KEY POINTS:
It is time for the New Zealand Knights to get their collective heads out of the sand.
There was little surprise with yesterday's news that head coach Paul Nevin had been sacked. But why, we deserve to know, will there be no official comment from the beleaguered club until later today.
Obviously seen by chairman Anthony Lee as a convenient sacrificial lamb, Nevin, who inherited the job when John Adshead resigned, was left to carry the can for a football club in hopeless disarray.
From day one the club has been a disaster waiting to happen.
Poorly-informed, badly-administered and with players successive coaches have admitted were not good enough to perform at the level required in the A-League, it was never going to work.
In bringing director of football Barry Simmonds in as interim coach, Lee has again gone to his failed system in an attempt to paper over the cracks.
Lee, who is very much of the "my way, or no way" mould, said he believed Nevin had a bright future in the game and would look to keep him in the club working in other coaching and development areas. Why would anyone want to work at the club which, from the outset, has struggled for credibility? Perhaps there is the issue of a payout for a contract cut short.
Last season the problems were there for all to see and led, in the end, to player revolts, hasty departures and half truths as to the reasons why.
Off the field, we are told, London-based benefactor Brian Katzen has remained committed to the cause. Again, we would like to know why.
Through these troubled times - and results this year have given hope they might fare better than they did in season one - Football Federation Australia, as bosses of the Hyundai A-League, have remained staunch in their support of a New Zealand-based franchise in the competition.
You can only wonder whether pressure has come from them to shape up or ship out. Lee has said if someone fronted with the readies to buy his share of the club he would pack up and go.
Blaming the coach is too often a cop-out.
In a week in which Auckland City and their coach Roger Wilkinson parted company and now Nevin and the Knights have fallen irretrievably apart, questions must be asked.
Sadly, Lee and his cohorts have given themselves a 24-hour cooling-off period.
At least Nevin returned calls and gave his take on an issue which became public only when he spoke to the players before yesterday's training session.
