Soccer: Kingz in damage control over loss

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The Football Kingz have bid farewell to Vas Kalogeracos and are confident he will not be followed back across the Tasman by his former South Melbourne team-mate Con Boutsianis.

Striker Kalogeracos flew back to Melbourne at the weekend after "failing to settle in Auckland".

Chris Turner, who was yesterday appointed by the Kingz to a dual general manager-chief executive role after the departure of former CEO Simon Massey, said he was confident that Boutsianis would see out his one-year contract despite apparent off-field conflicts.

It is understood that Boutsianis' personal trainer has returned to Australia.

Boutsianis did not play in the Kingz' friendly match at Ericsson Stadium on Friday night but Turner said that was because of injury.

While Turner would not be drawn on the reasons behind Kalogeracos' departure, it is understood that his pregnant girlfriend remained in Melbourne.

"We could have held him to his [one year] contract," said Turner. "We thought he would be an asset, but there is no point in keeping a player who is not happy."

Turner maintains that if the Kingz had to play a game today, they would be well-served by Wynton Rufer, Paul Urlovic and Andy Vlahos as strikers, with support from Boutsianis and Mark Burton.

But they would be looking to replace Kalogeracos, either from within New Zealand or elsewhere.

Geoff Brown, who scored two goals for Miramar in their 2-3 loss to Central in Saturday's Southern Trust National League grand final, has joined the Kingz on trial.

There are obvious attacking problems. Turner said the Kingz' finishing in Friday night's 2-1 win over an invitation team was dreadful.

In three warm-up matches, the Kingz have drawn 2-2 in Christchurch and won 2-1 in Timaru and Auckland.

The Kingz leave on Thursday for three warm-up games in Australia.

James Bannatyne, who played for Miramar in the National League final and who has been on trial with the club, will join new signing Mike Theoklitos as the second goalkeeper for the tour.

They have matches against Sydney's Northern Spirit (Thursday), Wollongong (Sunday) and Marconi (September 19).

Chris Marsh, who was in the squad last season and has been retained on a month-to-month contract, missed Friday's game through injury and will not travel.

Club chairman Paul Smart said Massey's departure to pursue personal interests should make little difference to the running of the club.

"Most of the pre-season work which fell to Simon has been done." .

Sky Network owns 85 per cent of the club. Smart said the announcement that Sky had lost $42.34 million would not affect the club.