Wrexham A.F.C., an international friendly and Tiago Coimbra's future: A mid-season Q&A with Halifax Wanderers sporting director Matt Fegan
The club has changed enormously since Wanderers sporting director Matt Fegan first took his post. Now, several years later, Fegan is helping Halifax to realize some of their long-term goals, be it hosting the Canadian Men's National Team or building the football pyramid in Atlantic Canada one piece at a time.
Josh Healey, the editor and publisher of HFX Football Post, caught up with Fegan on Sunday to review the club's season so far, including their international friendly in Maine, the progress of players like Tiago Coimbra and new announcements like the U-18 development program.
JH: Hi, Matt. Lots to chat about. I saw the release about the U-18 development program earlier this week and I know it's something that's near and dear to your heart. Can you just kind of talk about what it means to have the program launching this fall?
MF: The U-18s is something that's been in the works for a little while. The reality is, for the past 18 months, there's been a core of players in our region that have been committed to the provincial Canada Games program so we already kind of knew our priority and focus the last few years was on the U-21s to really get that established, really to feel like we've got a good rhythm with that in terms of the way the calendar season works and that it flows nicely into the university season and all that.
But for the 18s, as a club, we progressively need to start to work with players at a younger point in their development to help nurture talent to make that step either into the first team or, ultimately, just to try and elevate levels so success stories are that they go onto higher education with football. As you know, within this league, we have a lot of touch points within the university system where we've had players that have graduated and come into the football world or come into the football world through U-Sport or through NCAA. There's still a ton of value working with players regardless of where they end up.
(The program's) been really good so far. We waited, out of respect, for the Canada Games to wrap up and then we made that announcement. We've sold out in 24-hours and literally have 200 per cent of our capacity on waitlist already. It's kind of crazy, to be honest. It's players across the country looking to come here. It's pretty cool.
JH: What do you think that says about the demand for programs like that?
MF: I think it really speaks volumes. I know that, for the last few years, the provincial (football) associations have all had their own different types of programs and there's been other clubs trying to impact the local environment and see if they could find some talent here and mine and bring (it) over to their environments. Strategically, we've tried to be slow and steady with how we do it because when we do it, we need to do it properly.
I think the response has been really positive around the need for it. I think what's really important for us to stress as well is, and we put this in the language of our release, obviously, we are based in Halifax, we're based in Nova Scotia, but we do see ourselves as a representation of the region. As you've seen with the U-21s, it's really, really important for us — and I'd say we've gone out of our way — to integrate players from other provinces. Obviously, there's little things that they have to give, as well, in terms of relocating. We've done a good job so far in our programs that our teams represent, or at least they integrate players from different walks of life, different schools, different communities, and if they're good enough, we find a way to bring them in.
I'm excited to see where this is going to go. We've got a lot of things that are in the works for it. One thing I will say as well is having brought Mark (Watson) in here, obviously, he's been in a lot of different professional football environments as a player, as a coach, as a director, and he speaks a lot about the way that we integrate our development players into our first-team environment is something he's rarely seen. I think that's really important to stress. We can't ultimately always control what first-team minutes they get but we certainly do a good job of making sure they get exposed to the training environment, they feel integrated in it, they're around the training centre, there's no segregation of that. Hopefully, what that means is those players being exposed get to see how players at the top end of the game conduct themselves and they get to learn from that.
We'll have a lot more of that as it relates to coaches that straddle the first-team into the development pathway, players who also contribute to the development pathway as well. I think its really important that some of these players at the tail-end of their own playing careers will be involved from a coaching capacity. We want to try and help influence the culture all the way down the pathway, which is a key piece of everything we're trying to get off the ground here.
JH: That's awesome to hear that the participation has been so high and kind of feeds into my question about the overall development program.
It was a huge summer in terms of having one of the most recognizable clubs in the world in Wrexham come for the International Summer Series. How have you seen things develop from when you first started the series to now where you have your Ben Marsh's, for example, who have cut their teeth in things like this? Or Tavio Ciccarelli, whose 18-years old, and ends up bagging three goals out of four matches, and uses it as a stepping stone?
MF: I think, again, this year we've really taken a stride forward in this entire endeavour. I think I'll also say that Mark joining has probably given me a little more breathing room to turn my attention and focus on that part of our program. Mark is far more in tune on the recruitment side and, spending day-to-day, one-to-one, with the technical side of the first team, which is just the natural evolution of this club. The job became almost too difficult or too much for one person to do all of it to the extent that we all need it.
What that's allowed me to do, and I'm really proud, to be honest, of what we've done this year. As a club, we've gone to the U.K. for pre-season, we've led the efforts to explore an expansion market by hosting CPL on Tour in Québec, we hosted the Canadian (Men's) National Team, we brought Wrexham, we had a hugely successful tour with the partnership we started with a group in Scotland where we tried to leverage football as a mechanism to spread the Scottish Gaelic language, that's been a huge point of growth there, and we've now started what I hope becomes a great rivalry with Portland (Hearts of Pine).
Ultimately, the goal of that entire program is, until we get to the point where there's an established outlet like League1, where you get consistent, competitive minutes, we have to go foraging for different ways to provide that environment for these players who are on the fringes of the first-team. You speak about Tavio, you speak about Ben, I would also say to really highlight it, Jefferson (Alphonse) has really stepped into the first-team just seamlessly. I think if he hadn't been playing the 90-minutes he'd played throughout the summer with the U-21s, I don't think he'd have been as sharp and ready to go. I think it's been really beneficial.
I'm pretty happy with where things have gone this year.
JH: I just wanted to clarify a little bit. So, you mentioned the club has grown to this point where there's been a division of labour with Mark Watson. So, you're still involved on the recruitment side I assume? What have you let go of or taken a step back on and what duties have you added to your title?
MF: Look, my strong suit has always been on the operations side of this. I've been with the club from the very beginning of this. When I started, I helped build the stadium. I supported Stephen (Hart). I've done a lot more of the operational and administrative elements of this and I've always been working in tandem, by nature of that role, you build connections with agents, you build connections with clubs and recruitment pathways. The reality is, that job by its nature, is very time consuming. You're fielding a lot of calls. You're sifting through a lot of content. Obviously, Patrice (Gheisar) is very hands on as well and has a huge role to play in the types of players he wants to bring. The reality is I do think that Mark's focus in that area has helped us. I'm still at the table to help with the management of our cap, the composition of our contracts and all the little smaller details that make the CPL so very unique. Mark's come from a huge level but it's really interesting that the CPL has a lot of really small, little things that we do differently that takes a while for him to get his head around. I think a lot of that has been in support of that.
I don't know if I've necessarily taken on more titles, in terms of the way my day-to-day works. But I do feel it's allowed us to do things better and, in a way, in the overall growth areas, we've put more time into those things. We still have four of us at the table for any decision that gets made around a player that comes in or how we improve all the areas we want to in areas like travel for example. It's still a four-person team in myself, Derek (Martin), Mark and Patrice. But I do think Mark, working one-to-one, with Patrice and his staff, he's brought a lot of elevated perspective to that, which I think is really valuable to the club.
Josh Healey
JH: You talked about it earlier, having the ability to focus a little bit more. One of those was the international friendly with Portland Hearts of Pine. I watched it online. Can you talk about how that came about?
MF: For sure. So, Gabe Hoffman-Johnson's one of the owners and he and I started talking almost at the point of when they were formalized as a club. We're always looking for ways to build connections. They're the closest team, as the crow flies, to us as a professional club and we were looking at ways to try and find games.
We talked a little bit about pre-season when, of course, travel's a bit more risky in terms of roads that time of year, we'd have to play an indoors match. We did invite them for the spring series which, ultimately, Laval played us in. We just couldn't make it work.
They had asked us a while ago if we could send a U-21 to play them. They had this game, I think, where a team had dropped out of the league and they had already sold a season ticket package with so many games. They had to fulfill this one date in August. Long story short, the ongoing political environment was shifting a little bit and there was a little push from the Governor of Maine who was working very much to push tourism around Nova Scotia and other parts of the region. When she got wind maybe that there was a discussion that we could get down there, they looked at ways to make it happen.
The whole collaboration, I'm just so excited where this can go. The club is — it's unbelievable to me — how much it echoes what we have here in Halifax. The community is very similar. They see the world the same way. They get behind their team. They've done tremendously well with their brand and their marketing engagements. The game itself, it was a friendly but it was markedly anything but friendly and you want that, you want these games to feel like they mean something. It was really great and successful.
Obviously, we've already started discussions about 2026. We'd love to have them up in Halifax. Is there an opportunity within our season, can we find a way where there's more first-team involvement, can we carve out space in our calendar? That's where we'd like to get to. But considering it was their first-team and our hybrid of first-team and U-21s, I think it was really competitive.
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JH: What have you heard recently about League1 Atlantic? Is having the U-18 and development program on your end helping to facilitate those discussions?
MF: One thing I've learned about the Maritimes, having lived here for 20-plus years now, is we like to do things our own way. Sometimes, it's not as appetizing to this region to be told exactly how it needs to work from maybe other leagues that are elsewhere in Canada. That's one of the things we've done from the start as a club: where there hasn't been a pathway, we've kind of forged a path. I will say, as well, there's numerous clubs in this region who had very good intentions and have very good ambitions and want to drive the game on but, I think, they've looked to us to help push that forward because admittedly, the provincial soccer organizations can't move as quickly because they owe requirements to their entire membership. At the end of the day, we're not signatories to any of them. We're signatories to Canada Soccer and our mandate is to grow the game across our region.
This year we played 14 games, maybe even 16 games, home and away, we went to Moncton, we went to Saint John, we went to P.E.I. and played, obviously, with the International Series, but in some of those markets, we played against the men's teams. Look, we've said consistently since the start of this idea of a League1 Atlantic, we're not looking to have a Canadian Championship berth ourselves out of that because the Wanderers U-21s can't play the Wanderers first-team. So, if the ultimate outcome leads to a Canadian Championship berth for a Halifax County or a Codiac from Moncton, what a great way that this game grows when you're seeing an Edmonton Scottish doing the same thing. Those same clubs are going to nationals in the past and playing against Edmonton Scottish and they found a way to get into a League1 model. Hopefully, it comes around and we're going to keep pushing the game forward.
JH: It will be really interesting to see how things work out.
Pivoting a little bit here, there's eight matches left in the CPL regular season. You're in a very different position than when we spoke this time last year. How do you think the squad has done relative to expectations?
MF: I think we definitely had a good start and I think part of that is around the foundations that were laid around pre-season, the efforts that went into finding different ways to improve our processes to get results on the road.
Obviously, there was a little sticky patch in July where either the results didn't match the performances or there were some performances that weren't to our standard and we'd all acknowledge that. But, it has been nice to see the tide turning a little on that with performances and results. The team is well positioned to make that push.
I think in terms of talent, there is enough depth and enough quality across this team to challenge at the top end of this league. Obviously, we're seeing that Forge and (Atlético) Ottawa are having incredible seasons themselves so that's been a challenge but again, that's a good thing because that means they're raising the standard. There's been teams across the league who have had tricky periods in their season and I think we talk about this every year, it's about how you come out of those. Nobody sat on their hands and said: 'Ah, well, we'll just go three or four games without the results we want and just accept it.' I think everybody's really doubled-down across the board and everyone knows they've been putting in the hard work to help bring us back around.
I think coming home without two losses on the road in August which, for one reason or another, has been a tricky part of our season consistently throughout the years helps set up a bit of foundation and some confidence. I think going into this weekend's game, there's got to be a belief in this group that we're at home and we can push on. I think we've been really pleased on a couple of other pieces we've put some emphasis on. I think Tiago (Coimbra) has had a really good run lately. There's been a lot of really exciting performances from players across the squad. Hopefully, they've got enough in them to go the distance the next little bit to get that home playoff game at least and keep pushing on. If we're not pushing to try and get this team to the highest of the league then what's the point in any of it?
Josh Healey
JH: I've glad you brought up Tiago. Patrice answered a bunch of questions about him in the pre-match availability. He's a player whose come in and you've committed a lot of resources to and time. This is his third year with the club. He went to West Ham in pre-season. You've added personnel like Nick Edwards who has helped keep Tiago fit this season. What does it mean to the club to have this young, U-21 player break out?
MF: There has been good commitment across the club to Tiago's talent and his commitment in the other direction as well. It's probably a great example of sometimes these projects do take a little bit of time to bloom. He had some good seasons as a young development player but a lot of people might be surprised that he still is U-21, which maybe reminds you that he really is a very young player who has his best years ahead of him.
I think it's been really great. The space that Patrice and the coaching staff have found for him in the team, the way that his teammates have integrated him, too, into the team has been really great to see. He's a player who I think is the embodiment of how we, as a club, want to see this team play. He chases every single ball. He wins a tackle. He's trying to get the fans going. But he's young, too, and sometimes he makes mistakes along the way and that's okay. It's all part of his development. I think, you know, we're obviously going to continue to support him every way we can and at the end of the day, there's only one person who can really take that to the next level and that's Tiago himself. We're just here to try and provide that environment for him.
JH: I know one of the things he mentioned right after signing his new contract is that he'd love to kind of put, in his words, Halifax on the map and be the club's big first sale. Is his performances this year garnering calls from interested clubs?
MF: I wouldn't say there's anything specific to Tiago because at the end of the day, he needs to stay focused on what he's doing this year. The reality is this league has started to garner more and more attention from across the football world. You've seen players like (Kwasi) Poku have a great season at a very similar age with very similar statistics and gone on to great levels. You've seen Osaze de Rosario breakout in MLS. I think, at the end of the day, we're garnering more interest but it's just about keeping their heads down and doing the work and those opportunities will play out in the way they're meant to.
Yes, we do have him signed to multi-years and that was a commitment by Derek and by the club and I think that's a really good move. It shows the commitment from us and it gives him some belief in his way, too. He's somebody where it wasn't a long, extended, drawn out negotiation. Tiago wants to be in Halifax and he buys hugely into this project. His parents are phenomenal, his family's phenomenally supportive of him. They support his time in Halifax as well. Wherever that leads to, as a club, we want to help build that pathway for him. When the time is right to consider anything else, those things will happen.
JH: Well, I saw Sam Salter scored last night so (Coimbra's) got a few more he needs to score to keep up in the Golden Boot race.
MF: Yeah, there's another example of a player who — Sam was with us numerous years ago, he's four years ahead of Tiago with his age, obviously. He's taken a little while to hit the numbers he's on right now but it's also testament to the club that we had a talent who was nurtured for a few years and has moved on and is in a great environment where he's at and is thriving. We're happy to see that, too. We know we played a role in his steps and he's leading the line for his club and the league, at the moment. It's kind of fun, actually, to see our current striker and one of our former strikers are going toe-to-toe for it at the top end. We'll see where it all ends up, it'll be great.
JH: Adam Jenkins is calling it the year of the striker for the CPL. It's been a good year for goal scorers.
MF: I remember at the beginning of this project, especially working with Stephen more closely, we used to talk about that with strikers. You'd call around looking for talent and quite often the message was it's a needle in a haystack trying to find a good Canadian striker but look where we're at seven years further ahead. There's an exciting, domestically driven striker battle. You've got (Julian) Altobelli, Salter, Coimbra, obviously, Brian Wright, all competing together. At the Canadian National Team, you've got Jonathan David moving to Juventus. I don't think they are as much a needle in a haystack compared to where they were years ago.
Again, I think that's just an exciting example of where this game is going. We're all just trying to help nudge this game forward in Canada. I just think it's a really exciting time to be part of all of this.
JH: Just a couple more questions, Matt.
I wanted to talk about this most recent transfer window. A number of clubs added players in the league. You guys, I guess, had additions in a way with Julian Dunn, for example, coming back but can you talk about this window and the club's decision around bringing any more players in?
MF: I think one of the strategies going into this year was how much space do you want to leave in your plan to handle mid-season. I think, as a management group, there was a lot of effort, and energy, and commitment, securing the squad from the beginning of the season that we felt had the depth to compete.
When you do fast forward, obviously, if at any point you can add something that's the right fit, the right quality that is better than what you have, then every club needs to be ready to make that investment and strike at that level. The reality is some of those options or some of those opportunities haven't panned out but I think we've just tried to be more methodical around not just signing a player for the sake of signing a player and making sure that, if an opportunity doesn't pan out, it doesn't mean you turn around and say: 'Let's go for the third, fourth, fifth choice,' to say we've added something.
As I said earlier, that's been a priority focus for Mark more recently to try and secure that right level of player if its needed and to back Patrice and the team and to back Patrice in the areas he feel needs strengthening.
Josh Healey
Yes, the international window closes but that's specific to signing a player who is in contract outside of Canada. There are still opportunities to move players into your squad right up until the roster freeze in September who are registered domestically or who are out of contract. I wouldn't say it means there's absolutely nothing to be done there, it's just, again, you push the cap to the very limit you can and find the right additions to the squad that complement what is there.
Hopefully, if there's some business to be done before the deadline in September, the club will go about that in the right way and hopefully they add something, as I said, that's better than what we have and it needs to be with an eye on short-term solutions but also with how that players helps for next year as well.
JH: That's all the questions I'd prepared ahead of time. Is there anything you'd like to add that we didn't talk about?
MF: I don't think so. It's been an interesting year and it's been exciting on a lot of levels in the sense of how many things we've been able to achieve and hitting some of those targets off the field. I think it's been a really good platform to build on. Hopefully, all of this leads to the ultimate prizes we're all seeking as a club because we want to win titles, we want to win trophies and we want to do that together. I think having everybody pulling in the same direction can be unstoppable at times. Hopefully, the next few weeks turn out really positively as a reflection of all the work that's been done in the background.
JH: As always, thank you for your time, Matt. I appreciate it.
MF: For sure. Take care.
Editor's Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Further reading:
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Cover Photo Credit: Trevor MacMillan / Halifax Wanderers FC
