Wellington Phoenix CEO Tony Pignata has revealed how the club offered striker Shane Smeltz the marquee contract. Smeltz recently signed a deal with new A-League franchise Gold Coast United after turning down a deal with Wellington that turned out to be the marquee player contract.

"He was offered it (marquee). There was a blank sheet there when we sat down with him," Pignata told 442.

"He thought about it and in the end he decided to move on and explained his reasons why.

"As I've said before, we did everything we could to keep Shane Smeltz at this football club but we have to deal with it.

"Players move on. Wayne Rooney left Everton to go to Man United and Berbatov left Spurs for Man United.

"But we still have Shane for the remainder of this season and hopefully he will carry on scoring goals for us.

"We are now searching for a new striker."