After a hard season of learning, Giancarlo Italiano and Wellington Phoenix are ready to bounce back in 2025-26, Chiefy explains candidly to aleagues.com.au.
Honesty. It can be confronting but that unfiltered truth is the key to unlocking growth, both individually and collectively.
Giancarlo Italiano has always been honest, with himself and Wellington Phoenix. It is why the club enjoyed an historic run to the Isuzu UTE A-League 2023-24 Semi-Finals.
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But to his own admission, Italiano – affectionally known as Chiefy – “lost himself” last season.
As the Phoenix struggled to match the heights of 12 months earlier after finishing outside of the top six amid a host of high-profile departures and other hurdles, the second-year head coach was a shadow of the man who guided Wellington to their most successful season when they agonisingly missed out on a maiden Premiership and a Grand Final berth.
It is through those learnings, however, that have Italiano’s Phoenix primed for redemption in 2025-26.
In a candid interview ahead of Wellington’s October 18 season opener against Perth Glory, Italiano told aleagues.com.au: “I think the most important thing for me that I’ve learned is that that this role is a lonely role, in the sense that when you’re leading a group, it doesn’t matter how the group is going, if you’re going to lead you, you need to stand out, and you need to be strong.
“I feel as though, even last season, I didn’t want to throw any players under the bus. I didn’t want to put my team through anything that basically amplified the way we were going. But in that process, I kind of lost myself because I felt as though I couldn’t externalise what was going on with myself, and that put me in a shell, and that took away from my basic, my authenticity. I couldn’t be who I was.
“Then I think from a subconscious level, I think players can read into that. I think they see that, they get a feel for when a coach is not present, not himself. So I don’t think that’s ever going to happen again, irrespective if I lose 10 games in a row or win 10 games in a row, I need to be present. I need to be there. I need to be like myself all the time.
“Now, even within the group, I need to be honest with them as well at all times. I have a lot of young players and I try to protect them for a large part. But I think sometimes, if you leave things unsaid, they can brew to be a lot bigger things at a later stage.
“I’m also learning also how to deal with groups and personalities and I’m pretty reasonable.
“I’ve taken a lot of hard learnings and good learnings, and I’ve already laid the framework for this season, and it’s been good. Even though calling out some players is hard, but it is for the benefit of the group, And that’s something that I’m getting comfortable with.”
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While Italiano wants to put last season “to bed”, reflection has provided the third-year coach with a chance to solve issues and evolve.
After losing stars like Alex Paulsen, Ben Old, Finn Surmann and Bozhidar Kraev among others prior to 2024-25, Wellington found themselves “under siege” as a result of injuries and other things. It is something Italiano did not envisage.
Fast forward a year and the 42-year-old feels better equipped to guide the ‘Nix back up the standings. He wants this current Phoenix team to go back to being “brave”.
“I think the most important takeaway I have is I feel like comparing myself to my first year as head coach, my general feeling is that I’m a 10 times better coach than I was in that first year, in terms of just understanding myself, more importantly, also understanding players, the dynamic between players, relationships,” Italiano said.
“When you win, and you win like you did in the first year, it masks a lot of potential issues and things that will come to the surface a lot later. But now that I’ve gone through last season, I kind of feel now I’m prepared for the ups and downs, and I think I’m more well-equipped to ride out when things get a little bit hard, and that plays obviously into the resilience of the team.
“Ultimately, it is my responsibility and how the team plays and so on. But the focus on this season now is to go back to being brave, having a real good identity about us.
“I want people to watch us, and they want to watch us every week, whether they’re fans or not. For me, that’s the most important thing, that when you come and you watch your game little bit like our first year, you feel that cohesiveness. You feel that something’s going to happen and ultimately, give something for the fans to cheer about.”
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The Phoenix have been busy again this off-season.
Ifeanyi Eze, Carlo Armiento, Nikola Mileusnic, Manjrekar James, Dan Edwards and Ramy Najjarine have arrived at Sky Stadium, following the departures of Scott Wootton, Sam Sutton, Kosta Barbarouses, Stefan Colakovski, Francisco Geraldes and Dublin Boon.
Italiano added: “It’s crazy. I think where we’re going to take the team for this season is way, it’s evolved far more than where I think I would be after three years, and I’m looking forward to it.
“I think the players are excited by the way we’re going to play, they’re excited already with a couple of games I’ve already had, and the signs are promising.”
There have also been changes to Italiano’s backroom staff, too.
Phoenix assistant coach Adam Griffiths, goalkeeper coach Ruben Parker, second assistant/head analyst Jordi Manning, head physiotherapist Cory Glover and kitman Jack Mapp all left the club in the off-season.
In turn, the Phoenix have brought in lead assistant Kelly Guimaraes and goalkeeper coach Dylan Cope in head coach Giancarlo Italiano’s coaching team and will work alongside assistant analysts Tyron Curtis and Sebastian Bayliss.
They are not just new faces, but new voices with a fresh outlook, especially in the case of Brazilian Guimaraes.
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“I think it’s been great,” Italiano continued. “Honestly, the environment now, with the staff has been very, very productive. It’s a really nice place at the moment. Everyone understands their roles. Everyone’s contributing.
“I think it’s also important to change the mindsets. Sometimes what happens is, when you are in a place for too long, you get in this group thing, sort of mentality and I think what I miss is objective opinions, different opinions, but substantiated opinions, where I think that supports where the playing style is, and what we’re about as a group.
“I think my assistant coach at the moment, Kelly, he’s done a great job coming in. He’s also someone who doesn’t know the league, which has been very beneficial for me, because he’s given me insight on how he sees it… he doesn’t know about reputations of players and so on.”
