We certainly can't accuse Bill of putting his professional career above representing his country. Because Bill is doing the exact opposite. His NZ loyalty is costing him big time IMO. Depending on your point of view he is either a loyal kiwi or naive.
FC Strasbourg played on the 5th and 11th of September. Their league plays during international windows. Bills pro career is in limbo at the moment. You could have argued that its more important that he gets himself established in a pro team than playing friendlies for the AW's against teams like Mynamar.
I have been trying to find out what went down at OM that pushed Bill from match day first team squad and preseason starts to loaned out to a mid table Div 3 team.
From what I have heard in Marseille Bill made a big mistake asking to skip OM preseason training to play for the Olywhites. At the time I was very surprised he went to PNG. It certainly raised many eyebrows in Marseille.....including from some senior people at OM. Beilsa approved Bill going but he was famous for doing bizarre stuff and he spent most of preseason in Argentina.
I don't think you can understate how important loyalty is to big European clubs. Preseason training is a big big deal. They even show it on local TV. The squad assembles and they do intensive medical/fitness assessments. Each player is then assigned an individual training regime. From there they do intensive tactical and video analysis training. Bill missed all this.....he turned up two days before the first preseason game.
The key person in Bills demise appears to be Passi.....Beilsa's assistant coach. He is an old school coach...fiercely loyal to the club. OM is his life. Apparently he did not get Bill requesting to skip preseason training. From what I heard it was something along the lines of "who is this kid who thinks he can just skip training to play age group football on some Pacific island"
Passi took over after Beilsa resigned. In his first game in charge Bill was on the bench. Later in the game when they needed to bring on a DM Passi bought on a 20 year CB rookie instead of Bill. At that point I realised that Bill was on shaky ground at the club. A week later Michel, the new coach arrived. Passi was the conduit from the old setup to the new...the guy who's job it was to advise Michel on the existing players. Within a week Bill was gone......shuttled down to French Div 3 on loan.
i guess the moral of the story if you are a young up and coming player then you need to show 100% loyalty to the club.....and maybe your country can wait a bit. We all know how hard it is for even senior players like Reid to get away from their European clubs for national duty. Bill was highly thought of at OM.....but pro football is ruthless. The club has moved on. They have recruited new talent.
As for Bill and OM....not great I'm afraid. From what I have heard OM hopes Bill does OK at Strasbourg and they can maybe get some transfer money from his sale. Bill could end up with a career in the lower French Divisions
However if Bill has a stellar season at Strasbourg....if he was by far the best play in the Division then OM might take another look at him. But the next 6 months will be absolutely critical for his pro career. If I was him I would take a short break from NZ football....he's got enough on his plate. If this season does not go well for him then he could be back trialing for the Nix in a couple of years when his OM contract runs out.