I make no qualms about it being unbiased, I am a highly interpretive kind of guy and lay no claim to being any sort of journalist!
Absolutely nothing wrong with that. It just bothers me when people take one persons impressions as absolute fact. (Not directed towards you.) Hope that makes sense.
As the one who questioned this whole Shakesperian "To Scout or Not To Scout" issue, why am I not surprised that it was the letter of the law that, technically, if you really, really think about it, is not really a total bald-faced lie and a blatand untruthtitude on Burns' part. His comment suggests that no one, or at least no one other than the "Jewels," "Superclubs" or "Flagship" franchises have scouts, when in truth, massive clubs in huge markets like Columbus and Salt Lake City (not to mention a bunch of other places) have people doing exactly that. He treats it as if someone asked about the Revs having a private jet to bring them to away games. Yes, no one else is doing that (although I think the Red Bulls tried it a couple of years ago). In reality, the Revs are dead last in too many "operational" things that you can even count, and the single biggest factor of the team's steady decline from perennial MLS Cup contentder to steaming-hot-loaf-of-dog-crap-on-an-asphalt-road-in-July is directly related to their inability to find good players from outside the league. If they had even 50% of the players they signed work out even moderately well, they would have been in the playoffs, or at least legitimately fighting for a spot. And Near Post Burnsie is trying to spin it to say that "the league" isn't there yet? No, more like 1/19th of the league isn't there yet. Well, as far as "not being there," I guess you can say that about me at Revs games next year. And to think I was just starting to feel optimistic about this team, and then they spit in our collective faces like this! Burns needs to understand that, although he may be a total imbecile and a freakin moron, his potential fan base are not.
But they are. Nearly every team in this league has employed a fulltime scout at one point or another. Beyond that, most clubs have several assistant coaches and some even have assistant GMs. All of this helps with scouting, something that we're coming up seriously short on.
Technically I think you can. I'm not positive, but it seems that you can route that allocation money to pay for you DP. In that case, you're paying less out of pocket for your DP. The money you save can be reinvested in your scouting program.
I see what you're saying, but I don't think it's the same. Paying down transfer fees on a DP or salary is still just a temporary thing. You're not growing the franchise. Being able to literally build your team's foundation and infrastructure via scouting/development/stadium is a long term and lasting commitment which I think is needed to continue growing the league.
Maybe I'm not sure about what you're trying to say, but MLS teams can only use a certain percentage of a transfer fee on salary-related fees while the rest is required to be put into the club's infrastructure. This is how the majority of the Dempsey money was used, to fully-fund the Academy.
I was not at all aware of that. Thanks. I was under the impression it was always used to pay down salaries or to increase a team's "salary cap". I've never seen mention of it towards development. All the more reason to scout then. If Kraft isn't interested in investing a lot of his own money, build the team's coffers by finding, developing and selling.
For non-homegrown or GenAd signings: Club receives 2/3 of the transfer fee revenue and the League receives 1/3 The maximum amount of a given transfer fee’s revenue that may be used by a club as allocation money has increased from $500,000 to $650,000. Allocation money may be used to reduce the portion of a player’s compensation that counts against a club’s salary budget in connection with signing players new to MLS, or re-signing existing MLS players to a new contract.
Taking this list at face value (from bwidell's earlier post) and subtracting some of the examples against it that have been brought up, where do the Revs rank in terms of recent scouting? I put each team's four most recent 1st/2nd Rd draft picks under at least one member of their current technical staff. I didn't count players who were with them at a previous club. Most of these "non-listed scout" teams have either experienced coaches with proven networks, or experienced GMs/TDs who can bring in players. Do the Revs have that? Just based on players listed, the Revs compare favorably to Colorado and Vancouver. Then again, neither of those teams are upper echelon. Chicago: Frank Klopas - Austin Berry, Lucky Mkosana, Jalil Anibaba, Corben Bone - Arne Friedrich, Rafael Robayo, Alex, Sherjill MacDonald Colorado: Oscar Pareja, Wilmer Cabrera, Paul Bravo - Tony Cascio, Eddie Ababio, Colin Givens, Andre Akpan - Jaime Castrillon, Martin Rivero, Luis Zapata, Hendry Thomas Columbus: Robert Warzycha, Brian Bliss, Duncan Oughton - Ethan Finlay, Aubrey Perry, Rich Balchan, Justin Meram - Jairo Arrieta, Federico Higuain, Milovan Mirosevic, Olman Vargas Dallas: Schellas Hyndman, Fernando Clavijo - Matt Hedges, Bobby Warshaw, Charlie Campbell, Zach Loyd - Blas Perez, Hernan Pertuz, Carlos Rodriguez, Matias Jara Houston: Dominic Kinnear, Steve Ralston, Wade Barrett - Colin Rolfe, Warren Creavalle, Kofi Sarkodie, Will Bruin - Oscar Boniek Garcia, Giles Barnes Montreal: Marco Schilibaum, Nick de Santis, Mauro Biello Portland: Caleb Porter Vancouver: Martin Rennie, Carl Robinson - Darren Mattocks, Chris Estridge - Y.P. Lee, Barry Robson, Kenny Miller, Andy O'Brien New England: Jay Heaps, Mike Burns - Kelyn Rowe, Tyler Polak, AJ Soares, Stephen McCarthy - Jerry Bengtson, Saer Sene, Florian Lechner, Dimitry Imbongo
Not sure what that list is supposed to mean. I don't think you can realistically mix college draftees with outside-of-league signings. Sure, the draft involves scouting, but because of the order, you might not get the player you really want, and have to go with the old "best available" pick. Just to pull an off-the wall example out of my hat, suppose you have a contact in Latin America who knows the major leagues, knows a lot of DTs and club personnel and agents and has enough contacts to determine which plaers are 1) well-suited to the style of MLS and a specific club 2) are the types of players who could thrive in a foreign country with the wierd cultural stuff, 3) are the right "character" types, and 4) would be willing to make such a move. I bet a team with someone like that on board wouldn't make moves like agreeing to a no-win deal with Milton Caraglio and then signing a prince like Jose Moreno. Just sayin' So of the bottom 4 in our list, I would rate Bengston and Sene as "good" signings, and Lechner is no longer here and Imbongo is a "project.
When you mix in so much opinion, assumption and speculation, I'm not sure what the point is. It's impossible to determine from your account what was actually said and what wasn't. If you want to give your perspective on it, fine, but it's disingenuous to present it like it's a "report".
Cool, so where is your report? Where did he say this was a formal report? Oh, yeah, he didn't. Cool speculating as to his intent. It's kind of funny/sad/ironic that you of all people are criticizing someone for reading into something and making wild speculations. Let's cut to the chase here. You are upset with his "report" only because he took some things from something he actually attended, and made some opinions based on what was said, mood, tone etc...He never said he was a reporter. He isn't getting paid for reporting news to us. He isn't held to any higher a standard than the rest of us. He never said that this was a factual account of everything that went down. He went to the meeting and gave us his thoughts. You didn't. So, get over it, and deal with the fact that someone doesn't love your precious ownership.
HOLY Jezuz F-ing Christmas! I knew all along that Bob was just an old drunk Billionaire interested in only 1 thing the pats..oh yea, and young talentless quasi vixens..! Uninterested old monger who put about $1000 bucks down on an investment in MLS. Pretty much for the last 18 years, I don't believe for one second he lost one penny on the deal. Low salary cap, non -existent FO budget, I'm pretty sure his MLS seasons/Concessions/One time parking charges and sweet international games kept him in the black(My delusional assumptions aside). I put aside the ever constant feeling that the ownership Apathy was prevalent. I've been a fan of the sport in America for far too long to NOT understand when it was being disrespected and shit on by local media, our own owner and at times even our own fans! Because, notwithstanding another committed owner WHO LOVES THE GAME, coming in and investing..this Sorry Excuse for a Team is going to continue to cater to Pink hats and the week-end crowd looking for a night out... 18 years of cynicism by an owner NOT WORTHY to even get a ball kicked in his face...!! FU BOB KRAFT and that Scum of a Son you imprinted with your genetic material... MLS, this team and MOST IMPORTANTLY the Sport, The Beautiful Game in Boston has paid a great price having you here at the helm. #DISGUSTED
Dan, I'm not sure what you mean. Why are you mincing words here? Tell us what you really think instead of waffling all over the place.
Upset? Hardly. I don't have to be upset to want to respond. No, he didn't. Nevertheless, the intention is pretty clear that some of it is paraphrasing, yet that's mixed in with opinion and interpretation. The following certainly implies factual "reporting" (and spurred a significant debate on the subject). Who exactly said that no one in the league has a full time scout?
There is a point that is missing you by billions of miles. You are getting all condescending about how he shouldn't be "reporting" this as some sort of journalistic report. This isn't the Boston Globe. It's not CNN. It's not even a soccer blog. It's a post on bigsoccer. A bigsoccer users account of what transpired at an event he attended. Which, as it seems, most of us didn't attend. It's not presented as gospel of truth. It isn't presented as a factual report. If you wanted a factual account of the event, then you should probably read a legit news outlet, or attend it yourself. Otherwise, try to at least possibly understand that this is an online forum, and not the BBC.
Burns said the league is not to the place where there are full time scouts. He was pretty direct in his response to that specific question. I am not going to mince words at them. I am also not going to stroke their soccer balls with layup questions, of which there were far too many. There was some constructive dialogue, but I noticed that the smaller the issue, the more open they are to hearing about it. Funny how that works. Also, if anyone was at the meeting they could have felt free to ask me in person, Im pretty approachable and never trying to hide behind a screen name or anything, you dont have to like me , but im not some anonymous troll, you know who I am.
Burns said the league is not to the place where there are full time scouts. He was pretty direct in his response to that specific question. I am not going to mince words at them. I am also not going to stroke their soccer balls with layup questions, of which there were far too many. There was some constructive dialogue, but I noticed that the smaller the issue, the more open they are to hearing about it. Funny how that works. Also, if anyone was at the meeting they could have felt free to ask me in person, Im pretty approachable and never trying to hide behind a screen name or anything, you dont have to like me , but im not some anonymous troll, you know who I am. And 0n top of that, I know who Im not too! Im not a tactician, I didnt ask about formations or tactics...I asked/commented/chastised them about my areas of "expertise", the US Open Cup, the PDL, that whole scouting question came from when I asked them about how they scout the European lower leagues, Football League, Football Conference, Serie B, 2 Bundesliga, etc. We Want Some Answers! We Want Some Answers!
I'm with you..!! Talking tactics with and about this org. is like talking to a guy who started a Ponzi scheme and passed it off as a Soccer League..! 1.) they don't give a shit about what you have to say 2.) they learned to blow perfect smoke rings at MIT 3.) their noses are so brown they could go to a masquerade ball as a reverse Al Jolson..! Everyone knows who I am too... I've always tried to make as much sense in what I'm trying to convey as possible. And if all else fails..if people just want to believe I dislike Kraft for some deep rooted personal reason, well, I can't help them with that. I only fall back on the same piece of pertinent information that I've always pointed a finger at. In 18yrs at the helm..MLS, The Revs and to some extent The Beautiful Game has remained IRRELEVANT while Krafty & Son have been at the helm of this squad. Sad but true and irrefutable. So even if they take all my bantering and posturing as total BS...I didn't just make that up to bolster my delusion..!!
... and... Hrm... Lincoln... RevsFanDan(ielDayLewis).... I think we're talking about the same person here. I'm picturing tall... thin... fringe beard... wearing mostly black with a royal purple flowing robe. Top hat AND a crown. Rev's lapel pin & foam finger. Has anyone seen these two in the same room? Odd... But really, I appreciate the insights into the Supporter's Summit you've offered and completely understand your disclaimers. However many of you there are. Kevin D.
My 2 cents: Of the domestic guys, maybe it's harsh but I wouldn't include Polak in that group until he earns first team minutes. Will that happen this year? Possibly but he needs to prove his value. As for the int'l guys, Sene is the only one who has remotely impressed me. We know Bengtson can put away chances at the international level with quality providers but whether he can in MLS on the revs remains to be seen. Hopefully he gets more quality chances this year.
All-time greatest scouting quote ever came from Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott: "Scouts? All they do is sit around and watch games!"