After training one day in 2011 I was conversating with Dom about something or other when the subject of what he thought it would take to get a big name DP came up. His response was that the first thing that would have to happen would be to figure out a way to pry open Oscar's wallet.
This is interesting. On one hand this comment from Dom on ODH being tight with his millions. But when buses were rented to ship out a lot of us Dynamo supporters to the Cup Final in L.A. years back, it was ODH that opened up his wallet and ponied up the $40K to make the trip happen. Perhaps there is a time and place that a man like him will go long on spending. Supporters and fans that are all in for the club over a big name player with a past resume that might not turn out in MLS well.
$40k in service of a team in a title game is a drop in the well for him, and already being in the final he'll indulge. Ironically what he won't do is regularly buy the $1 million+ players to get him there more often. Unpacking Kinnear's comments is complicated. The Go Big comment from AEG suggests he was offered at least some funds, even if Oscar wasn't the one doing it. The lack of effort on his part arguably reflects being picky and wanting players that fit. But by the end the team on a budget wasn't even suitable for the purpose, so it's not like he was handling "fit" as well as back in the day.
Dom is being left off the hook too easily in some of the posts above. Let's not forget Dom was picky... ...which is ironic since he greenlighted Landin, Koke, Ade, Tony Caig.
I know right, what a disaster Cabrera has been for the Dynamo... In his first season as coach finishing fourth in the west with a 1.47 PPG and +12 goal differential, knocking out SKC and the #1 seed Portland to reach the western conference finals, one of the last four MLS teams to still be playing games in 2017. What's Wade "4 wins in 20 games" Barrett up to lately? Surely after guiding the Dynamo to an impressive last place finish in 2016, he must've had his pick of top level coaching opportunities...
He is coaching youth soccer here in Houston as well as some admin work for the youth league they're in.
You’ve taken 1.47 PPG which was 10th in MLS and made it sound extraordinary. As well as knocking out a fading SKC team and crippled Portland one. How much talent that Cabrera had last year did Barrett have? Cubo and Alex?
Wade's main mistake was he didn't turn the keys over to Manotas immediately. If he did that, he may honestly still be the coach of the team. But yeah, huge difference in quality of attacking players between Wade's crew and Wilmer's crew. Granted, Wilmer likely deserves a large amount of credit for those choices, but the flip side is that Wade was never given an off-season to build a roster. Now he was part of Owen's and Dom's crew so maybe he doesn't deserve one. IMHO, the team had a deal with Wilmer that he would be the next coach of the team when he took RGVFC. Wade never had a chance to get the job despite public assurances otherwise. Regardless, he was always a great Dynamo player and coach. He usually made himself available to sign things for fans after games, etc. I wish him nothing but the best and I don't look at Wilmer's successes or failures as having anything to do with Wade Barrett. If he had the same commitment from the ownership group in his six months that Wilmer had last year, it's entirely possible that he would be successful like Wilmer.
My speculation is that Cabrera had the equivalent of a hockey “two-way” contract where he agree to be paid one amount as RGV coach and a different amount as Dynamo coach. Remember, Dynamo were not gonna spend top tier MLS coach money
Wade just wasn’t playing a style I was interested in seeing anymore. He would have been a better coach with better players to fit his style, but I was ready for Cabrera’s style. I like how he’s linked the team with RGV a lot more since becoming manager and he’s not afraid to take chances in the attack and with younger players. Wade didn’t have much time, but he played not to lose in a lot of those games.
Agreed. It’s odd, Barrett coached like a guy who was told he’d have a shot at the job If he could shore up the defense and grind results the rest of the way to make the season look respectable only to have the criteria get changed on him.
Or maybe, now bear with me here, you don't need to go through the mental gymnastics needed to construct an elaborate conspiracy theory to explain how Barrett was treated unfairly, and instead you could apply Occam's Razor and say that based on *what actually happened* (as opposed to baseless speculation), Barrett "playing not to lose" and "grinding results" leading to 4 wins in 20 games which wasn't good enough to be given the full time job? As far as the talent on the roster is concerned, I thought under Cabrera they brought in a bunch of players not based on talent but to ***trigger warning*** pander to the Hispanic fans?
The FO knew in May when Coyle was gone they were gonna suck and trade Barnes and try to sell Cubo which was going to taint whoever they made interim coach with failure (which if they were so smart would have promoted Cabrera at that time if they thought he could have made chicken salad out of that mess). What did Cabrera do other than fail to win a playoff series at RGV from June-October 2016? He was at Dynamo training camp in 2016 coaching as well.
Sports are a zero sum game, what matters is the talent you're working with relative to the competition in any given year. 2016 (Barrett): 14 out of 20 teams in salary - finished 10th out of 10 WC teams 2017 (Cabrera): 22 out of 22 teams in salary - finished 4th out of 11 WC teams 2018 (Cabrera): 23 out of 23 teams in salary - currently 5th out of 12 WC teams in PPG
2016 is misleading. Barnes and Bruin had gotten huge raises and ultimately didn't last a year. Torres, Rico, Beasley, Alex, Raul Rodriguez. All now gone. Lot of money tied up in crap veteran continuity. I believe in a version of your point, which is that if you want to be title competitive your best chance would be to be at the part of the curve that takes off in the upper third. But I see a lot of mediocre teams who are in the less steep part of the curve just above us. To me the deal is not whether we are willing to spend $400k on an ok player but millions on a gamechanger or two. I'd also be curious what the absolute numbers are, because I think one of the organizational foibles is going with continuity when they feel comfort, and then under-estimating the league around them. If I hold steady on spending but everyone else goes shopping and payrolls rise around me, then I can be spending as much as before but get left behind. We got a march on the league last season briefly and won some big blowouts. The league has caught back up and 2-2 is what we get.
Of course you leave out Barnes being traded and Cubo with Mexican Olympic team during Barretts 2016 tenure. Would probably drop Dynamo to near bottom.
Judging by the name, back on his home moon, a tidally volcanic hellscape orbiting a hot Jupiter in the Andromeda Galaxy.