White yet to hear from Canty
He’s scoring goals for fun, but Michael White doesn’t appear to be on Canterbury United’s radar.
The 30-year-old striker found the back of the net again on Saturday as Cashmere Technical advanced to the quarterfinals of the Chatham Cup with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Dunedin’s Caversham at Garrick Park.
White opened the scoring in the round of 16 clash when his first shot of the game took a deflection in the ninth minute. Tech doubled their advantage just short of the hour mark when young winger Lyle Matthysen made an incisive run and his cross was turned into the goal by Caversham defender Craig Ferguson.
White has terrorised opposition defences in the Mainland Premier League this winter, scoring a competition-best 19 goals and has netted 50 in the MPL over the past three seasons, the most by some way.
Willy Gerdsen’s first season in charge in 2015-16, where they made the semi-finals, but declined a contract for last season.
Despite banging in goals regularly for Tech this year, he had yet to hear from Gerdsen about his plans for the summer.
White has received interest from several other national league clubs with Tasman United understood to be among them.
The former Waitakere, Manawatu and Team Wellington player indicated he was keen for another national league campaign, but said it would come down to his young family and how feasible it was for them.
"At the end of the day, you’ve got to be offered these things. I haven’t heard anything from [Canterbury] this year. I did hear from him last year, but I did end up turning down the contract."
White was open to playing outside of Christchurch, but it would depend on the contract to determine whether it would be worthwhile.
Tasman United could hold appeal given he has previously played for Nelson Suburbs and lived in the Nelson area.
"It’s about what the offer is. There’s no real preference of who it is.
‘‘You’ve got Tasman up the road and Canterbury, I’ve played for them before.
"You’ve got to have an offer on the table to make a call."
White hailed Cashmere High schoolboy Matthysen, who set up the second goal on Saturday and was industrious down the left flank.
Matthysen is the second top goal scorer in the MPL with nine strikes and White said he was a Canterbury footballer with a bright future ahead of him.
"He’s class. As soon as I came to the club last year, I thought he’s one to watch out for. He’s hitting good form this year at a good time, as well."
White hoped Canterbury would include Matthysen in their squad and said he would easily make the large step up to the national league.
"He’s only so young and he’d thrive in one of those semiprofessional environments. I think for Canterbury United not to talk to him, they’d be silly not to."
The quarterfinal draw of the Chatham Cup will be revealed on Tuesday with Nelson Suburbs, who crushed Queenstown Rovers 6-1 in the resort on Saturday, joining Tech in the last eight.