By Felicity Reid of RNZ
Giancarlo Italiano’s dramatic exit as the Wellington Phoenix’s head coach leaves the struggling A-League men’s side in limbo, with eight games remaining in the season.
Italiano stepped away from the team he had been the head coach of since 2023 after another hefty derby loss to Auckland FC.
He publicly announced his departure not long after the final whistle on Saturday.
The Phoenix play title contenders Sydney FC in Wellington on Sunday, and unless the 11th-placed side can string some wins together and get other results to fall their way, they will miss the playoffs and the season will be over in nine weeks’ time.
Italiano was the Phoenix’s sixth permanent head coach in 19 seasons, but this is not the first time the side have been left scrambling to fill the role.
The club has now turned to the same man who has temporarily filled in three times previously – Chris Greenacre – to see out the season.
The club’s first coach, Ricki Herbert, then also the All Whites mentor, was in charge for six seasons before he resigned during the 2012-13 season after a run of poor results.
Former Phoenix player Greenacre, at the time an assistant coach with the team, stepped in for the remainder of the 2013 season.
Experienced A-League coach Ernie Merrick was next to take on the permanent role for three seasons, before leaving in similar circumstances to Herbert and Italiano in 2016.
Again, Greenacre was part of the solution, helping to fill the void before the club’s third coach, Darije Kalezic, joined.
When Kalezic left during the 2017/18 season after a breakdown in contract negotiations for the following season, Greenacre, who was then a youth programme head coach with the Phoenix, took charge of training and head-coach duties.
The fourth Phoenix men’s coach, Mark Rudan, had success with the Wellington side before leaving for family reasons, but at least he made it to the end of the 2018/19 season before returning to Australia.
Australian Ufuk Talay became head coach in the 2019/20 season and brought Italiano with him as an analyst and second assistant coach.
Talay left the club four seasons later, at the season’s end, with the accolade as the club’s most successful coach, and Italiano moved into the head coach role.
Greenacre, a former Manchester City and Tranmere Rovers striker, played 84 times for the Phoenix between 2009 and 2012.
He scored 19 goals during his Phoenix playing days and became a fan favourite along the way.
A long-held ambition to coach started at the Phoenix in 2012 when he made the quick transition from player to assistant coach.
Greenacre has now served as an assistant under five coaches – Herbert, Merrick, Kalezic, Rudan and Talay.
He is the Phoenix academy’s head of professional development and has coached the reserves team since 2017.
In 2024, Greenacre also coached the New Zealand Under-20 team.
Coaching qualifications, in the form of licences, matter in football.
When Greenacre was leading the Phoenix in an interim capacity after Merrick quit, he did so in a co-coach role with Des Buckingham.
At the time, under Football Federation Australia (now Football Australia) regulations, the coach needed a Pro Licence, which Buckingham held and Greenacre did not.
Buckingham became the head coach and the Phoenix said Greenacre, with a Uefa A Licence, was the co-coach.
Greenacre has since upskilled and in 2022 completed the AFC Pro Diploma.
– RNZ