Soccer: Loyal Kingz man believes goals are within reach

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Chris Turner admits to 43 years, but quickly adds that he looks "about 93."

Being at the helm of the struggling Football Kingz has obviously taken its toll, but if Turner is down he certainly is not admitting it. He remains remarkably upbeat, despite well-documented on and off-field problems.

From the first season the Kingz have been a club under siege, but Turner is in no hurry to dwell on what has gone before.

His preference, understandably, is to look forward to a fourth season and the chance to mastermind what, should it be achieved, would rate as one of the biggest turnarounds in New Zealand sport.

Many look to the Warriors and what they have done in the NRL, then poke the borax at the Kingz for coming up way short in the NSL.

But the Warriors needed time to front up across the Tasman. The Kingz are still working themselves into that position.

Turner, who has long had his detractors for his up-front, one-man-band role, shrugs off any negative vibes.

"I'm really proud of what we have done.

"In terms of our original goals, we have succeeded already," he says. "Now we have to go on.

"When you step back and look at where the sport as a whole is from the NSL, the domestic national league, the All Whites, and even the coverage the World Cup had here, we can take some credit for the part the Kingz have played in that.

"Television is the key. While NSL bosses wrestle with a shocking television deal in Australia, the Kingz have no such worries.

"We are the only club in the league to have every game home and away shown live."

But who is Chris Turner?

A former international, he played 16 games under John Adshead in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Any chance he might have entertained of going on to the 1982 World Cup was cut short when he injured a cruciate knee ligament while in a training camp.

The injury healed sufficiently to allow Turner to resume his club career, playing for Manurewa and Papatoetoe before taking the player-coach role at Manurewa for three years and later at Mt Albert Ponsonby and Mt Roskill.

Christchurch-born Turner played his early football in Taranaki before moving to Auckland, where he attended St Peter's College.

In the late 1990s he joined forces with John Batty, Ted Midlane, Noel Barkley and Noel Robinson to set up the Football Kingz.

These days, Turner retains the majority shareholding, with Midlane his co-director. Batty holds a 5 per cent shareholding, but no other rights, and Sky Television 10 per cent.

Along the rocky road there have been concerns over the delayed naming of sponsors, the non-payment of players' wages and the much-publicised wrangle involving goalkeeper Jason Batty.

Then followed the Houdini act by coach Mike Petersen, the disappearance of key players Con Boutsianis and Vas Kalogeracos, the George Goutzioulis saga in Newcastle, the resignation of an out-of-his-depth chief executive, Simon Massey, and, more recently, the dumping of coach Kevin Fallon. Enough, most would feel, to drive anyone away.

Not Turner.

Many have questioned the driving force which keeps him going at a club which finished an inglorious last in the 2001-2002 season.

Why, they ask, would anyone want to own such an outfit?

"I don't know that I particularly want to own a football club," Turner said. "There are better ways to make money and without putting the strain on my family. It has cost us a lot of money."

Relationships between the Kingz and New Zealand Soccer have at times been strained, although Turner admits he and former NZS chairman Kevin Stratful had an "understanding relationship."

They have Midlane as their lawyer.

Of the decision to get rid of Fallon after he took the coaching role in the latter part of last season, following Petersen's departure, Turner said: "Kevin was a good coach and still is. But football is about results and performance. They were not good.

"It was a difficult situation, especially as some players under-achieved in a big way. Simply, it did not work.

"Mike Petersen ran away. Kevin Fallon never ran away."

Now Turner is looking to former All Whites coach Ken Dugdale and assistant Stu Jacobs as the saviours.

Turner must still grapple with his own identity. Many find him evasive, short on answers to key questions. He shrugs off such criticism.

"I deal in facts. I don't believe people don't trust or believe me. I never lie. I tell it as it is. I will always give an answer. At times it might not be what people want to hear.

"As a club we spent a lot of money buying a coach and a couple of superstar players. It went badly wrong and caused problems all season. Now there must be a strategic change of direction.

"It might take two or three years, but we still think we are capable of making the top six."

Turner admits the players' budget has been reduced in line with other clubs, but says that if the resources are used wisely, he feels confident of putting out a team capable of "knocking on the door of the top six."

Sometime soon we might even be told which players Chris Turner hopes will do that.

But that is the Turner way. Say nothing until there is a signature on paper.

"If that is evasive, so be it," he said. "But I'm making no apologies for that."