Soccer: Posa back at City as Brazilian talks end

Paul Posa is back in charge at Auckland City but has taken a British-type manager's role rather than a straight coaching appointment.

Months of speculation on Posa's likely successor ended yesterday when club chairman Ivan Vuksich called off long-distance negotiations with an interested party in Brazil.

"In the end they [the Brazilians] could not satisfy me that they were the right people for the job," said Vuksich. "There were a lot of demands and there is always a risk in contracting someone sight unseen."

Posa, who took over from Colin Tuaa midway through last season in a caretaker role, was reluctant to commit fulltime this season especially given the demands of a busy season.

"We were aware of that and have gone along with Paul's request that he become basically the manger. He will have two assistants in Ramon Tribulietx and Steve Sarich with Simon Eaddy as goalkeeping coach," said Vuksich. "The rest of the management and medical team remain in place."

Vuksich said the club had been inundated with players keen to join but said most had "over-inflated ideas of how good they are".

They have signed goalkeeper Paul Gothard from Warkworth following his impressive display in a Chatham Cup tie at Kiwitea St earlier this season and Jacob Mathews who was on their books for a time early last season before moving to Waitakere United.

City have also signed former club members Jason Hayne and Daniel Kopricvic on again.

Among the players not signed for the 2009-10 season are long-time goalkeeper Ross Nicholson, George Suri, American Matt Friel, midfielder Liam Mulrooney, Javier Roca (now back in Spain) and, as yet, young striker Milos Nikolic.

City kick their season off with a home game in the O-League against Tahitian side AS Manu Ura on October 17 and play their first NZFC match, again at home, a week later against Waikato FC. Their opening match at the Club World Cup is against Al Ahli (United Arab Emirates) in Abu Dhabi on December 10 (NZ time).