Lots of questions and no answers – the Phoenix in a new world.
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By Benji Crossley
A 6-1 thrashing at the hands of the noisy upstarts from up the road was enough to have Phoenix fans in bits on Saturday night. It was a chastening experience watching on television, I can’t begin to imagine what it was like for the thousands of Nix fans who made the trip to Auckland and played their part in further solidifying the derby as one of the big events on the New Zealand sports calendar.
As a Phoenix fan, I’ve got a list of questions that if given the chance I would love to ask the club. Some on-field, some off-field.
1) If Tim Brown was interested in owning part of an A-League team, why is he a part-owner of Auckland FC and not the team he was the inaugural vice-captain of in the city he was raised in? Similar question for Steven Adams, as far as I understand his back story, his links to Wellington are much greater than his links to Auckland.
2) The club have talked about becoming a development club (as have most of the A-League clubs) in that they want to develop their own talent and then sell it. For the last few years that model has worked well. Old, Paulsen, Surman, Singh, Cacace et al all came through the Nix systems to varying degrees and then got big moves which the Phoenix benefit from financially. Did the club look at this crop of youngsters and see the same potential? Did the club think this group was ready to form the core on an A-League quality side?
3) When the club were negotiating with Bournemouth with regards Alex Paulsen, was a move to Auckland discussed at any point? Did the club attempt to negotiate a clause that would have given the Phoenix first option on him if he was going to be loaned back to the A-League?
4) Auckland FC have got a number of good quality New Zealanders in the squad who appear to be an upgrade in a number of areas to what the Phoenix are putting on the park. Given the Phoenix have had clear air in the New Zealand market for so long, how have they ended up in Auckland? For example, Nando Pjinaker had been floating around at an average level in Europe for a few years, did the Phoenix make serious efforts to bring him home?
5) It’s been a few years since the Phoenix have swung and missed on an import. The only guy I can think of since 2019 who wasn’t that flash was Yann Sasse and even then, I wouldn’t describe him as a complete failure. Yet this year, I think it is fair to say that two of our three new imports that started the season have been failures. Did the approach change this off-season?
6) Auckland FC have been a huge success both on and off the field. Is there anything, particularly off field, Auckland are doing that the Phoenix are looking at closely to understand how they can be better? I would point particularly to merchandising and social media content as an area where Auckland seems to be streets ahead.
7) Do the footballing hierarchy believe that the Italiano style is suited to the current group of players? It appears last years success was built on a group of players uniquely suited to the way Italiano wanted to play. With many of those pieces, especially on attack, having moved on has the style evolved sufficiently to suit the players available?
I get it, Auckland have had a lot of things fall their way in a season where the opposite has happened for the Phoenix. After a period of sustained success the blip was always going to come and come it has, just in the worst possible way.
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