in the 90s or Barcelona more recently, the best products are going to be more ambitious than their local club. They fill out the fringes of the team, maybe get a couple good years as starters, plus they’re cheap and exciting. Then they leave. That happens across the world. The ones who last at a Welly Nix are the ones like Tom Doyle who are solid but unspectacular. Good club folk.
What’s annoying is that Matt Ridenton hasn’t gone to Europe or the Americas… he’s gone to flippin’ Newcastle. This one doesn’t feel like natural growth. This one feels like a promising young player not wanting to be a part of the Phoenix circus right now. Could be a misreading of it all but if it is then that’s because it’s happened within the fog of all this other drama going on with the club. And there are plenty more off-contract players where Matty Ridenton came from too.
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