Mike Burns has been the General Manager of the New England Revolution for SIX full Major League Soccer seasons (2012 - 2017). Before that, he spent FOUR seasons (2008 - 2011) as the team's Vice-President of Player Personnel. Which followed his THREE seasons (2005 - 2007) as the Director of Soccer. In short, Burns has had his fumbling fingers all over the Revolution franchise in a front-office capacity for THIRTEEN MLS seasons. Quite a few of us became aware of his shortcomings as an MLS executive a good deal earlier than "5 years ago", Doc. Your five-year "tar and feather" campaign would seem to prove that you were a bit slower on the uptake than the rest of us. Just sayin'. Really? I could swear that within the last two or three seasons you publicly stated that you were ready to "eat your hat" and admit that you were wrong about saying Mike Burns was incapable of signing the talent necessary to build the Revolution into a competitive MLS team. In fact, as I recall, you went so far as to say that he and Jay Heaps had done a "stellar job" of building a team in the off-season. I want to say it was either before the 2015 or 2016 MLS campaign.
I used Wikipedia regular season wins through 2016 plus MLSSOOCER.COM 2017 regular season wins. That total divided by total regular season games. The original comment was that Kraft likes to win. For me, a tie is not a win. Although a lot of your argument has some merit, I don’t believe it follows the spirit of the original comment. IMHO,if Kraft really had a passion for WINNING in MLS we’d see him behave very differently. Heaps would have been gone 2 years ago, Burns too among other different behaviors. I agree they dug a deep hole prior to 2002 (The Nicol Era) but 2010 to 2017 aren’t great either, including 5 “Did not qualify” for the playoffs years (6th, 9, 9, 3, 2, 5, 7, 7th). For me, when I look at the Wikipedia page only 2002-2009 stand out. The pre AND post Nicol eras aren’t impressive. I also like the 4 “Did not enter” notes in the US Open Cup column. That definitely screams “likes to win.”
Have you ever wondered what the results the past two years might have been if Heaps hadn't reached the ceiling of his ability to be a head coach? We did start signing some real quality players and for a brief period it looked like things were really on the upswing---and they the past two years we have been stuck in at best neutral if mot free fall. Yes I did say that---but just like a clock I can be wrong at least twice a day. Yes I was very wrong and upper my psych meds t make sure I don't have a repeat of that momentary bit of insanity
I just listened to his appearance on SiriusXM CounterAttack with Meola and Dunseth. In there he said the following 2 things that I jumped an maybe I just missed others reporting it: 1. Revs will have their own dedicated training "complex" - one field is already ready. Anyone have more details on this(did I miss this from before)? 2. He said if he identifies the right player(s), Kraft is willing to put up the money. Agreed with rkupp, just listening to him, he already sounds like a Leader. Way more impressed than any Heaps interviews. But, Big Brad admitted - it's great to talk and sound impressive, but his main goal is to WIN. And he knows if he doesn't he is gone.
Wait and see mode. These words are just that. Until they actually go out and do something that proves it's not just throwing crap on the wall and knowing the fans will still enjoy it ... wait and see.
Based on that experience, what better thing to do but hire another xplayer with no professional coaching experience. Wonder how long before he hits his peak? Back to Heaps.... his day would have come sooner had not the Revs lucked into JJ. That guy prolonged Heaps coaching career. We still should be better than our record though. We have some talent and hopefully Friedel is not another Heaps. My biggest complain on Friedel so far is the lack of any communications with the Rev fan base. It would be very good if he at least gave some kind of weekly update on what is going on. He needs to forge a relationship with people that care and that means he should reach out.
We heard the same thing when Jay was hired. And as I've said before -- either Jay/Burnsie were incapable of finding the right talent, or the whole thing about the Krafts putting up the money is a crock of 'tubercular spit' to steal a phrase. To be honest, my money is on both those statements being true.
When the opportunity was there to spend big money to sign Jones (and it made sense to do so), they did put up the money. So, I think it's been shown that they will ... not that there's a blank check available. OTOH, Burns has struggled to find international veterans who would fit under the salary cap (and thus wouldn't cost the ownership anything) and has seemed to have to over-pay for the recent international players he has acquired. So, given those two things, to me, at least, the answer is clear.
The problem has always been how the Krafts define “the right player.” It has previously been described as one who “checks all the boxes” - on the field, off the field - which may not square with Friedel’s definition. Anyhoo, so far there’s no reason to expect a radical improvement in the Revs. I do expect improvement, just because there’s always a rebound under a new coach and Heaps seemed particularly tactically myopic. But Friedel is a neophyte too. I hope he’ll be better, and I hope the flames are building under Burns such that he’ll be forced out. But that’s just hope bereft of real expectation that we’ve turned a corner. Until we see some concrete changes, we should assume we’re on the same road.
I think the common view of Burns is somewhat simplistic - that he's good/bad, or competent/incompetent. I've always felt that he's good at some things, not good at others (such as acquiring international players). Basically, I think he's been promoted beyond his competency - and I think there are signs, with this hiring, that the "finding players" part of his job may be usurped. Clearly, if they really are hiring 2 scouts, then that is alleviating a lot of the responsibility for finding and vetting players. And, Friedel says that he was hired, in part, because of his extensive connections in international soccer - so that seems to indicate that he, and his "connections", will be very involved in finding prospects. I have less animosity towards Burns than most - I just want to see the problem of finding (and signing) quality players solved. It's not really an exception. They are paying Kamara $1M/year. They may not currently have any huge-name DPs, but they are firmly in the DP arena now.
Try $800K: https://mlsplayers.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/September-15-2017-Salary-Information-By-Club.pdf
I know we the Lucy Football syndrome - but we have been listening to Heaps for the last 6 years. He has proven to be a poor scout of talent externally and how to use even on the field - who can forget his amazing 1st brainchild to move McCarthy to centerback and effectively kill that poor kid's career. My impression Heaps was always a poor judge of talent and the Krafts didn't buy any of his recommendations and/or thought he could show the Krafts how cheap he could be with his shuffle of existing players in other spots instead of going out to get upgrades. When he finally had to go out, it felt like a mad scramble, those upgrades were okay, but not huge improvements and Heaps was never a window ahead, even though he said he was. Friedel is now on the clock. He says he's got connections - he now has to prove it. He already sounds more confident and as a leader and has way more clout than Heaps ever had. Remember, Heaps had to be given the MikeK vote of confidence - and RevsRule was right - without Jones, Heaps would been exposed much much sooner. Remember Heaps was not even up for Coach of the Year that year because everyone knew it was all Jones, and nothing that Heaps did. Since we are starting over, I am taking a wait and see approach, but I think with all the stagnating and bad press the Revs got this year - I am hopefully we will see some changes as long as Friedel is legit in how he gets upgrades, how he changes this roster, and how he manages adult men. But I still can picture the football being pulled away too.........
I don't think that's ever been a big part of his job. Finding players is the coaching staff's job. His job is to make the deal that gets them here. And, based on the agent (whose name escapes me) who tweeted some pretty strong criticisms of him, he's not that good at it.
That was Ron Waxman. And yes, you can take things with a grain of salt if it's just one guy, but when several other agents say the Revs are "difficult to deal with," there may be some truth to it. I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that Heaps (or Nicol before him) would find the players and Burns would get the deal done and sign him to a contract. We all remember Nicol's infamous list of 20 South Americans and who knows how many other capable players we had the chance to sign but for whatever reason, didn't.
Negotiating contracts, drafting, managing the salary cap, making discovery claims, managing allocation lists, finding available domestic players (Lee Nguyen, anyone?), trades (ex., Kamara), ... I think we have a pretty good, albeit unbalanced/flawed, roster. That didn't happen by accident - Burns has made more than a few good roster moves over the years. What he hasn't really done is supplement the roster with good, international additions, especially non-DP level players. Where are they on the Revs roster? There's JeVaughn Watson, I guess (but even he was acquired domestically!). I think that was true in the Nicol era, but during Heaps' tenure, he was promoted and I believe that became more his role than the coach's. I think, maybe (reading between the lines), that his role may be returning to what it was under Nicol.
Do I think that Mike Burns is a good GM? No. However, I do think he has put together a team that should have had better results. I blame the lack of on the field success on Jay Heaps. I believe that Brad Friedel will be a better coach and game manager than Jay Heaps was right off the bat and he will continue to improve as he gains MLS experience. I believe that the on the field results will improve under Brad Friedel. I hope that Friedel's success (if he is successful) does not insulate/protect the weaker parts of the organization above him. In particular, I hope that Mike Burns and his ability to do his job remains in question and under the microscope. I hope that this is a case of the Revs getting the right man for the job. I hope that if Brad is successful, then the Revs will realize that mediocrity does not have to be tolerated. I hope this teaches the Revs that a change can lead to improvement and success. If the Revs must remain loyal to Mike Burns, perhaps they can create a position for him that will not impact the results on the field. He fell into a position that he did not deserve and has remained there for years. He could do the same in a made up/custom role within the organization. Everybody wins.
Maybe not everyone. If Burns is put into a job more in line with his abilities, then the intern who picks up Mr. Kraft's white-collared shirts from the dry cleaners will have to move back home to his parents' house. I wonder if there's a market for a surly, extremely defensive, thin-skinned do-nothing? Because that's the job that would be perfect for Burns.
They could give him a special gig, to stop the mailman from delivering to Gillette. It’d keep him busy every day, but it also wouldn’t actually bother the USPS, because as we all know, Burns can’t guard the post. Thank you, I’ll be here all week! Tip your waitstaff!
Burns has sucked ... let me clarify ... SUCKED ... at drafting since he got this position. He made a very good trade to get the #1 pick in the draft, when there was a consensus as to who the #1 would be. I'll give him credit for Rowe. Outside of that ... ? First round 2012: Rowe First round 2013: Farrell First Round 2014: Neumann and Mullins First Round 2015: Traded for Bunbury First Round 2016: McCrary First Round 2017: Wright
To be fair, Wright is an unknown because Heaps never gave him minutes. Maybe he objectively didn't earn them or maybe he did. But I wouldn't say he's a bust yet.
Sure, and with all that playing time he got in the lower leagues he's certainly going to come back ready to compete for some serious minutes this year, right? Not like the Revs are going to invest all this in such a valuable player acquisition channel, just to let some kid rot on the bench or go somewhere else to not play or not develop. I mean Burns is 4-5 steps ahead of everyone else.