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Speaker 1: A new you're in New Zealand. Football is underway this weekend,

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Speaker 1: with Auckland FC kicking off at Mount Smart tomorrow. See

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Speaker 1: Nick Becker's well there's Nick, very good money to you morning, Mike.

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Speaker 1: How are you very well? Indeed your assessment as to

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Speaker 1: where you're at as an entity before you've officially kicked

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Speaker 1: the ball off?

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Speaker 2: We're going great guns. I'm really proud of what the

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Speaker 2: team's done. We're going to have it's looking like a

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Speaker 2: sell out tomorrow and go meet it. There's only a

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Speaker 2: few there's a couple of stand tickets left and there's

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Speaker 2: only a few in the GA in the upper south stands.

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Speaker 2: So being a good Warriors man, you'll know how important

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Speaker 2: it is to have a full house. And we're really

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Speaker 2: excited about that.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Any sense of the quality of the side, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: We've got it. We've invested well into the team. They've

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Speaker 2: come together really well. We've got a good solid Kiwi based,

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Speaker 2: really talented New Zealand players. We've got five all whites

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Speaker 2: and we've got five really exciting visa players with a

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Speaker 2: bit of a South American flare in there. And then

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Speaker 2: we've also got our captain Heroki who's Japanese international, has

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Speaker 2: been to three World Cups. He brings a to of

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Speaker 2: experience and he's a quality player.

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Speaker 1: What are you expecting in the first season. Have you

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Speaker 1: got something on a whiteboard somewhere that says we will

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Speaker 1: end up X on the ladder?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we've all got our dreams. I mean, I

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Speaker 2: think we're going to have from day one. We've always

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Speaker 2: said we're not here to make up the numbers, and

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Speaker 2: we're super ambitious. We want to be super successful. So

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Speaker 2: I'm not going to say to you straight away that

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Speaker 2: that we're going to win. It might but that's what

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Speaker 2: we're intending to go out and do, and I want

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Speaker 2: to be in the business end of things at the

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Speaker 2: end of the season. Good on you.

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Speaker 1: See Bill Foley, he started, as you were well aware,

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Speaker 1: he started a ice hockey team in Vegas and they

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Speaker 1: went out and pretty much won the Stanley Cup straight away.

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Speaker 1: So the precedent's been set, Unfortunately, hasn't it been that?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely? I mean Bill's a fantastic owner, but he is

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Speaker 2: also one of the most competitive men I've ever met

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Speaker 2: in my life. So yeah, we know how much he

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Speaker 2: wants to win, and we want to win too. He's

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Speaker 2: got a great saying always advanced, never retreating. But we're

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Speaker 2: fully we're fully tied up to that as well.

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Speaker 1: What about the celebrity money behind this from Ellie Williams down,

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Speaker 1: Is this a bus this or is this philanthropy.

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Speaker 2: It's a bit more of the vision and seeing what

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Speaker 2: the potential of New Zealand football is. I think Auckland

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Speaker 2: has been ready for a professional team for a while

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Speaker 2: now and so it's fantastic that we've actually got one now.

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Speaker 2: But it's more around creating talent pathway so we can

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Speaker 2: actually genuinely take talented young poison girls from Auckland, from

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Speaker 2: all across New Zealand and if they're good enough, they

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Speaker 2: can play firstly in the a Leak at the top

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Speaker 2: competition down here, but then we're also connected into Europe

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Speaker 2: through Bournemouth and the other teams as well, and so

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Speaker 2: they've got a real genuine talent pathway to get up there.

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Speaker 2: And the people have come in and invested. They have seen that,

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Speaker 2: they've seen that potential. With the likes of ali Anna

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Speaker 2: but also Winston Reid, Tim Brown, Noahacky and Steven Adams,

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Speaker 2: they've all come and said we want to help you

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Speaker 2: that we want to see that development. We want to

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Speaker 2: see talent out on a global stage.

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Speaker 1: Are you going to get like a Steven Adams into

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Speaker 1: the locker room for a bit of a you know,

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Speaker 1: a bit of a bit of a g up that

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Speaker 1: sort of thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Stephen obviously he's got quite a busy

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Speaker 2: schedule of the season, just kicking off in Houston, but

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Speaker 2: we've been in contact to him about when he's next

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Speaker 2: over in New Zealand, actually sitting down with the boys

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Speaker 2: in the dressing room talking to him about his experience,

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Speaker 2: his journey. Absolutely, and that's what he's come on for.

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Speaker 2: That's what he's passionate about. He hasn't come on to

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Speaker 2: be sort of as a part of an ego player

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Speaker 2: anything like that. He genuinely wants to help the young

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Speaker 2: players and.

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Speaker 1: Do all the players get free all birds because of Tim.

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Speaker 2: Well that and also of course New Balance our our

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Speaker 2: kip partner both great great.

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Speaker 1: Footwear, good on you may well done Nick Becker and

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Speaker 1: go well with at Auckland FC. He is the CEO

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Speaker 1: for more from the Mic Asking Breakfast listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks that'd be from six a m. Weekdays, or

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