Arena and his publisher are defying convention here: You're supposed to follow up a notable achievement with a book, not a failure. And then they doubled down on the bad idea by making the book about the failure of U.S. soccer system, of which Arena is the poster boy, at the moment. What WERE they thinking? Arena is inviting criticism. He and his publisher are probably trying to capitalize on the coming World Cup, and while I'm sure Arena will make some valid points, failure of the system is not the right theme when you yourself became part of the system and were involved in a major failure. What's next: Donald Trump on the corruption problem in America?
I asked this in another thread.... Some poster on Reddit said Klinsmann had an NDA and it was followed up by some different interpretations. Does Arena have something similar for his recent efforts?
I read it. Here are my thoughts. It's an easy, quick read. It's mediocre as a book. There are a number of interesting things about his early, pre-MLS days. That was probably the best part of the book, to me anyway. What he writes about his time at DCU, and his first stint with the Nats, is very, very blah. If you wondered what it was like working with Marco Etcheverry, Jaime Moreno, Eddie Pope...you aren't going to learn very much. If you want some insight into what the mood was like in SoKo...you aren't going to learn very much. The NYRB years...you aren't going to learn very much. The segments on his time with the Gals are a bit better. I presume Galaxy fans won't learn very much. But as a DC fan who read Wahl's Beckham book, this segment was still pretty good. Not great, pretty good. If you get off on hate reading stuff by or about Bruce, you're gonna loooooove the parts about his 2nd stint with the Nats. He tries to take responsibility but really doesn't. His character doesn't come across very well in this part of the book. BTW, he told the Fed the night of the T&T loss that he was going to resign. For those of you angered that he wasn't humiliated by a firing, I hope that satisfies you. His prescriptions on how to fix US soccer are so vague that it would be a poor big soccer post. One thing it took me a while to figure out...when he talks about the "technical" aspects of soccer (he uses this word alot), he does NOT mean technique. He's not (just) talking about developing players with a better touch and more accurate passing. He's talking about all of the non-business parts of the game. So for a while I was confused as hell as to what he was talking about. Once I figured that out, I understood. And what I understood is that in order to get better at soccer, we need to develop better soccer players. Well, no shit Sherlock. He says that he suggested the general manager position, to be in charge of all "technical" (remember his definition) of the USMNT program. I don't know if the Fed was already thinking about this or not, but there you have it. He devotes a fair number of pages to pointing out how few American attacking players get minutes in MLS. His idea on how to fix this is for the USSF to limit the number of foreign players in MLS. He writes approvingly about MFL's 10-8 and 9-9 rule. He points out the obvious problem of MLS academies losing their A level products and retaining their B+ (and worse) level prospects. He points out the concomitant obvious problem, is that it's hard to justify the expense. I think there are a number of posters who don't understand why this is, and I post often on threads about the academy system about how at this juncture it's a real problem, and it's nothing dumb MLS is doing, it's just baked into the cake of the numbers game at the beginning of the academy process and NCAA eligibility rules and the large cost of college. To me, the solution is obvious, which is for the Fed to bully the NCAA into letting academy signings collect a stipend without losing NCAA eligibility. That would allow MLS teams to start signing kids at 14 without wasting a ton of money. Just sign the best half to, say, $250/month contracts, renewable annually at the club's discretion for, say, 4 years. That way FCD doesn't get screwed when Weston McKinnie signs with Schalke. No club can afford to sign every 14 year old prospect to a pro contract, and once a kid turns 16-17, he's going to think long and hard about signing with MLS when he has a chance to go to Europe on a free in 12-18 months. The structure is designed for MLS academies to lose their elite prospects for no compensation. Bruce identified the obvious problem but not a real solution. To sum up, it might be a worthwhile purchase for younger people who didn't follow soccer until after 2006. They'll learn alot. Otherwise, it's worth the bargain bin price but no more.
Bruce had great success in MLS with DCUnited and in 2002 with the Nats. Thanks for the summary. I won't be reading it. Also with 56K posts, you must be #1 on BigSoccer or sumptin. Well done!