Yes, he is. I don't know if they're just ignorant as to what other teams around the league are doing, or if they're trying to pull one over on fans. Unfortunately it seems like the latter, but either way I'm disgusted. "Bigger clubs" like RBNY, TFC, etc. have had scouts four five or so years at this point. Even "smaller clubs" have Head Scouts at this point. Diego Gutierrez was the Head Scout in Philly and Simon Elliott at Chivas USA. Pat Onstad just joined TFC as the head scout there as well. Pretty much every team in the league has at least one person who is focused primarily on scouting.
This was what Burns said about scouts, FWIW... Burns believes in next few years, all teams will have a full-time scout, but league isnt there yet #NERevs— The Blazing Musket (@BlazingMusket) February 5, 2013 I haven't seen anyone else write that he said that no teams have full-time scouts.
Not in the least. This just goes to show why you can't trust a single thing that comes out of these people's mouths. Keep drinking the Kool-Aid everybody...
But isn't that the implication? "The league isn't there yet" ... but there are multiple teams in the league that have a full-time scout. So what exactly does "the league isn't there yet" mean?
All that means is that the league isn't at a point where every team has a full-time scout. Which is true. Some teams do, but there are teams that don't.
That's like saying most teams have two assistant coaches, while some teams don't. Why are we always one of the teams that "doesn't?"
Looks like Chicago, Chivas, Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Montreal, New England, Philadelphia, Portland, Sporting KC, Toronto, and Vancouver all do not have a member of the staff dedicated to scouting listed on their websites. They all have a staff member who has other duties (usually an assistant coach or two) along with some scouting.
Dave Dir is Head Scout at Colorado. Pat Onstad is the Head Scout at TFC. Matt Larkin is a regional scout for SKC. Also, most of those teams have had Head Scouts before. Dave Dir at Vancouver, Diego Gutierrez at Philly, Simon Elliott at CUSA, etc. Thirdly, look at the technical staffs for those teams compared to ours. Every team has at least two assistant coaches (we have one), Columbus has a former player serving as Asst. to the GM, etc. Many teams also have foreign assistant coaches that help with language barriers and also foreign scouting/connections.
Many teams have two scouts. DC: - Morsink, Kurt Scouting Coordinator -Torres, Tom Head of Academy Scouting Program NY: - Rob Elliott, U16 Coach and Scout - Cris da Silva, Head of Scouting
Dir is an Assistant/Goalkeeper Coach: “He’ll be helping our technical staff with everything from training to match preparation, and will be working closely with our goalkeepers.” http://www.coloradorapids.com/news/2012/08/dave-dir-joins-rapids-coaching-staff You're right on Onstad, I missed him, but there's no references to a Matt Larkin anywhere on the Sporting KC website. I do agree that the Revs staff is leaner than some teams. They do have a foreign assistant, Remi Roy, who speaks French and has been a liaison between the French-speaking players and Heaps/Burns: "In addition to Burns, goalkeeper coach Remi Roy, who spoke Cisse’s native French, kept in touch with the defensive midfielder, all in the hopes of getting him on board." http://nesoccertoday.com/?p=17817
Just saying that we should have a full time scout. In general, our FO is one of the smallest in the league.
Exactly. The point of this is that we have a completely insufficient Technical Staff, one that is arguably the most understaffed and least experienced in the league.
I'm not disagreeing with that. Just pointing out that nothing Burns said was wrong. The majority of teams in MLS do not currently employ a full-time, dedicated scout. But it's highly likely that will chance over the next few years.
Philly has a specific scout for Latin America--Ricardo Ansaldi--he was even written up on the MLS website: http://m.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/11/28/unions-so-american-scout-players-want-come-here
Good catch, I remember reading that article. That's still not even half of the teams with a full-time scout, so the Revs aren't really behind the majority of the league in that department.
Right. I missed two (Toronto and Philly) who are on the teams' websites, I just overlooked them. The rest are correct. As I said, Dir is an assistant/GK coach and there is no Matt Larkin listed anywhere (on their website or Google) with ties to SKC.
Looks like that was my fault, the guy's name is actually Matt Martin. Here are a couple of interesting interviews with him about the role of scouting in MLS. http://www.wakingthered.com/2012/12/10/3702816/scouting-in-mls-part-one http://www.wakingthered.com/2012/12/11/3706986/scouting-in-mls-part-two-academies-and-ncaa http://www.wakingthered.com/2012/12...-four-trades-advanced-scouting-and-the-future
Thanks, those look like great reads. I wonder why SKC doesn't list him anywhere on their website? Again, I'm not saying the Revs shouldn't have a scout, because I believe they should. I'm just pointing out that they are not lagging behind the majority of the league when it comes to scouting.
No excuse for not having full time scoutS. This a global game. You need to have scouts in. Not just rely on video. Need to see players in person. College,Europe,Asia,S America, N America. There is a reason why the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals have been a terrible franchise for most years. The have 3 Scouts total.
Hiring a scout seems like a no brainer. Any scout worth his paycheck will make the team better, which should help drive attendance, merchandising, etc. If we had signed three decent starters last season instead of Moreno, Lozano and Cardenas, we would have had a playoff team. It's another case of investment needed immediately to see greater future returns, which I feel is something the Revs have not acknowledged. That said, part of the problem I see with scouts in MLS is that there also isn't as much of a financial gain as you see in other leagues. Say you find a hidden gem of a 20 year old who then lights up MLS for a year or two. He gets interest from some bigger clubs in Europe and you sell for $3M. You can't use that allocation money to reinvest in your scouting. That money can only be used to add to the salary you're not even paying. I'd prefer to see teams have the ability to use that transfer fee to reinvest in the team's foundation, rather than just the roster. Teams would then have a much bigger incentive to find those gems. Finding one starlet would pay your scouting budget for 5-10 years.