Teary team-mates bid farewell to Brown
TEARS flowed at the team hotel on Saturday night, as the Phoenix farewelled Tim Brown before casting one eye forward to the future.
The topsy-turvy 3-2 loss to Perth Glory in the A-league minor semifinal was Brown’s last game of competitive football as the All Whites midfielder hangs up his boots to study in England.
‘‘I must admit, and I’m not afraid to say, that I kind of shed a little bit of a tear last night for Tim,’’ Phoenix striker Chris Greenacre said yesterday morning as the the team chewed their cornflakes before preparing for the long haul back to Wellington, via Sydney.
‘‘I’ve been part of a couple of playing groups that have been really tight but I think the way to describe this group is probably friends for life.’’
Greenacre’s own playing future is up in the air. He scored his fifth goal of the season on Saturday and the off-contract Englishman will now sit down with the club to discuss his future.
Greenacre doubled as an assistant coach this season and will almost certainly remain involved with the Phoenix in some capacity.
‘‘It would be really great to win something with this group of players. The boys have still got a few years left in them and hopefully I can be a part of something later on, or if it’s not from a playing point of view, then a coaching point of view, in the next few years,’’ Greenacre said.
Foundation player Daniel is also offcontract and while he has options in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia, his preference is to stay in Wellington.
The Brazilian becomes eligible to play for the All Whites next month but is yet to receive an offer from the Phoenix.
‘‘I have to stay a little bit more in New Zealand and talk to the club.
‘‘I have some proposals to leave but I have to wait for the Phoenix and make a decision,’’ Daniel said.
‘‘I want to go back to Brazil, see my family and after that make a decision. Everyone knows how I love this club and love Wellington.’’
Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert will stay in Australia to attend the A-league awards in Sydney tomorrow night before returning to Wellington for talks with chairman Rob Morrison on the club’s offcontract players.
Nine of the 21-man squad are on the books for next season or beyond: An- drew Durante, Tony Lochhead, Manny Muscat, Ben Sigmund, Lucas Pantelis, Leo Bertos, Jimmy Downey, Paul Ifill and Mirjan Pavlovic.
With Brown retiring, that leaves 11 players off contract: Mark Paston, Tony Warner, Brent Griffiths, Niko Tsatallios, Vince Lia, Nick Ward, Daniel, Cameron Lindsay, Dani Sanchez, Alex Smith and Greenacre.
The Phoenix have indicated they would like to keep Paston, Lia, Sanchez, Smith and Lindsay, while with Glen Moss signed on for three years, English goalkeeper Warner requirements.
That will crucially free up an import spot as Herbert searches far and wide for ‘‘two or three’’ new signings.
Herbert is set to go shopping in England and South America at the end of the month, with a creative midfielder, a pacy striker and an injection of youth all on his wanted list.
‘‘I think just a little bit of depth,’’ said Herbert when asked what he needed to take the next step and challenge for the title.
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‘‘I mean we didn’t recruit, we stayed pretty thin on the numbers and that’s been pretty open, the reasons why [change of ownership].
‘‘But we’re expanding now, we’ll have academies, we’ll have young players coming through, we’ll have opportunities for players in this squad to actually go and play.
‘‘It’s hard to bring players off the bench that haven’t played for probably 18 weeks, in challenging environments. And resourcing a little bit around staff is going to be pretty strong for us.’’