Wellington Phoenix director of football Shaun Gill said the club will be in a position to make an announcement on Giancarlo ‘Chiefy’ Italiano’s future as head coach by the end of the Isuzu UTE A-League season.
Italiano is out of contract at the end of the campaign and there has been a lot of discussion around his position after two seasons in the role with the Phoenix, who missed out on qualifying for the 2024-25 Finals Series.
It has been a challenging season after Wellington’s historic run to the 2023-24 Semi-Finals in Italiano’s rookie campaign, with the Phoenix struggling to match the highs of last term following the departures of stars Alex Paulsen, Ben Old, Finn Surmann and Bozhidar Kraev among others.
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The Phoenix have three matches remaining in their season, which will conclude with a May 2 home fixture against Perth Glory.
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“Discussions are ongoing with Chiefy,” Gill told reporters on Thursday.
“Let’s see what the next week or two presents.”
Asked if a decision would be made at the start of next month, Gill replied: “Yeah, definitely.
“The pressure point with the A-League Men space is you have a four to five week off-season and then you start again. We have a little bit more time in the A-League Women space because the pre-season won’t start until September.
“But in terms of the A-League Men space, we need to be back in 1st of July ready to go. So there’s more pressure to get things done and start moving on recruitment, retention of staff etc.”
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The ‘Nix opted not to extend Temple’s contract after Wellington were unable to secure a top-six berth heading into the final round of the regular season.
Asked if there were parallels between the club’s men’s and women’s programs in terms of Italiano’s future after parting ways with Temple, Gill replied: “They are separate, they are two different beasts so you have to look at them separately.
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“It’s not just the case of Paul not making the top six this season. Two seasons and it felt a new voice was needed.
“Chiefy still has some credit in the bank off a fantastic season last season.
“There’s still some discussions to be had with Chiefy.”
As for Wellington’s Ninja A-League team, they are now in the process of trying to find a replacement for Temple in 2025-26.
When discussing the reasoning behind not extend Temple’s contract, Gill said: “The investment from the owners is significant in the A-League Women’s space.
“Compared to the A-League Men space, we operate at a good level of budget for players and staffing. We probably have one of the biggest football departments in the league. There is a high expectation on that program.”
Amid those “high” expectations, one potential option put forward to Gill during his press conference was former Canada women’s head coach Bev Priestman.
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Priestman is currently serving a 12-month ban for her involvement in the drone spying scandal that engulfed the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, where Canada were caught spying on a Football Ferns training session prior to their fixture with New Zealand.
The ex-Canada boss, who led the nation to an Olympics Gold Medal in 2020, would be set to return from her suspension in time for the 2025-26 A-Leagues campaign.
“Well that’s a quality coach right there. If that presented itself as an option, we would be silly not to consider it,” Gill said with a smile.
