a small team

F@#$!

 

oh look, nothing’s changed.

 

It's hard to get excited about a team that evidently doesn't care if they are terrible or not.

In order to cure what ails us, we need a few things.

1. For John Fisher to sell the team. (Not going to happen any time soon.)
2. For our owner to spend more money on the team: scouting, recruiting, signing better players, providing translators and assistants to help players and or coaches deal with housing, schools for their kids, and generally settling into San Jose.
3. Keep Matias Almeyda. (I think he's already gone.)
4. Ditch over paid under performing players.
5. Sack Jesse (if Almeyda leaves, keep him only if Almeyda stays and wants Jesse to be GM).
6. Probably hire a new GM (Chris Leitch?).
7. Have the new GM hire a new head coach. (Because there's no way we're ready to carry on with Almeyda's man-marking, bushido school of play and philosophy.
8. The fans will need lots of drugs.

Go Quakes!!
We're shit!!

- Mark

 

Very few coaches I've seen who come to MLS whether they are from abroad or local can teach a man to man marking.

If Almeyda leaves, that tactic will be as good as gone.

 

Actually, I think our season has proven that man-to-man marking for an entire game is not effective in MLS.

 

Why can't the Quakes ever get a Carlos Vela or even someone 1/2 his ability?

The owner needs to start spending!

 

I remember the rumors of Quakes interest in Vela. Would be nice to have a player like him.

 

Yes, it will. Which means that we will start over from square one. It will be another rebuilding year, another start from scratch moment, and we've had tons of those since '08.

It is unacceptable to me that we start from ground zero again.

If Almeyda and Jesse go, then I want Chris Leitch to take over as GM and hire a new coach, even if that means that he picks himself to coach. And I want him to impose a style of play that we stick with for at least five years. Of course there will be tweaks to any system over five years. We'll adjust to other teams, new players, and so on. But we should have an identifiable style and theoretical approach to the game.

And I won't give the team any more money until they straighten this shit out.

On the off chance that Almeyda stays, then I think that Jesse stays too, and I'd be fine with that. I just don't expect Almeyda to stay.

Go Quakes!!
We suck, and we don't care that we suck!!

- Mark

 

we’re number one!

 

Same as it ever was...

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/wondolowski-cba-usmnt-mls-liga-161542468.html

The Quakes had 0 chartered flights this year. Other teams used all of their available chartered flights and still felt they needed more.

The Quakes are playing with disadvantages built in.

At this point I totally expect it but yet it’s still hurts to find out about these things.

 

with no end in sight, that’s the worst thing about Fisherball. No vision, no plan, no communication, no accountability...nothing. Quakes biggest goal is making the playoffs, and they can’t even do that. It’s remarkable that we have any STH’s at all.

 

I wonder what are the prime issues for the CBA this time around. I for one would like to see mandated spending levels for the teams or rather force the owner to have skin in the game. It seems to me like Fisher is just watching his investment grow but is not interested in growing his investment. So basically the rest of the league is helping Fisher exist.

How about a system where lowering performing teams need to have a higher minimum spending amount, maybe something like the bottom 10 performing teams need to match the spending average of the top 10 teams or based on playoffs, you miss the playoffs, the next season you need to spend the average of all the teams that made the playoffs.

 

Sorry, too lazy to do the math? Based upon our current spending, how much of an increase would be your proposal over our current budget?

 

will be interesting over the next few seasons to see how many Quake fans cross enemy lines and become Sac Republic supporters due to Fishers money ball mentality.....

 

The average of the playoff teams is $12,896,765, SJE spent $9,161,431. We would need to spend a little over 3.7M or 40% more money in player salaries in 2020 over 2019.

What might be more interesting is the total operational cost of an organization like coaching staff, FO, training facilities, charter flights and so forth. That would give you a much better picture of who is investing in making their product better.

Code:

Teams Sum of Guaranteed Compensation Playoffs
Toronto FC $22,122,190 Yes
LA Galaxy $18,514,139 Yes
Chicago Fire $16,907,430 Yes
LAFC $14,439,693 Yes
Atlanta United $12,670,769 Yes
Seattle Sounders FC $12,621,163 Yes
Portland Timbers $11,786,333 Yes
Real Salt Lake $10,832,522 Yes
DC United $10,571,569 Yes
New York City FC $10,121,503 Yes
Minnesota United $9,180,564 Yes
Philadelphia Union $8,959,605 Yes
New England Revolution $8,930,469 Yes
Sporting Kansas City $13,013,585
Montreal Impact $12,139,404
Major League Soccer $11,467,365
Orlando City SC $11,359,974
Columbus Crew $11,253,387
FC Cincinnati $10,312,162
San Jose Earthquakes $9,161,431
Colorado Rapids $8,937,176
FC Dallas $8,730,844
New York Red Bulls $8,301,854
Vancouver Whitecaps $8,000,713
Houston Dynamo $7,665,634
Nashville SC $172,296

 

Promotion/relegation is a proven inducement for teams to aspire to more than mediocrity, but we'll never see it in the US...

 

If we see promotion/relegation in the USA, you will see more than one team fold.

 

Thanks! Essentially, we are missing 1DP, possibly 2. Of course, we could peanut butter across all contracts, but I don't think that will happen.

 

Good! MLS doesn't need 30 ********ing teams, anyway. EPL, La Liga, Serie A, all have 20 teams, and the Bundesliga has 18. Having 30 teams in a country where there is barely enough talent (and sometimes, clearly NOT enough) to put together a competitive national team in a weak federation is stupid, short-sighted, and totally $$ driven. I personally think that MLS should be no more than 20 teams.

I think the Galaxy and Sounders should be immediately given the Fusion/Mutiny treatment!

 

Roster budget is just one data point out of many that determines the strength of the team though.
Technical staff, facilities, academy system, chartered flights, USL team, use of technology and so on.
There is even factors like cost of living for the players i.e. how content are the lower paid players on the team? Are they sharing an apartment with 4 other guys? Are they able to sufficiently focus on soccer? Do they have people who can help them get through troubles of normal life? People who are expected to perform at a top level usually have these sort of things taken care of for them.
It was only just recently that Quakes have access to a dietitian to help players choose the right foods to eat. In the 5 years since I've been following the team I've noticed we are suffering much less injuries in the past couple years. This has to be attributed to better conditioning and diet I would think. Just imagine we were playing at the professional level without this stuff? Are other teams caught up yet?

I'm not saying the Quakes are doing bad in all these areas btw. Just trying to point out that roster budget isn't the only factor to consider.

 

I cannot rep this enough. Small is a measurement of many, many things.

 

I think there is a normalization needed in your teams/league point.

Something along the lines of number of teams vs land mass and/or population. It kind of makes sense that a country like Germany has 18 top level teams, while the USA could support more than 20.

England (241k sq/klm, 56M) is smaller than California (424k sq/klm, 35M) and people talk about Cali being saturated with 5 teams.

The problem with the US National team is not that we have too many teams, rather its the fact that, as a nation, we've been trying to play the game for less than a generation (75yrs) while the rest of the world has been doing it since the late 1800s.