Another Day, Another Welly Nix Drama: Now The Vidosic Clan Is Goneskees
Serious question here: what in the ever-lovin’ footy-playin’ metric-servin’ hell is going on at the Wellington Phoenix? It doesn’t matter how they go each week, you can almost set your watch to the next crisis to emerge from the club. Maybe another injury, a two-goal lead wasted, perhaps a disgruntled marquee player. Now the bloody assistant coach is out of there and he’s taken his injured son with him. Forget about the consequences of it all for a second and take a step back. This is ugly. When all people hear is negativity about the club then that’s all they’ll know.
Back to those consequences. Rado Vidosic has been sacked as assistant coach of the Welly Nix, with GM David Dome admitting that “over recent weeks it’s become apparent not everyone has been on the same page and the playing group has begun to be affected by this uncertainty”. Hardly a glowing review of the state of things but then we’ve been watching them play so we already knew things weren’t clicking at full efficiency. With Rado goes his son Dario, which is a shame given the attacking midfielder had been one of the better performers so far. Four goals in ten appearances – although the latest of those, the 1-0 defeat in Perth, saw him subbed off after quarter of an hour with a knee injury that might have ruled him out in the short term anyway.
It’s pretty shocking news but also, in its own way, not surprising given what’s been going on at that club. A day earlier there’d been a gossipy piece on Goal.com that first put light on the coaching split between Darije Kalezic and Rado Vidosic, with the suggestion that a sacking was imminent…
Goal.com: “Kalezic held a meeting with a quintet of Phoenix stars, including Serbian striker Andrija Kaluderovic and Croatian midfielder Goran Paracki, with the players damning of Vidosic's performance as assistant and agreeing he needs to be removed. Kalezic currently has the full support of the Phoenix board and is keen to push through the sacking as soon as possible.”
Ordinarily you have to read this kinda stuff with a healthy amount of scepticism and this is no different, but given the premonition that turned out to be true there’s enough to at least wonder about some of this. Kalezic got five of his finest together and they agreed that Vido needed to go. The board are all in on Darije so once he had the players onside as well it was all over. As far as the power struggle goes, the manager was always going to win – particularly when the two named allies are his two best signings. More interesting would be which Kiwis and Aussies were included in that quintet. The Darije Kalezic Quintet, can’t wait for that new album to drop.
The implication when the coaching duo was announced was that Kalezic was the mastermind and Vidosic was the guy who’d keep him grounded and adapt him to the A-League ways. But they were always talked up as a duo, sharing the billing almost like Des Buckingham and Chris Greenacre before them. Vidosic was a well-known name and a big get for the Nix. There’s a certain amount of ego stroking that you have to do to keep someone like that happy with second-fiddle – even if they don’t need to hear it, you do it out of politeness/respect anyway. Now it seems like there might have been a power struggle there that we didn’t pay enough attention to from the start. Hmm.
More Goal.com: “However, Vidosic has become aware of the meeting through allies at the club, and will confront Kalezic at training on Wednesday to say he won't be leaving without a payout. It's believed Vidosic is supported by a group of players, led by his son Dario, who believe Kalezic is disrespectful, confrontational and lacks communication skills.”
Again, led by his son. Only the obvious name mentioned. But then it takes more than five dudes to make a footy team and those barbs of being “disrespectful, confrontational and lacks communication skills” are a bit damning considering Vidosic was supposed to be the link between all that. It’s like the translator just walked out of the room.
Both sides will see things their own way. Kalezic probably thinks Vido was overstepping his role as assistant and Vido probably thinks Kalezic wanted too much control. Whatever, if it wasn’t working then you do something about it and Darije has gotten what he wanted now. Time to see if it makes a difference… and those communication skills will come under the microscope as he tries to reunite this squad.
It doesn’t get any easier, does it? Sitting bottom of the table with only one win from ten and all this is going on to boot. Then you add in the injuries they’re suffering and it’s like what else could go wrong next. Westpac Stadium gonna burn down?
The team that started in Perth saw Matt Ridenton and Adam Parkhouse on the wings. Then Vidosic got injured and Ali Abbas, who started the season at left back, came on to play CAM. Andrew Durante, Roy Krishna and Mike McGlinchey were all out. Gui Finkler was released by mutual agreement earlier that week. The one area this team looked like it had the goods in was attacking midfielders and now there’s almost nobody left.
You shouldn’t have to be rebuilding a team during the season. This oughta be done before things start… and it was to a degree. But it didn’t catch so now they’ve gotta fix things on the fly. The January transfer window will offer some opportunities to get some depth back and there’s a good chance that Finkler was released with a replacement already in the bank. We just won’t get to find out who for a bit. Yet they already needed reinforcements, long before either Finkler or Vido Jnr left. Injuries and internationals have meant Kalezic has only been able to start both Durante and Rossi at CB twice so far and nobody else has really looked up for that. Dan Mullen’s the closest but if someone better is available then they owe it to themselves to take a peek.
Similarly they may wonder about an extra midfielder, somebody who can play more creatively than Goran Paracki. Matt Ridenton and Alex Rufer have been his CM partners so far and Ridenton has been pretty impressive as a regular starter. Maybe without Vidosic they’d prefer more of a proper three-man middle though, drop that attacking dude deeper to shore up the centre. Mike McGlinchey could do that when he’s back fit but… yeah. Hard to say. Then they absolutely need wingers because other than Krisnha there’s nothing happening there. Adam Parkhouse is a bit of a battler, to be honest.
Makes you wonder whether they’d be in any different of a position if they’d plucked kiwi lads out of the NZ Premiership or fringe pro leagues overseas instead of their focus on Aussie squad depth. That idea was always a cop-out– the All Whites are becoming less and less reliant on Wellington Phoenix players as more Ryan Thomas/Stefan Marinovic/Chris Wood types emerge. Plus it’s an honour to have internationals in your team anyway, especially ones you gave a professional start to.
Considering what success stories Albert Riera and Roy Krisnha were for them out of that competition, it’s really hard to think they couldn’t find someone as good as Parkhouse or Lowry there. Like, if you don’t care about NZ players then why do you still have an academy? Ah, bollocks. Let’s not do this now.
This week’s Phoenix thing was initially gonna be about transfer targets but that piece can wait ‘til next time. Unless the next crisis happens before then and that gets the spotlight instead. Look, there was clearly a conflict there and something had to be done so they did it. It’s what needed to happen and if we’re lucky it might even be the catalyst for a few wins. Kaelezic Unleashed. It’d be really nice if it was too, because these constant dramas coming out of the Nix are getting a little unbearable.
The usual request: slap an ad to show your support for the TNC team.