Still Waiting on a Few More Wellington Phoenix Signings… Obafemi Martins Anyone?
The Phoenix have never been ones to do things quickly. It took ages to appoint a new manager after Darije Kalezic parted ways with the club - even if you ignore the caretaker spell then it was still ages. It also took a bloody era before they finally got a few jokers as incoming transfers, so long that a few existing players decided they couldn’t sit back and wait forever. Now we’re in the middle of another extended drought as the Nix chill in preseason mode awaiting their next signing.
It was March 7 when Kalezic was officially released by the club but the decision had been made behind the scenes much earlier and had been common public knowledge since the end of February. Typical Nix taking ages to address public rumours. On May 29 they unveiled Mark Rudan. That’s 82 days after the previous manager left. 45 days after their previous game. To be fair, that’s almost rapid by Phoenix standards.
Then very swiftly there was word of Rudan’s first signing… false alarm, it was only Chris Greenacre as an assistant coach. The same Chris Greenacre who has been caretaker manager of the Phoenix so many times you probably can’t walk around a corner at Westpac Stadium without bumping into him. He’ll go crazy like Jack Torrance soon enough – human’s weren’t designed by Mother Nature to be caretakers that many times.
Nope, it’d be more than a month until the Phoenix, despite having two-thirds of their squad off-contract, actually signed another player. That lucky bugger was Steven Taylor and he’s still by far their flashiest signing yet, although they were pretty good at unveiling new folks every week or so for a little while after that. These are the dates of the signings based on when the club website chose to make it official. Obviously news leaked about basically all of them days if not more than a week earlier… but it’s simpler this way.
Steven Taylor – July 10
Filip Kurto – July 18
Mitch Nichols & David Williams – July 23
Michal Kopczynski – July 25
Alex Rufer – August 6
The Nix then played their first proper game of the Rudan Era in the FFA Cup (we lost, btw) on August 8. There’s been nothing since.
Almost six weeks to the date and at this point every player we don’t sign is missing out on crucial preseason work. And it is crucial, more crucial ever before. Mark Rudan is rebuilding the bulk of this squad as he dismantles a losing one that itself was a drastic rebuild last season. The finished product (in as much as any football team is ever a finished product) will look like nothing we’ve seen before. When you don’t have that continuity from previous seasons then you’re beginning with a handicap compared to every other club even before considering that this team hasn’t made the playoffs for four seasons. It’s a handicap on top of a handicap. A 1500m race except that we have to run 2000m.
It’s understandable why Rudan needs to take his time. Mistakes are setbacks and when you’re already working from a deficit then you simply cannot afford to make any. That’s the thing – all these frustrations are actually excusable to some degree because old mate here is only playing with the hand he was dealt. Even the lack of kiwi signings so far is based on his own discipline in avoiding having to indulge project players and demanding maximum commitment from those who’d join his cause.
Now, we can disagree with those things but Rudan’s the man in charge and it’s his right to undertake the gig as best he sees fit. Personally, I believe that the Nix has a responsibility to kiwi players which they aren’t fully living up to at the moment – thank god for Greenie giving Sarpreet Singh and Libby Cacace a good go or else who knows if they’d even still be there? I also don’t think the gap between being a reasonable A-League talent and a top tier NZ Premiership talent is as big as he seems to think. Nor am I stunned that he’s had trouble getting full buy-in from locals to join a club which has been a shambles for three seasons now and which might not even exist in a few years. Go figure.
However nothing that Rudan’s doing is being done outside the best interests of the club. We’re talking about a first time manager at this level desperate to succeed, driven enough to take on the toughest gig in the league. Corners are not being cut. Compromises are not acceptable. That’s probably why we’ve been waiting for six weeks for the Phoenix to add another player to their incomplete squad.
Luckily the A-League offseason is ridiculously long and it allows for a few of these extended lulls. Ah but while there may not have been news of any fresh signings lately, there has been a rumour…
Obafemi Martins! A man who scored the 89th minute winner in the 2011 League Cup Final for Birmingham to beat Arsenal, a famous goal remembered for an even more famous cock-up by Arsene Wenger’s defence. A man who played 42 times for Nigeria, scoring 18 goals. A man who was a teammate of Steven Taylor’s at Newcastle and has also played for Inter Milan, Wolfsburg, Rubin Kazan, Levante and Seattle Sounders – plus most recently a few years at Shanghai Shenhua where he scored a hat-trick in his only game this season before getting frozen out. A man with a rocket for a shot, some genuine pace, and an eye for goal.
No doubt he’d be an incredible signing if this were five or six years ago. He might still be, though. The 33 year old has copped a fair few injuries in getting to this stage in his career and it’s a bit of a red flag that he’s played for so many different clubs, never lasting more than three years at any one of them since cracking the first team at Inter. But he left Inter after they signed Hernan Crespo and it was only Newcastle’s relegation that prompted to him to leave there. His time in Russia ended for family reasons, Obafemi wanting to be closer to his newborn child, and he left Germany and Spain because of intense interest from other clubs rather than the disinterest of his own (Levante even considered taking Seattle to court for tampering).
Martins has only played four times for Nigeria since 2010 and it’s been a while since he was a player in the European limelight… but he was top quality in the USA and has been scoring goals in China. The A-League is a lot closer to those leagues than it is to the English Premier League, obviously. And because the A-League is stupid and those in charge of its success fall instantly for recognisable names and immediate hype methods, he’d qualify for one of their marquee signing fund thingamajigs. May as well try, right?
Especially when you consider his existing relationship with Steven Taylor, which means there is actually some feasibility to this one… unlike the Michael Essien rumours. Odd that the Essien rumours were widely reported in Australia but flatly denied by David Dome. That’s another one of those recurring themes with this club: vehemently denying any Aussie-originated footy rumours that have anything to do with them. So it’s worth noting that the club didn’t knock back the Obafemi Martins chatter, in fact they even encouraged it. With the Phoenix, that’s basically an outright confirmation. It’s all up to Obafemi Martins now.
Here’s the current Wellington Phoenix squad:
GK – Filip Kurto, Ollie Sail
DEF – Steven Taylor, Andrew Durante, Ryan Lowry, Dylan Fox, Libby Cacace, Tom Doyle, Louis Fenton
MID – Mitch Nichols, Michal Kopczynski, Alex Rufer, Sarpreet Singh
FOR – Roy Krishna, David Williams, Nathan Burns
Italics are kiwis, bolds are imports. Roy Krishna will fingers-crossed be a domesticized player by the start of the season but that’s no guarantee. That leaves at least one import spot to fill and Obafemi Martins would be a huge addition to this lot, getting some more speed and strength into the striking unit. The concern is that this midfield still needs huge work. Kopczynksi is a straight replacement for Goran Paracki and Mitch Nichols for Mike McGlinchey but there’s nobody replacing Matt Ridenton yet when he played the second most minutes in 2017-18. That’s a big flippin’ issue at the moment.
There are several more roster spots to fill too. Keegan Smith being a junior means we might not have to add another goalie which leaves room elsewhere. Centre-backs look solid, if a little slow. A right back would be nice. Two more centre mids and a couple more forwards wouldn’t go astray.
The good news on that front is that Callan Elliot has been working with the lads again after returning from the U20 World Cup qualifiers - where the natural winger played as a fullback, by the way, which could be extremely useful for his trial prospects. Those fringe dudes need to be able to get in where they fit in so positional flexibility is crucial. Also, guess what, Andre De Jong is rejoining the squad when they head back to Oz soon for some more preseason jazz! It was his failed trial that stung the most because he’s a kiwi who was one of the three best players in the Premiership last season and a proven force in the New South Wales NPL – which is where Mark Rudan is coming from. ADJ even made the bloody team of the season, mate.
Huge relief then that he’s getting another look. You might spot a certain Jake Tratt in there too, he’s been trialling for that right back role and might have already been signed had there not been injuries involved, dunno. Not all that sure where this leaves Korean trialist Yoo Byung-soo if the Obafemi Martins deal happens… but we’re a long way from banking on that possibility. The Nix have never signed a player like Martins before so believe it when you see it is all I’ll say.
Update: Yeah… never mind.
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