Manny Muscat of the Phoenix is congratulated by team mates after scoring a goal during the round seven A-League match between Western Sydney Wanderers and Wellington Phoenix. Photo / Getty Images.
Wellington Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick hasn't let the club's uncertain future deter him from making plans for next season.
The Phoenix have already begun their process of re-signing players for next year, planning their pre-season itinerary and they have also appointed a new academy coach, Paul Temple.
The future of
the Phoenix looked very unstable a month ago when Football Federation Australia claimed the club had failed to meet a list of "metrics", and denied the owners a 10-year licence extension.
But a powerful "Save the Nix" campaign has left the club's future in the balance, and the FFA is now privately urging the Phoenix to apply for a four-year extension and has cooled on the idea of cutting them loose at the end of the season. But the WelNix consortium still need to decide whether a four-year stint with no long-term guarantees is good enough.
"What I know is that we'll be playing next year in this league and I've already started to re-sign players, look at new players and plan for pre-season. The board is totally supportive of that," Merrick told Fairfax media. "I'd say it's almost business as usual, at least from my point of view. I have absolutely no reason not to plan ahead. We've appointed a new academy coach, Paul Temple, we now have an under-20 team in the New Zealand national league team and nothing will stop us moving forward."
