Lest that coach be Pep, Jose or Sir Alex I doubt a coach would gain any market share. A DP might but not a coach.
I think the implication is that if the organization made a splash in the coach market, the team might actually play up to their potential, which would make it easier to attract people. viz. Atlanta deciding to start out with a solid team *and* with Tata. Not that I expect the organization to do such a thing, mind. Just that that's what I think the poster meant -- not that the manager's name would be a draw.
No doubt, as far as market share. I meant more in terms of building an entertaining team and being able to use talent efficiently.
I think a splash in the coaching market might bring back some disenfranchised fans, but it's not going to get the fans the ownership actually wants. It might be exactly what DCU needs, but I don't see ownership buying out Ben's remaining two years to pay someone else more. Ownership made it fairly clear last year the objective was bringing in younger singles who are looking for a night out experience and don't really care about what's happening on the field as much as us guys here might. I don't think a big-name coach fills the marketing need there. To that end, I really wonder why they haven't made good on the things they said they were going to do, in the zoning board docs, on the fan walk into the stadium. The entertainment, the "scene" if you will, especially early on Saturdays and Sundays would have brought people out. There was next to nothing there this year beyond some of the sponsors handing out samples and coupons. I think an exciting coaching hire could bare some mid to longer-term results on the field and at the gate, but it's not going to bring people out to freezing cold games in February and March and probably not even sometimes chilly April games, especially if we continue to get 8PM kickoffs. Right now, the makeup of this team is one with less talent than we had to start last season. We saw one flash from Kamara, but for me, the jury remains out on a proven guy who went to China and went stale. He can still pan out, but its definitely an uphill slog at 31. Can we keep Titi and can he be a suitable replacement for 2018 Lucho? How will Asad come out after a year off? How will the central defense look next to Birnbaum? I loved Freddy this year, but he's suddenly going to be old at some point. Lotsa questions, not many sure things or answers outside of Arriola. I know Goff tweeted something the other day about the team continuing to look at a European DP, but we all know the winter window is not a great buying time, especially for MLS teams with salary cap restrictions. I am already on the record, I think Ozil is a very skilled player, but he's a passenger on defense and not athletic enough to play most MLS systems. MLS is rarely an old man's game, especially in the midfield. My interest in Giourd ends with his hair game and the influence he'll provide our son who hasn't be successful in convincing us to let him get a bleached Josef Martinez haircut. I'd like to see an investment in something other than marketing value. I want to see someone come in, help the team win and leave as a profit for the team that can be reinvested in the playing squad rather than a short term rental. I think we've seen from the last 3-4 years that fielding a bottom third payroll and padding the payroll with a circus lion DP doesn't win trophies. 2018 Rooney was amazing. 2019 Rooney was exactly who I thought he'd be before he got here. Its time for ownership to get smart and demand and drive better decisions & results from the GM and coach. The air is only getting thinner for DCU ownership. Nashville SC comes in next year with multiple billionaires's in the ownership group. Both Mas brothers in Miami are worth well over a billion dollars apiece. The Taylor family in St Louis in are worth ~$5.5 billion. Sacramento comes into the league with multiple billionaires in ownership. You've got almost $2 billion in net worth owning Borussia Cincy Gladbach. Sooner or later the management there is going to figure out how to run a team. The question with all of them is, will they spend. I am not sure that billionaires are chasing the millions they think they can make in MLS, but I feel comfortable saying that I think enough of them will be playing to win. They all seem to have the capacity to spend. Levien is a piker and Kaplan's net worth is harder to find than most, but he's already got a nice track record of not spending to keep up with the company his teams are keeping. Even still, our ownership looks like they've brought the short end of a broken stick to a gunfight.
I think you're probably right about the marketing aspect and the spending and I think they might be intertwined, somewhat. That is, I wonder if their unwillingness to spend might be a further impediment to hiring a coach beyond the coach's paycheck - not only does it not have the return in terms of butts in seats, but to what extent is hiring a big-name coach a commitment to spend additional money on players? I mean, in order to lure a top-tier coach, that coach would want more than a paycheck - it seems unlikely someone in demand would risk their reputation (and future income) on a team cobbled together under MLS financial constraints and, maybe, a random affordable DP looking to retire. And even if ownership were to commit to spending money on both players and coaches, presumably a prestigious coach would want say over whom money was being spent upon - meaning that the DP would attract the demographics ownership wants might not be the player/position the coach wants to spend that money on. So I wonder if they're actually disinclined to bring in an established coach, even if they had one who was interested. Speaking of . . . Ozil, I don't think you're wrong, but I also think the big former-European players are such a crapshoot that it is tough to predict. I'll admit I have often been wrong about who succeeds and who does not. And rather than admit that I might not be as good at estimating a player's strengths and weakness as I pretend, I'll instead venture that a lot of it seems to be how invested they are. As you said, it's not an old man's game/league and anyone thinking they are coming to "retire" ends up being disappointing, regardless of how good a fit they are otherwise to their team or the league. But if Ozil were to come and be interested in winning, I don't think any team would be disappointed in his contributions. You may well be right about his athleticism and defense, but I do think that MLS is still at a level that an active Ozil brings skills and abilities that aren't readily available elsewhere. Yeah, a team might not win championships without shoring up his deficiencies, but when these guys come in committed, I feel like it's rarely their shortcomings that we view as the problem.
Agree re: aging Euro stars. Robbie Keane clearly was invested during his time. Rooney was in 2018 and then a combination of age, family issues and Acosta's MIA status started a regression. Ibra may be a shit, but he clearly was invested while at LA. Then you have the Gerrard's and Lampard's and virtually everyone ever signed by Metro that just came to bask in the sun, cash checks and walk around the pitch.
Rumblings surrounding #DCU: I’m told the club is open to moving MF Ulises Segura, who, at the moment, is on nat’l team duty w/Costa Rica. Club is also said to be shopping MF Ema Boateng, picked up from the #LAGalaxy just a few months ago. Will be an interesting couple months.— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) November 6, 2019
Re: Boateng, #RBNY and Vancouver were interested in him when #DCU scooped him up. Something to watch. https://t.co/jsKGHOKAV0— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) November 7, 2019
I think he is but I'm sure he knows the addition of Felipe Martins makes Segura somewhat superfluous.
Dang it-- we need to keep anyone named "Boateng". Even if he's not--yuh know--one of the world-class Boatengs we've all heard of. Just having a "Boateng" on the roster elevates us (cough-- ticket sale angle--cough), making DCU look more world-class . . . and our Boateng is already accounted for under "Salary Expense."
Segura is valuable because his salary cap hit is so low. I think he makes below 80K. His contract expires in a year or two so DC can dump him to someone who needs a deck chair. I can't explain why Benny liked Segura so much except he ran like crazy.
.But when Acosta cratered and Rooney was unavailable Benny moved Arriola inside and put Segura out on the wing. I never thought of Felipe and Segura competing for the same position.
He was starting to grow on me. He should be the Standard, competent on the ball and hard working. I haven't been impressed by Boateng. I have to think Titi is returning, if they are shopping both those guys.
So, the proposed attacking midfield is some combination of Asad, Arriola and Titi, with Yow as the first sub? Two of Moreno, Canouse and Felipe as D-mids (assuming that either Fisher or O-A can effectively handle the RB position or that someone else isn't brought in.) Of course that lineup really hinges on two players, Asad and Kamara, that used to be good in MLS, but didn't get much playing time in Argentina and China respectively when they left the league. Hope that was a function of "coach's decision" rather than lack of form/skill.
In that midfield group, only Asad has shown glimpses of being a clinical finisher and that was with Atlanta in 2017 and with DCU in the first half of 2018. Asad really disappeared after Rooney arrived, don't know if that was due to injury or incompatibility with Rooney's game. Neither Titi nor Arriola has demonstrated a consistent ability to put away good chances. However, both are young and they won't have Señor Wayne around as an offensive distraction next season.
Does this mean you dont think Moreno, Canouse and Felipe are good enough to lock down that role? Or that we need 1 more to complete the depth chart for the position?
Actually, I think its right about where we would end up. In no specific order, but you have to consider the spenders, Atlanta, TFC and NYC as solidly in the top 6. NJ is usually solid and even with a piss poor start to the season, they still made a good run of things to make the playoffs. I've got to think New England with whatever spending Arena was able to wring out the Krafts and his scheme will get them in. That leaves us competing with other thrifty rosters in the east, specifically Philly and Montreal for that last 2 playoff spots. Columbus is prolly outside. Orlando could start spending again, but they would have had to have done that in the last window to really get some value for the start of this season. Cincy is going to take some time to recover from how badly they mismanaged the MLS salary cap and Chicago has other fish to fry at the moment.