Frooms is an attacking midfield player or deep-lying striker, Martos is a central defender or holding midfielder, Ventre is a midfielder and Rodriguez usually plays wide in attacking or defensive positions.
Frooms and Rodriguez generally commanded starting places, while Martos and Ventre were squad members who performed ably when called upon.
Waikanae Beach TOP10 Gisborne Thistle coach Garrett Blair said he understood Frooms approached Wanderers — Thistle’s opponents in Gisborne two weeks ago — about the possibility of joining them.
The Argentinians had extended their visas for six months and wanted to explore more of New Zealand in the time they had available.
Thistle assistant coach Mark Baple knew North Wellington coach Lloyd O’Keefe and put the trio in touch with him.
O’Keefe had said he had three players who might be interested in coming to Gisborne for the second half of the season if Thistle could find them work and accommodation.
While these players were not regular starters in North Wellington’s Central League side, they played regularly for the reserves in the Capital Premier League, a level equivalent to the Federation League in which Thistle play.
Blair said he learned on Thursday last week that Rodriguez, Martos and Ventre were leaving, and on Saturday that Frooms was leaving.
Frooms left on Monday and the others left on Tuesday.
While Blair was disappointed to lose them, the club still had “a very good squad” who could play good football.
“It’s just about getting past the disturbances and focusing on the group we have,” he said.
Thistle’s playing stocks will be further depleted when they take on Whanganui Athletic at Wembley Park, Whanganui, tomorrow.
Holding midfielder Cullen Spawforth has a one-game suspension activated by the number of cautions (yellow cards) he has received, while leftback Kuba Jerabek is being rested to allow him to get over an injury.
The loss of six players from the first-team squad would make big demands on Thistle Reserves to fill the shortfall, Blair said.
However, this week at least, the load would be eased by the fact that Thistle Youth had the Eastern League Division 1 bye and players could be drawn from their squad to replace those called up from the Reserves.
The player shortage might start to bite in the two weeks after that, when none of the three Thistle teams in that division have the bye.
In the meantime, Blair is looking at bringing skipper Nick Land back into a central midfield role alongside Ash McMillan.
Daniel Venema seems likely to take Rodriguez’s leftback spot, with Brandon Josling returning to fitness at rightback.
For the positions up front, Blair is looking at bringing Oli Davies back into the starting line-up on the left, keeping Jimmy Somerton down the middle and giving Travis White a start on the right.
Alan Zarate looks set to start in the deep-lying striker’s role formerly occupied by Frooms.
Rightback Andre Riley and midfielders Leo Maisey and Alex Davies will likely be the reinforcements from the bench.
Thistle’s first league game of the season was a 3-0 home win against Whanganui, runners-up from last season.
Whanganui coach Tex von Kwiatkowski said then that his side were without three key players and had taken Thistle lightly. He indicated they wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Whanganui are now fourth in the league, two points ahead of fifth-placed Thistle, who have a game in hand.
“We know they are a very well structured side,” Blair said.
“I think they will have a bit more of a game-plan to combat our pace on attack.”
But having a plan and being able to put it into practice are two different things.
