Rev News, 7/29/02

[The Magpie]

Time for Revolution in the front office
By Gus Martins, Boston Herald
http://www2.bostonherald.com/sport/soccer/revs07292002.htm

Proceeding with caution: The Revolution are in line for suspensions
By Frank Dell'Apa, The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/210/sports/Proceeding_with_cautionP.shtml

[rscaramelo]

Nice job Gus!

I never thought I would say that....

RC

[Soccer Doc]

Wow, Gus that's as brutially honest a statement about the State of the Revs as I've ever seen in the press. While true on the surface it makes the front office seem like people who are blindly rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic as it sinks. I sure don't think that's true. This organization has been trying to dig out of a hole since the initial draft. Each year new players and new coaches with little improvement. Management made some real effort to remake this team during the last off season. On paper they did a great job. Unfortunately things have gone terrably wrong but not because they didn't recognize that we were/are in trouble and desperately needed to make significant changes.

[Feldspar]

Meanwhile, Steve Nicol, Smith's hand-picked assistant for Clavijo, was conveniently waiting in the wings and assumed the duties of interim coach.

I thought Steve specifically wasn't Smith's choice for assistant coach. Anyone in the know care to weigh in on this?

[Rodan]

Management made some real effort to remake this team during the last off season. On paper they did a great job. Unfortunately things have gone terrably wrong...

Effort is great, but results are what count. The results (last place for most of the season and a long shot to make the playoffs) and actions by the team (picking Chacon, signing and then cutting Semedo, getting duped in the Serna trade, etc....) show that this organization still is far from having its *************** together.

Good job Gus!!!

[Danizinho]

One word: Wow.

Gus is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. Hey, the truth hurts and, depending on which side of it you're on, can be especially painful.

[The Magpie]

I thought Steve specifically wasn't Smith's choice for assistant coach. Anyone in the know care to weigh in on this?

I've heard from any number of people that Nicol was not the favored choice of Smith for the Assistant Coaching job under Clavijo. I've heard this from multiple people close to the Revolution, so I'm not sure what Gus is trying to get at here.

The Magpie

[Gregor]

At times the team has been an embarrassment!

[Rev-eler]

i haven't read the article yet from gus....but, am about to.

i will add this...i was in maine and listened to the gurgled broadcast over the radio (and dammit, we lost the signal for a brief time during the half and it was replaced by the adventures of little orphan annie....what the heck was that about? :))

anyway, they were talking to a guy just before the game came back on. the guy seemed to know his stuff (not just on the revs either), he was opinionated and a great interview. i was a bit shocked to find out at the end that it was gus. have to say i don't remember all that was discussed...but, i was very impressed.

[soccertim]

[B]
Management made some real effort to remake this team during the last off season. On paper they did a great job. Unfortunately things have gone terribly wrong...
/B]

Management did not put in a real effort to make the team better last offseason. Around the time of the disperal draft FC commented on how the Revs would have been in deep trouble of the dispersal draft didn't happen because, expecting the draft, the Revs didn't bother to do any overseas scouting. Does anyone else think that this may be related to the fact that our two signings during the year are A) Semedo, who couldn't play defense for the worst defensive team in the MLS and B) Kante, who wasn't even offered a roster spot for the only team in the MLS as bad as us? Maybe this explains the fact that we've shown no interest in filling in our third SI slot?

Gus is right about that trade being the joke of the MLS. Whether you like Nicol or not, our season was doomed before he was handed the reigns. Even if the trade was FC's idea, someone else should have nixed the trade, especially if FC were on the verge of being fired.

[Sine Pari]

either someone pissed in his cheerios or he has finally had enough

[Rev-eler]

i think i'm gonna' haveta' dump my globe subscription.

[Rodan]

Time for FDA to follow up with a hard-hitting Chiquinho Conde retrospective followed by a rhapsodic essay about the subtleties of the western-Mediterranean football tradition.

Gus gets little credit - but he does a great job. Thank god someone who works the Revs beat can tell it like it is...

[Sine Pari]

I think FDA is just so happy to write about soccer for a living that he isn't as critical as some would like

Gus looks like he just had a melt down - a lot like Ron Borges yelling at Pete Carroll way back when

Now the question is - it's out in the media now - what happens next ?

Anyone forward a link to Jeff Bradley ? Grant Wahl ?

[goussoccer]

I agree with Gus' comments. He hits an issue that has been on my mind since the Clavijo firing and trade. Too many changes at the same time tends to cloud exactly what works and what doesn't and why. This was appeared like a classic, let's change a bunch of stuff real quick.

I thought actually that management did a real good job rebuilding the team over the offseason. The knee jerk trade with the Mutts has certainly not increased the talent level of the team.

Relative to the loss of signal during the radio broadcast, I'll open another thread on that. I had the same thing during the TV broadcast, lucky for me at halftime though.

[rkane1226]

Originally posted by Soccer Doc
[snip]While true on the surface it makes the front office seem like people who are blindly rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic as it sinks. I sure don't think that's true. This organization has been trying to dig out of a hole since the initial draft. [snip]

The most fair part of this article is the sad truth that REV management thinks making the playoffs is all that counts! You have a 8 out of 10 chance of making the playoffs! A team of monkeys could make the playoffs!

It also accurately points out that REV management does not run the operation, day-to-day, in a professional manner. Loved the part about Serna.

Great article!

[RSwenson]

Originally posted by rkane1226


You have a 8 out of 10 chance of making the playoffs! A team of monkeys could make the playoffs!



maybe true, but the Revs can't;-)


rand

[The Perfesser]

What Gus is trying to get at is not whether we did well in the offseason or got hosed in the trade, but who's driving the bus in terms of the direction of the club.

Clearly, Zenga was a nutcase who had no knowledge of the workings of MLS, but whoever it was that hired him did.

The biggest problem -- which everyone on this board knows all too well -- is that there is not a commitment to putting a high quality soccer team on the field. Oh, sure, they'd like to do well, but it's not really a very high priority in the Kraft empire. Other things are obviously much more important. From a dollar and cents point of view, this is what firms do, namely to emphasize that part of the business that is likely to generate the best return. Clearly this is the Pats, and actually winning the Super Bowl and constructing CMGI has just pushed the Revs further down the pecking order.

Now, if Gulati were actually working at his "job" and actually had the talent to ID players and the cajones to actually stand up to Sonny Boy and say, "if you want to be serious about soccer, this is what you have to do!" then we might be getting somewhere. But Sunil has other fish to fry, elsewhere.

Clearly, nobody else is willing or able to actually do that.

And poor Todd Smith -- courageously fighting cancer -- as a GM BELOW Sunil in the pecking order is probably lucky when Sonny Boy returns his calls.

What we are left with, is desparate personnel moves (i.e. the trade) without any clear sense of vision of what is trying to be accomplished.

It's clear that anyone on this board who has been writing about the Revs for the past 7 years has done a version of this. Mine (written 3 years ago was called: "The Revs: Does anyone have a clue?"

http://home.attbi.com/~csallen/revclue.htm

A summary and update:

Year 1: Stapleton Era (antiquated Irish/English Football)

Year 2: Rongen's Total Futbol (with Argentinians)

Year 3: Rongen's Total Futbol (with Dutchmen)

Year 4: Zenga Era (antiquated Italian Calcio)

Years 5-6.2: Clavijo's Latin 3-5-2

Year 7: Nicol's English 4-4-2

Accompanying these dizzying strategic and tactical changes, were over 100 players being shuffled in and out of here with only the faintest idea what they would be doing and with whom they would be doing it.

And in each of our 6 "eras" in 7 years, we have been treated to coaches who insist of imposing "their" system on the team whether we have the personnel to accomplish that or not. THIS, more than anything else explains why we will bring players in who have performed well elsewhere, fail here, then go elsewhere and resume their productive careers.

Nothing positive is EVER going to come out of this organization until the Krafts say, "hey, this could be important!" But short of hiring a real GM who: a) knows something about the world of futbol; b) actually lives and works here and not in NYC; and c) is actually given some real power to make decisions, then this club is dead meat at the most fundamental level. (All of you can clearly place our last 3 GMs into one of the above categories.)

Come on, Krafts, are you really this clueless about how big the Revs could be in your "empire" if you only cared about the sport?

[Tea Men Tom]

I think with any organization, the ultimate success or failure starts with who's running the show.

This is where the finger needs to be pointed with the Revs. Now, I'm not saying it's the Krafts. It may in fact be with whomever is actually operating this team on a day to day basis. But there is no leadership here.

Somewhere along the line, the ball is getting dropped. And the fact that even Gus doesn't know exactly who's in charge over there sums it all up.

Whoever is in fact running this operation, probably needs to go if the Revs ever want to get on track.
But you also get the impression that the Krafts really aren't paying a lot of attention to it, because no one knows who's in charge.

It's a wishy washy organization and whatever it is, be it a business, a trade association or a service club, the organization is doomed to fail without strong leadership.

This is why the Revs have stunk for 7 years.

I'm glad someone covering this team for one of the major papers finally had the gonads to tell it like is.

[soccertim]

I wonder what brought about Gus's article. He makes it sound like he's getting quotes now about how the season will be a "success" if the team gets the eighth and final playoff spot. It's too bad he didn't offer a bigger list of players who think practice is optional, as it's not too soon to start with the "players we need to dump before next year" lists. It's also a shame that this is occurring the same season that players were losing their jobs due to contraction.