Mike Burns won’t comment on his job status, but isn’t going anywhere, and is rating his job performance on 15 years at the club, not solely his time as GM #NERevs— Julian Cardillo (@JulianCardillo) May 10, 2019
I think we should do an over/under on number of matches the Revs new coach has been a head coach of a team at any level. I'm setting the line at 0. I'll take the under
So a manager who was named manager at a club but was suspended for every game under his watch? I can see it.
The Athletic: Once among MLS’s saviors, the Krafts now hinder the Revs by refusing change Brad Friedel was a problem for the New England Revolution. He wasn’t the problem.
Dubious at best. After owning the Revs since 1995, they certainly do know soccer. Whether they care or value it, that's a better question. But just like the people that reach for the "NFL guy" to describe Garber - 20 years after he left the NFL - that's a crutch that doesn't really pass muster at this point.
I really just linked it because I respect Ives' knowledge and reporting. All of your points are absolutely valid. My only hope would be that the ass kicking the Revs are taking on the pitch and the attendance absolutely cratering will convince the Krafts that they have to get serious. While the Revs haven't made the playoffs since 2015, they've been just on the outside looking in. We've all been highly critical of the lack of support the Krafts have provided, but at least they were somewhat competitive. Now they just look like a farce. Perhaps that is enough to convince them that they have to get at least somewhat serious about things and bring in a real coach and front office. I guess all you can do is hope, right?
Sam Stejskal pulls absolutely no punches in this one: "It’ll take more than firing Friedel, hiring a new coach and potentially seeking new execs for New England to achieve those two objectives, though. Doing that will require increased attention, investment and accountability from ownership. It’ll require the Krafts to start driving real, long-term solutions for the Revs. It’ll require them to stop being the problem." 100. BTW, The Athletic really does provide some great MLS content and they've got some talented guys, including Stejskal covering the sport in a smart and honest way.
This is a quibble with Stejskal's otherwise incisive article, but why is it a problem that Foxboro is closer to Providence than Boston? It's the New England Revolution, after all.
That is far from a sufficient explanation. Foxboro works fine for the Patriots. And the demographic in Providence may be better suited to supporting the Revs. Seems lazy to simply say Boston-is-bigger-therefore-better. It doesn't work that way in New York or L.A. Maybe it makes sense, but it needs explanation to convince me the throwaway line in the article is more than mere subconscious hipster elitism.
The Patriots have 8 regular season home games a year in the most popular league in the country and have been the model NFL franchise for the past 2 decades. They could play in Jackson Hole and they'd sell out a 60,000-seater. "...may be better suited..." "Seems lazy..." Real rich to call someone else lazy when you can't be bothered to do a Google search.
Comparing the NFL and MLS in the US is like comparing an extra on a movie set to The Rock for drawing power and level of pay. I'd throw good money on the Celtics and Bruins struggling greatly to draw as well as they do if they were all the way out in Foxboro simply because the NFL doesn't have a peer in US sports.
A Google search on what? I already know the size differential between Boston and Providence. That is insufficient to understand the issue, as I've already explained. If understanding what makes a good market could be accomplished with a simple Google search, MLS would be a lot better at it. It's not that simple.
Foxborough has never been the problem. Yes, a downtown Boston stadium would be wonderful, but that wouldn't be the solution, that'd just be papering over the cracks. The difference between Qwest Stadium and Foxboro Stadium is best summarized by looking at the Seattle Sounders 2009-2014 and comparing it to the New England Revolution 1996-2001. Even with the horrific franchise start, over 60,000 people showed up for MLS Cup 2002 - in Foxborough. If the Revs had given the fans a reason to come, they would.
The difference between MLS and the NFL is one variable. The difference in size between Boston and Providence is another. Relative team performance and market saturation are other factors, which you ignore. Every Boston team performs at a far higher level than the Revs. They've all won championships and recently. Even winning a title in Boston may not change the conversation under the circumstances. Providence does not have its own team. Neither does Hartford. Maybe they would be willing to embrace a team in better fashion than Beantown. Maybe not? But that should be considered. And it won't be set to rest by a Google search.
OK, maybe not literally nothing about soccer, but if you've ever tried to engage Jonathan Kraft in a discussion about the Revs, well, you know what I mean. Sure, he's wary by nature of us "soccer types" trying to trip him up with "gotcha" questions, but if you've ever heard him speak publicly about the Revs and MLS, you'd be shaking your head so hard you'd have a migraine. My point being that the Krafts were Patriots fans all their lives and season ticket holders since the old stadium opened up in 1971, long before they bought them. They could tell you in which situations they should run a draw play or a screen or whatever. They have at least "avid fan level" knowledge of the sport. I'm not sure Jonathan could explain when a player is offside or the difference between a fair-but-physical challenge and a yellow card-worthy foul. They know the business of soccer, but not the nuts and bolts of the game itself. That's why they would need a true "soccer guy" to be running the team from the playing side. Not a MIT analyst like Bilello or a dim-witted, thin-skinned yes-man like Burns.
I respect Ives as well, and that's why I found it surprising that he says they "could have" hired Arena. It just doesn't sound right. And at the time, many of us thought Gio Savarese would be our next manager. He had actually done well with the Cosmos and was able to do it among all the chaos there. Most fans would have been more than OK with him. But he turned down the job. Who knows the real reasons, but he may have had the inside track in Portland at the time and saw it as a better situation. Or there could have been red flags when he interviewed. Regarding the ass-kicking the Revs are taking from the National soccer media, I hope it continues. The last time they were embarrassed like this was in 2014 and they went out and got Jermaine Jones. Lucky the coin flipped our way! But they have done nothing since then.
Foxborough is technically closer to Providence than Boston, but only marginally so. It's almost literally halfway between the two, so if it's inconvenient to Boston, it's a little less inconvenient to Providence. (YMMV, depending on how bad Providence traffic is compared to Boston traffic, which is really bad.) Edit: Mind you, this is based solely on my having visited the old Foxboro Stadium a few times and Gillette Stadium a couple of times and having only been to Providence once. Locals can correct me where I'm wrong here.
I guess the thing that gets me about the Patriots vs. the Revs thing is that you can take the train to an event at Gillette Stadium, unless that event just happens to be a Revolution game. https://www.gillettestadium.com/transportation/
They also have that hack in Seattle who took an undeserved shot at Rapids fans, then failed on his apology attempt. They don't need any of my money.
Revs GM: We have a better team than the results Assistant coach Mike Lapper, who was hired with Friedel in November 2017, is the interim head coach. He told both Friedel and Burns that he “didn't sign up for this” but is going to do “everything” he can while at the helm to get the club back into a playoff position, which he said is the minimum standard. Lapper, who is in his 11th season overall as an MLS assistant coach, also hopes to be considered for the permanent role. Burns said the timeline to hire a permanent coach “is as soon as possible without obviously rushing anything.” He added that owner-operators Robert and Jonathan Kraft, club president Brian Bilello and himself will be involved in the decision-making process. Asked whether he should still be the club’s GM in the wake of a statement by Revs supporters group the Midnight Riders calling for his departure, Burns said that his work is second-guessed by media and fans and they “have opinions, both positive and negative.” Burns has worked in the club’s front office since 2005 and has been GM since 2011. “I've been part of this club for a long time and whether I was a player or whether I've worked in the front office, or any job that I've ever had, I've never talked publicly about my own employment status,” Burns said. “And I won't be starting today.”
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