Due to enter the competition next season and lavishly backed by Texas billionaire Bill Foley, the Auckland entity are looking for a coach with an intimidate knowledge of the local landscape, as well as contacts across the competition.

And Greenacre, 45, according to sources across the Ditch, appears to fit the criteria for a fledgling club with just an 11-month time line in which to build from the ground up.

Englishman Greenacre, who has had three stints as a Nix caretaker coach after a distinguished 84-game career for the club, is currently in charge of their second team.

He has made no secret of his desire to at some point carve out a lead role in his own right and last year gained his AFC Pro coaching badge as part of that long-term ambition.

He has served his apprenticeship working as an assistant under the likes of Ricki Herbert, Ernie Merrick, Darije Kalezic, Mark Rudan and Ufuk Talay at the Nix since his retirement from the playing ranks.

Foley has been confirmed as the preferred bidder by the Australian Professional Leagues for one of two licences up for grabs, Canberra being the other likely expansion city.

An official announcement is expected imminently on Foley’s bid, with the licence price tag of $25 million just a drop in the ocean for the man whose sporting empire already includes English Premier League side Bournemouth.

Foley heads up the global multi-club football operator Black Knight Football Club, and as well as being Bournemouth’s chairman he owns a minority stake in French Ligue 1 club FC Lorient.

His other sporting assets include the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, which was an expansion team in 2017 and won the ice hockey’s Stanley Cup in 2023.