Wellington Phoenix boss David Dome has rubbished claims the side brings nothing to the A-League competition suggesting that they do more than their fair share for rising Australian professional football players.
Last week, former Australian great Mark Bosnich ranted not once but twice on Fox Sports Australia about the validity of the Phoenix's spot in the A-League.
However, at Monday's team coaching announcement of Des Buckingham and Chris Greenacre, Dome took his own shot back at Bosnich.
"That's ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous comment," Dome told reporters in Wellington.
"You can't say the Phoenix aren't bringing anything to the A-League."
A large portion of Bosnich's argument was centred on thoughts that the Phoenix took the place of a more deserving Australian franchise, stifling the growth of young Aussie players.
Claims that Dome suggests are completely inaccurate.
"Some of the comments he's making were incorrect, are factually incorrect.
"If you look at our squad last night, we had a number of young Australian players on the pitch, we have quite a few Australian players coming through our system.
"[Jacob] Tratty starts now, [Adam] Parkhouse starts now, there's Dylan Fox, you've got Lewis Italiano. We bought Nathan Burns back out of Asia and resurrected his career so he could be a Socceroo.
Dome also told Bosnich to just concentrate on being a pundit and not on running a football club.
"He was a great player, he's a good football pundit but whether he should be involved in the political side of running a club I don't know."
The Phoenix played in a dour 0-0 draw against Adelaide on New Year's Day and now head to Perth where they face the Glory on Thursday.
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