Giancarlo Italiano has stood down as men\u2019s head coach following the 5-0 derby defeat to Auckland FC.<\/p>\n
Italiano has announced his resignation in his post-match media conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo lose 5-nil at home with the season still to play for is unacceptable and I take full responsibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst thing to do is to lose to these guys. I\u2019m not a big fan of Auckland, I don\u2019t like the way they do things, but you can\u2019t lose to rivals like that. It\u2019s unacceptable anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever excuse you can throw, it\u2019s unacceptable. I think in the interest of the club now, it\u2019s better to bring in someone with a bit more energy that can redirect the group, maybe refocus them, and keep the season alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Giancarlo Italiano arrived in Wellington in 2019 as Ufuk Talay\u2019s analyst and second assistant coach before becoming his lead assistant coach.<\/p>\n
Italiano became the men\u2019s sixth fulltime head coach in 2023 and led the Nix to their best ever A-League campaign in his first season, narrowly missing out on the premiers\u2019 plate and a place in the grand final.<\/p>\n
He believes he\u2019s leaving the club in a better place than when he arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one speaks about behind the scenes, the restructure, everything that\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a big believer in developing young players, and no one in the A-League takes my record at the moment in terms of giving young players an opportunity. And we\u2019ve had record transfers under me being a head coach.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-1197737554.jpg\")
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND \u2013 JANUARY 06: Coach Ufuk Talay and head analyst Giancarlo Italiano look on during a Wellington Phoenix A-League media opportunity at Martin Luckie Park,on January 06, 2020 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to think we have a nice playing style, maybe not consistent, but we\u2019ve shown especially in that first year, when we\u2019re on, we\u2019re on. We can play some of the best football in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of things that I\u2019ve been very proud of, and been part of previously, like with Uffy. That was one of the greatest moments in terms of me and my self-development.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut again, this is football. When you try your best, you\u2019re doing everything you can and it\u2019s not working, I think you change.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s better to leave [with] my head held high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of respect for the club. I feel like if it wasn\u2019t for them, I wouldn\u2019t be in this position, so I can\u2019t look unfavourably. That\u2019s really it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club thanks Chief for everything he has done for the Wellington Phoenix over the past seven years and wishes him all the best for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giancarlo Italiano has stood down as men\u2019s head coach following the 5-0 derby defeat to Auckland FC. Italiano…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-494789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}