Amid a tough A-League season, Wellington Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano told the Herald he had "lost sight of life". Photo / Photosport
As the Wellington Phoenix men’s latest A-League campaign came undone in April, so too did head coach Giancarlo Italiano.
The team’s footballing standards and execution were a shadow of the previous season, when they made club history by reaching the semifinals. Once the hottest ticket in New Zealand football, the Phoenix had lost their spark.
Amid the turmoil, Italiano told the Herald he had “lost sight of life”.
“Potentially, at the end, [I] might have lost the dressing room when things were out of contention.
“But I think, probably more significantly, I lost myself a little bit, which was probably more significant.
“And losing myself meant that I couldn’t really focus on what was needed at the time.”
It’s something Italiano has had the chance to reflect on as he tries to pin down what went wrong last season.
“What ended up happening was when I got to the end of the year, and I just stepped out for a little bit and took time to reflect. I was very honest with myself – I realised, wow, like maybe four or five months ago, I kind of lost my way.”
Having lost several key players ahead of the 2024/25 season, the Phoenix were always unlikely to replicate the highs of the year before. Defensive lapses and costly moments of inattention became a recurring theme, while a string of injuries to senior players forced a young, inexperienced squad on to the pitch week after week.
The result was a tough campaign – Wellington finished 11th, managing just six wins from 26 matches.
Italiano acknowledged the multiple flaws of the season but reckoned it shouldn’t be deemed a total flop.
“I don’t look at it as something that’s gone wrong,” Italiano said. “If your markers are completely driven by results, then okay, last year’s a failure. Then the year before was a success, even though we didn’t win it? So then what happened before that, every other year – was that a failure as well? I’m not sure where the yardstick is, right?”
Italiano said there were issues internally, following a hangover that hit the existing group of players and coaching staff from the season before.
“But the fact of losing seven starters from that team and then rebuilding and then having the same mindset that we’re gonna do the same things – [is] a little bit unhealthy, unrealistic, I would say. So that was an issue within itself.”
It wasn’t until the season’s end that Italiano came to the realisation he had lost touch with himself, worn down by the issues that had plagued the team throughout.
“[I wasn’t losing myself] like existentially, a crisis. It’s more like just losing who I was as a coach, and the players can feel that.”
“When you’re going through this pressure, sometimes, I feel like I carry that burden for the team. And one thing that I felt when we were under siege a little bit was I probably carried that, and that my energy probably dropped.”
He said his biggest focus last season was trying to protect the players when things were going badly, but in essence, he felt he probably did more damage by doing that.
“Because I think at those times there when I was really honest with them, I probably got more of a response. But sometimes when you’re looking after young players and the expectations and so on, it’s hard.”
Italiano said in the off-season, he confided in the club’s psychiatrist.
“I did a lot of good work with our sports psych here, which was really beneficial ... Did an internal review that opened up my eyes to a lot of things. And it wasn’t necessarily like the reality – it was more perception. And perception is just as crucial as truth. So that was a really good process.
“And to be fair, spending a week away with my mates fixed me very, very quickly, because that brought me back down to earth.”
Italiano, who lives with his mum in Petone, said she told him what he needed to hear.
“My Mum’s very, straight to the point, when I get home. She’ll smash me straight away, in terms of – she’ll bring me back down to earth very quickly, which is what I need sometimes, like most mums.
“She’ll pick up on things from the outside and say things that eventuate three or four months later, which is really uncanny.
“So she’s really important, and I’m just trying to make sure I don’t upset her when I get home.”
Italiano admitted that the arrival and success of the A-League’s newest team, Auckland FC, got into the heads of his team.
“It’s normal – a new team comes in and they take a bit of the limelight away from the team, especially after doing so well. And I think – [it’s] not grudges – but I think [the Phoenix] wanted to prove a couple of things.
“I think sometimes when you don’t focus on the outcome but you focus more on doing the best you can ... you get rewarded. Whereas I think our boys were more determined to get a win for whatever reason, and that might have gone against them a little bit.”
“But again, rivalry is very important for football. I think Auckland FC coming into the league, for New Zealand football in particular, is very healthy.”
Italiano had a different perspective on their massive defeat to the Black Knights in the final derby.
“I was actually thinking 6-1, that’s a detrimental, like, scoreline as well, but the players gave me 100%.
“Even though it wasn’t clicking, I didn’t come away from that game thinking that they gave up.”
Having wiped the slate clean and heading into his third season as coach this October, Italiano said he’s realigned the group to be more on the same page.
“From coaching staff to the players, there’ll be more integration on expectations, values, and so on.
“It’s something that we were very big on in the first year, and then maybe we lost a little bit of touch last year. So it’s more of a refocusing on those ideas.
“There’ll be a refocus with the playing style from a defensive point, where we’re gonna be playing a lot higher up the park.
“We’re definitely gonna go try and chase teams down, be a little bit more on the front foot, which means that we need to take more risk, we need to be brave, we need to be courageous.”
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She was named New Zealand’s Best Up and Coming journalist in 2025. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.