The biggest thing about this is to me is the fact that player’s fees go towards the costs of running this program yet one of the lowest costs is communication. Yes, it takes time but there is no way a coach or assistant doesn’t have the time to call or write a player/prospect. There are a ton of low cost/no cost CRM programs out there to remind you to stay in contact for Pete’s sake.
The truth is, we don't really know how it works. Unless you can get internal documents, you're flying blind just like everyone else. The U20 World Cup ended June 15, 2019...three months ago. Three months ago. Three. It has been roughly a quarter. If a player is upset that they haven't been coddled over three months (when they haven't even seen any first team minutes at their club) and are ready to bolt after that short period of time, then it was never meant to be anyway. This coddling mindset is self-defeating and comes off as desperate. No thanks.
having a plan where the best young players in our pool understand expectations, next steps, and explanations of what needs to improve in their games to take the next step is not 'coddling.' instead it seems like saying these kids wanted coddling is an easy out for a us soccer hierarchy that is either arrogant, lazy, or some combination of the two.
After seeing what happened with Darlington Nagbe I think it is best for there to be sources from both sides confirming that there was, in fact, no contact. I'm not sure if @zlebmada actually did that.
Communication is not coddling. And it’s not desperate when every team does it. Is it desperate when college football teams recruit? Also 3 months isn’t that short of a time period. He missed the u-23 camp and probably wanted some feedback. It doesn’t have to be from GGG.
It’s just weird to me that people are always jumping through hoops trying to explain why our federation should not be communicating. It just seems backwards and opposite to what most fans would want from their team. But I guess I’m wrong.
It's coddling. If the player has questions, he should send an email or call himself. "Hey Tab, what do you think my chances are of getting called up to this upcoming U23 camp? Who should I talk to about it? Expecting head coaches to call and do some butt-patting is just a little over the top. These are adults.
So when Mexico calls our players it is unethical and borderline illegal and when we do it, it is coddling. Thanks for setting me straight. We just need to prosecute the FMF and there’s nothing to worry about.
I think that US fans hyperventilate about this stuff too much and get played by agents incredibly easily. At the same time, I find it very strange to see clear and open communication to be described as obsession or as coddling. Communication is good in any organization, regardless of age. Certainly, I would not want the USSF to fawn over these kids in an embarrassing way. It is possible to stay in touch and give feedback without doing that, though.
It doesn't matter if it is coddling or not. Placing a judgement on it, no matter how misguided, is pointless. One action yields a better relationship with the player and a better chance of increasing the talent in the pool. One action yields the opposite. The people who think it is "coddling" lose to those who do actually communicate. Picking a losing tactic just so you can play tough guy is dumb.
By the way the hyperventilation crowd talks about it, you'd expect that the USSF had blocked his calls for an entire year. He did not get called in 3 months, during which time he was on the bench for his youth squad. Ur. Muh. Gerd. The kind of obsessive hyperventilation that happens here regarding this kind of thing is completely out of proportion with the thing itself.
I like hearing what you have to say, but at some point we need to recognize that the other guy posting is just looking to argue online. I honestly don’t think the topic makes a difference to someone looking to get their “fix” satisfied. The more outrageous the opinión, the more polarizing he makes the discussion. The ultimate goal - turn every post into a binary “us verses them” argument with only two possible choices. Attention only gives him more opportunity to dumb down the discussion. Ignore him long enough and he will get bored and move on. So many topics to sabotage...
I see both sides of the argument. I also happen to see this argument in every thread on this website. People need to stop beating a dead horse and understand that: A) A player isn't going to shut doors for absolutely no reason B) US Soccer is inept in all ways and isn't purposely trying to exclude these players, it's just a dumb organization C) Richie Ledezma speaks worse Spanish than me, and I still translate Spanish articles into English using google translate And, perhaps most importantly, D) Nothing you say on here is going to change the fact that we won't know anything until a player is actually cap-tied. So please, for the love of God, chill out. This is the most exhausting argument I've seen and it's completely circular.
This hyperventilation typifies a subset of chicken littles. Their sky is always falling and they are always looking to troll the forum to soothe their frustrations. In the case of young Ledezma, he has said nothing unexpected. You'd expect a young man like that with any sense to keep his options open. Nowhere in his statement did he say anything that warrants the type of hyperventilation that has become the norm for some. Ledezma just played in the U20 World Cup for the US three months ago. There is nothing wrong happening here. The US is not wrong, Ledezma is not wrong.
you keep going back to these terms like hyperventilation which isnt happening, but you need it to be so you can have some kind of weird moral high ground reasoned take that others critical of us soccer for being obviously poor at communicating are missing out on. on one hand talk to a large though hardly comprehensive group of young players who likely will contribute to your world cup qualifying campaign on the other hand things will just come together in the end like they do every world cup qualifying campaign where our old vets invariably get the job done against concacaf minnows
Its not about that. Of course they should be communicating. . Folks can't tell us that the USSF is ignoring Ledezma, when he was JUST AT THE U20 WORLD CUP with us. Not communicating with him? We were with him every day for months. Should Ramos have called him to sing lullabies to him every night over the phone? All that we know happened here is that Mexico called, Ledezma answered, and his response was 100% exactly what we'd expect him to say. And yet this is somehow a big deal. I don't get it. To me this is all part of this "outrage culture" we have right now in this country. People WANT to be angry and outraged about the state of the USSF/USMNT, and so just go flying off the handle with the smallest things. Not communicating with Ledezma? What? Now.......................I'd rather talk about why he wasn't selected for this U23 camp. Because that's a selection issue which has me bothered. But then again, if we'd taken Ledezma and left off Mendez or Aaronson..............people would be bitching about that too.
I'm actually not bothered about that as long as there are more opportunities coming up. If that was it then I'm bothered because I think he's better than some called in. There is the question of how well a younger player will do against older CONCACAF types also. Lots of hacking, physical play and gamesmanship. Fouls that don't get called etc. The team that qualifies may be radically different than the one who plays in the Olympics if they qualify.