The caretaker: Chris Greenacre on his fourth go-round as Phoenix interim coach Taking over a struggling team mid-season is one of football's toughest gigs. Chris Greenacre has now done it four times for the Wellington Phoenix. The club turned to the experienced coach again last month after Giancarlo Italiano's abrupt departure, adding another chapter to his extraordinary coaching journey. Coaching was always Greenacre's plan. Along with a handful of Tranmere Rovers teammates in England in the early 2000s, he was part of the Professional Football Association's pilot scheme that put current players through their coaching badges. By the time he landed in New Zealand as a Phoenix player, he had a UEFA B licence but no real outlet to use it. Little did he know his first real head coaching job would be, what was at the time, New Zealand's only professional team. It is a position many coaches struggling in lower leagues could only dream of landing in their lap, but for Greenacre the unconventional rise was not always easy to navigate. He has yo-yoed between head coach and assistant roles, between the A-League team and the Reserves team in New Zealand domestic competitions. The Englishman went from being a club legend on the field that hung up his boots somewhat prematurely in 2012 to just months later being head coach while Ricki Herbert was on international duty with the All Whites. "If I'm really honest, I didn't know anything, and that's just the nature of the beast," Greenacre said of the first time, 13 years ago, in a role he now has a level of familiarity with. "I think in an ideal world, if you can come through the youth team ranks and develop like that, I think it's really the best way forward.#wellington_phoenix #chris_greenacre #giancarlo_italiano #ricki_herbert #transanmere_rovers
