Phoenix doing ‘due diligence’ as coach Talay weighs options
Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay says he doesn’t know what he will be doing beyond the end of the A-League Men season and club officials are ‘‘doing [their] due diligence’’ in case he leaves.
The winningest coach in Phoenix history is off contract at the end of their current campaign and while Talay is in talks with chairman Rob Morrison about a contract extension and had coffee with him as recently as Tuesday, he said it was ‘‘an ongoing discussion’’.
‘‘I don’t know at the moment what I want to do and what my future looks like, whether it’s here or somewhere else. That’s where it’s at.’’
The fifth-placed Phoenix are in Auckland to host sixth-placed Sydney FC today and can build a fourpoint buffer with a win at Eden Park – a venue where they have never lost.
Talay sat down with the Sunday Star-Times at a fan event hosted by Spark and Oppo, the Phoenix’s principal sponsors, on Friday, and when asked if he had offers on the table from other clubs, he initially paused, before saying he was ‘‘not too sure’’.
In a public question-and-answer session that followed, he was asked about his future plans and pivoted to encouraging fans to turn out today and support his team as they push for a place in the top four and a home playoff.
He also failed to elaborate when asked what Morrison could do to entice him to stay, instead falling back on a familiar line, that ‘‘players come and go and coaches come and go and the club will always be here’’.
Yesterday morning, as the Phoenix had their final training before facing Sydney, Talay said he had been asked about his future ‘‘a lot of times’’ as he mingled with fans and media the previous afternoon – ‘‘too many times, possibly’’.
‘‘But it’s a question that’s going to be asked,’’ Talay added. ‘‘I’m a coach coming off contract, similar to the players.’’
The Phoenix have already confirmed the imminent departure of three men’s players, including All Whites and regular starters Clayton Lewis (understood to be heading to Macarthur FC) and Oli Sail (Perth, if he can’t first find a club in Europe).
If Talay follows them out the door, it will leave the Phoenix facing a significant rebuild, which is why ‘‘conversations about what it might look like if he doesn’t stay’’ have already started, according to director of football Shaun Gill.
‘‘There’s some thinking or thought being given now to potentially where we may go if ‘Uffie’ decides that he’s going,’’ Gill added.
If the Phoenix do end up having a coaching vacancy to fill come the end of the current season, up-andcoming Australians like Talay – and Mark Rudan before him – are expected to be among the leading contenders.
In the brief period between the confirmation of Rudan’s departure and Talay’s hiring in 2019, the Phoenix’s inaugural captain, Australian international Ross Aloisi, declared his interest in the role to Stuff. The three-cap Socceroo has since worked as an assistant at Adelaide United and under Kevin Muscat at Yokohama F Marinos, the reigning Japanese champions, and could be a contender.
The ill-fated tenure of Darije Kalezic´ during the 2017-18 season is likely to dissuade the Phoenix from hiring a foreign coach unfamiliar with A-League Men and coaching licence requirements will rule out most New Zealand-based coaches, with Phoenix reserves boss Chris Greenacre among the few who do have the necessary qualifications.
With a potential coaching vacancy looming for the first time in four years, Gill said the Phoenix had started to turn their attention to Australian and New Zealand coaches doing well overseas, as well as those who had worked with national age-group teams in both countries and those working as assistants in A-League Men, as Talay did with Sydney before moving across the Tasman.
‘‘We have to have a little look just in case and we’re doing our due diligence on some of those people as it stands,’’ Gill added.
Today’s match will be the 100th the Phoenix have played in A-League Men since Talay took charge in May 2019, his appointment coming 12 hours after Rudan’s tenure ended following a defeat in that year’s finals series.
It will only be Talay’s 98th on the sideline, as he was absent on two occasions with Covid-19 – assistant Giancarlo Italiano stepping in. After overseeing a pair of wins, Italiano joked he could ‘‘retire happily,’’ but he could well replace Talay, who brought him to the Phoenix in 2019.
‘‘... I believe in ‘Chiefy’ and the work that he does for the team and for myself,’’ Talay said.
‘‘He’s my right-hand man. He’s integral to what we do and what the team achieves.
‘‘If Chiefy decides to stay and he does take the role as a head coach, if I leave at the end of the season, I’ll be quite proud that we’ve progressed forward together.’’