At this point, most Phoenix fans would be happy to keep Chris Greenacre on full-time, right? It should be like three strikes in baseball, three interim gigs and the job is yours. It’s more than that though. Greenie’s also sparked up the way they play by simplifying things and allowing folks to play to their own strengths – Nathan Burns rarely looked half as good under Darije Kalezic. Plus Greenie’s such a familiar face at the club that his presence helps reinforce the sense of identity that went missing for a while there. Bring in an Aussie battler and they might do alright but it also might not forge the same connection with the fans. Fans = crowds = metrics.

Oh no wait but Greenie doesn’t have his badges. Cheers once more to the Football Fascists of Australia.

Also, the thing with this is… Chris Greenacre hasn’t even won a game yet. Four of them now and he’s drawn one and lost three (the Nix have lost seven of their last nine). Kinda hard to see them winning against the Melbourne teams in the next two as well (Victory away and City at home). And after that it’s season over. Done and dusted. It feels like the season ended a month ago but apparently not, still two games to go.

That’s how far we’ve fallen. Clamouring for a manager who hasn’t even won a game. Can’t really blame Greenie for the situation that he inherited but we might need to raise the standards a little now that the A-League has ‘formally commenced’ its expansion process. Two new teams are expected to join the league in the 2019-20 season… which so happens to be the last season before the Nix’s licence expires.

A-League expansion has been a weird one and this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to do this but stuttering governance tends to get in the way. Even now the ten existing clubs are raging at the FFA for trying to push this through while they themselves were in a bind waiting on FIFA & Asian Football to step in and tell them what to do about their own sloppy organisation. They called it a “congress review working group”, whatever that means. That’s what a mess the FFA are in and yet they continue to rip on the Phoenix for their efforts. No wonder a few Aussie journos have suggested that this expansion stuff is a deliberate distraction.

FIFA finally came through on that congress review whatever-the-hell a couple days after the expansion news (and more than a couple weeks after they promised to get back to them by). They’ve declared that an independent chairperson is required to lead a new eight-member panel (made of state reps, a PFA rep, two A-League reps and an FFA board member) in order to bring the FFA back in alignment with FIFA’s statutes. What a bloody mess.

So in light of that, how about these comments from A-League head honcho Greg O’Rourke:

“They have metrics to hit, and we’ll continue to work with Wellington Phoenix to see whether or not they’re interested in improving their club to a point where those metrics become achievable.”

“Interested”. Interested!? Buuuugger off, mate.

Not that the Nix can exactly complain about the ruling if that’s what happens. Given four years to improve things and, halfway through, it’s only gotten worse. Crowd numbers have fallen, no doubt because results have failed to improve. Dunno what the specific metrics are but it’s a safe bet that they’re failing to hit pretty much all of them. They reckon there’ll be around a dozen interested parties looking to bring an A-League team to their town and it’s just really hard to see a bunch of suited-up Aussies putting a kiwi team as their priority when they’ve already laid down the groundwork to expel them.

Stupid bastards. Gonna be a sweaty next two seasons. Got to get the money flowing in and the crowds swelling and both of those things depend entirely on the results turning around towards the better. Which means that player recruitment and whoever the next manager may be are absolutely crucial decisions. We’re well past the time when mistakes can be smoothed over. On that note, this was a pretty curious quote from old mate Dario Vidosic…

Dario Vidosic: “Coming in so late to a new club is never ideal. Unfortunately we (Dario and his father) were made to be the scapegoats for the poor results (at Phoenix) but that is all in the past. Once I got the call from Melbourne City it was a great present for Christmas. I was really excited. I have always been big on making a good impression first up at a club. City made it easy for me. They were very welcoming and it helped me out a lot.”

Scapegoats, aye? Makes you wonder how Rado would go full-time as the main man at the Nix. Might not be the worst decision in the world, badges aside. (If only the FFA put as much pressure on their board members as they do coaches in their national league, they might not be such a bunch of utter muppets).

That’s all something to ponder over. It might end up being rather serious, it might end up getting blown out of proportion and it’ll all be sweet as down the line. The Save The Nix campaign worked well the first time and the other clubs all sided with the Nix over the FFA’s borderline bullying tactics. See how things work out… we haven’t even gotten into how all this drama might affect a possible kiwi women’s team in the W-League.

Okay now this is something to come back to in two games – and I will – but here’s a peek at the minutes totals that Greenacre has handed out in his four games so far, something of a hint of things to come potentially… at least a hint of which players are likely to hang around next season and which may be cut loose. Remember there was an All Whites game in the middle of this too which cost Doyle, Ridenton, Singh, McGlinchey and Rufer a game.

Oliver Sail – 180

Tando Velaphi – 180

Sarpreet Singh – 175

Andrija Kaludjerovic – 160

Logan Rogerson – 110

Adam Parkhouse – 50

Monty Patterson – 40

Michael McGlinchey – 39

Alex Rufer – 7

Nathan Burns – 360 mins

Dylan Fox – 360

Goran Paracki – 353

Scott Galloway – 337

Matija Ljujic – 282

Andrew Durante – 270

Roy Krishna – 270

Tommy Doyle – 270

Liberato Cacace – 263

Matt Ridenton – 254

Again, we’re two games short of being able to offer a much better vision of all this but you can tell straight away that Nathan Burns is going to be an essential player next season. Dylan Fox is sure taking his chances too and the word is that Andy Durante is keen on one last season. Interesting to see Paracki and Ljujic both getting good minutes, hard to tell if that’s down to the need to chase results or if they’re leaning towards another swing… because there’s absolutely no sign of the forgotten man Marco Rossi. Huge opportunities being offered to Singh, Rogerson, Cacace and Sail but not such great news for McGlinchey and Patterson (neither of whom have been fully fit, but still). And shout out to Scott Galloway, one of the more dependable but underrated guys all season.

Sweet as. Smack an ad to support The Niche Cache and then let’s Save The Nix all over again.