Home NASL & USL FC Edmonton Nurse tells FCE supporters he won’t be back; team to handle matter “internally”

Nurse tells FCE supporters he won’t be back; team to handle matter “internally”

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After a series of tweets, there looks to be rift between Chris Nurse and the FC Edmonton front office.

Nurse sent out a series of angry tweets Thursday, culminating in the statement that he would not be coming back to FC Edmonton.

“Sorry but I will not play for these coaches again!” Nurse wrote.

The 11 has verified that the Tweets are authentic.

Nurse was named the FC Edmonton player of the year by his teammates. He was named the NASL player of the month for August. He scored three times for the Eddies in the fall season and also had a marker in the Amway Canadian Championship semifinal against the Whitecaps.

The club told The 11 that Nurse was informed by general manager Rod Proudfoot that he would not be making the road trip to Fort Lauderdale for the final NASL game of the season.

Nurse’s version of events is different. He said he was told via broken telephone — that the message was passed onto teammate Massimo Mirabelli, who passed it on to Anthony Adur, who then told Nurse.

“That is the most disappointing thing, they didn’t contact me direct,” Nurse told The 11 via message. “They have my email, and that is how the club always communicates. Yet they chose to use two other players who had no involvement to relay the message.”

The club also confirmed that Nurse’s one-year contract expires on Nov. 3 and that he’ll be a free agent if terms can’t be reached on a new deal by then. The team said that it was dealing with the matter of the tweets internally.

This is the first public sign of friction between Nurse and the club’s coaching staff, led by head man Colin Miller. Throughout the season, Miller had been complimentary of Nurse’s play and leadership shown on the pitch.

Sources have told The 11 that Nurse had been offered a contract for next year, but no deal had been made. And, there is no on-the-record statement at this time regarding what the terms of said contract offer would have been.

A little less than a month ago, FC Edmonton all-time leading scorer Shaun Saiko was demoted to the reserve squad and knows that he will be released by the club at the end of the season. Sa

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5 Comments

  1. james

    November 4, 2013 at 6:38 pm

    The problem is, the situation isn’t limited to Chris Nurse. Management has behaved in a ridiculously poor fashion to quite a few players this season. The players for the most part seem to take the high road but at a certain point, it’s hard to blame a guy for an outburst or two… I think if you were to be a fly on the wall in the FCE locker room, a different picture might be seen. If it were just Chris Nurse, you’d have a point but as the season has crumbled on, the list of players with issues with management seems to grow and grow.

  2. footyfan

    November 1, 2013 at 4:47 pm

    @BigT – If the statements are true that Nurse got the message through two different teammates than that isn’t showing class by management/coaching staff. It is their job and responsibility at the professional level, or any level for that matter to notify players if they are traveling or not. I completely agree with what @James said. Miller has come in bringing a terrible brand of football with him, kick and run, grind out type of play and it is frustrating to watch as a fan. There are talented players whom have givent heir all for this club despite the losses and he just keeps them on the bench or releases them. Rarely gives players a chance when others aren’t performing and definetly seems to have taken steps back from where the club was in previous seasons.

  3. james

    November 1, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    FC Edmonton has the best owner that any club could ask for, a solid fan base, a great commitment to Canadian player development, brilliant local talent and what should be a bright future for the city, the soccer community and the NASL. All of this is done in by the worst management imaginable. What began so hopefully with Lodeweges, slowly began to crumble under Sinkgraven and now finally gets completely demolished by Colin Millers warped ego and complete lack of football knowledge.
    Nurse had a tremendous season, an MVP season. Under Miller, of course, this means that Chris Nurse needs to be shown the door.
    How much longer do we have to watch Colin Miller continue to make a mockery of football and this club?

  4. Sluntville

    November 1, 2013 at 5:09 am

    Sad. This club is descending into chaos.

    • BigT

      November 1, 2013 at 6:53 am

      @Sluntville – your overdramatizing the situation. Nurse dealing with a problem he had with Mngmt should’ve been done privately not on twitter, doesnt show class by him. He’s bitter, who knows what really happened, he wasn’t in the plans for next year it seems apparently.

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