Wellington Phoenix men’s coach Giancarlo Italiano resigned after a sixth straight derby defeat to Auckland FC.
The team’s performance has declined since nearly reaching the A-League grand final two seasons ago.
An interim coach is likely to take the helm for the remainder of the season.
When Wellington Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano walked into his customary post-match media conference yesterday, it would be his last.
Having watched his side not only slump to a sixth straight derby defeat to Auckland FC, but surrender in such meek fashion, he decided the only way forward waswithout him at the helm.
Coaching is a brutal occupation; when your team wins, the players get most of the credit, but when they lose, it’s your head on the chopping block, and so it has proven to be.
Even so, the players do have to shoulder a fair degree of responsibility here.
Giancarlo Italiano quit as Wellington Phoenix coach after their 5-0 loss to Auckland FC on Saturday. Photo / Photosport
The coach can only do so much.
Yes, he picks the team, decides on the tactics and lays out the playing style, but once the whistle blows and the game begins, the coach’s influence is severely diluted.
There are very few players in the Phoenix side who have consistently played well in the last few months, and Saturday was comfortably the worst performance of the season, to the extent of being embarrassing.
The playing group will have gathered this morning and been addressed by the powers-that-be at the club about where they go from here.
It feels likely an interim coach will be installed until the end of the season, with former player and now the club academy’s head of professional development, Chris Greenacre – who’s filled the interim role three times before – the most likely candidate.
The players now need to look inwards and play for the club’s long-suffering fans, their own professional pride and the badge on their chests.
Playing football for a living is a privilege, but with it comes a responsibility to represent your club and, importantly, those who pay their hard-earned money to follow it.
Ironically enough, the Phoenix could still make a run at the A-League playoffs.
That seems fanciful, given what happened yesterday, but they’re only five points outside the top six and there are still eight games to play, with 24 points available to them.
Maybe this is the shot in the arm they needed.
And for Italiano himself – the man known universally as Chief – I’m sure a small part of him feels a sense of relief today.
While this hasn’t ended the way he would have hoped, he can now at least get out of the harsh spotlight for a while, take some time to refresh, recuperate and reflect, and then decide what’s next for him.
He hasn’t become a bad coach overnight, just like any coach who resigns or is sacked doesn’t.
Coaches come and go all the time.
Italiano will always have the 2023/24 campaign on his CV; the season which took the Phoenix closer to silverware than they’ve ever been.
The Australian will pop up somewhere again and take the lessons from what’s happened here into his future coaching roles.
It’ll be fascinating to observe the response from those he’s left behind.
