Since the end of a dismal 2010 season the FO has made the following decisions: Retained Ben Olsen as Head Coach Retained Chad Ashton as Assistant Coach Released Mark Simpson as Goalkeeper Coach and hired Pat Onstad Signed Joseph Ngwenya and Josh Wolff in the Re-Entry Draft Traded for Dax McCarty and Steve Cronin Brought in Ethan White from the Academy So, what do you think of these decisions? I've been down on the FO for some time, but I am cautiously optimistic about what I've seen so far. Note that there are only two players on the senior roster who are 30 or over (Boskovic and Wolff), whereas we seemed to be a pretty old team before. My take: Olsen wasn't a first choice, but no one with more experience and reputation was willing to take a chance with DC and I suspect the pay wasn't all that attractive. Benny once agreed he wasn't ready, but now he seems to think he can do the job. But fire and grit isn't enough to secure wins, he will need talent and tactics. Ashton is a given. The FO likes him, end of discussion. Given the goalkeeping follies of the last few years,Simpson had to go. Onstad has prepared for a coaching career. Could work out. Ngwenya and Ryan Cochrane were the only two players in round one of the Re-Entry Draft with reasonable salary numbers. Cochrane has a history of injuries. Ngwenya is a true striker, not just a forward, and Cristman is the only other forward who plays like a striker. Good move, I think (besides, I like the idea of a striker with a double major in mathmatics and computer science). Wolff isn't a real striker these days, but he still has pace and smarts, and is said to be good in the clubhouse. Should be a good influence on younger players. It's a defensible choice unless we overpaid, and we won't know that for some time. McCarty should be a great addition. He plays box to box and won't droop and mope. I like this, even at the cost of giving up Wallace. Cronin should be OK or perhaps better than that, especially if we upgrade the defense in front of him. Once we fully get rid of Perkins' salary, we will appreciate Cronin more. White should help. He's young, has size, and knows the team and the coaches well. These moves haven't been splashy, and I think they have been made with a close eye on the piggy bank. We seem to have accumulated some cap space and some allocation dollars that could be well spent in the next few months. Picking third in the Draft, we have a chance to get a GA player if we so choose, and avoid a cap hit. Now, what do you all think of the moves so far?
I think the FO has done just enough to make the team attractive as a relocation option, while keeping that same option affordable to potential suitors.
I ********ing hate the the FO We still don't have a stadium or any real possibilities at this time. We do not have new investment, when our owner clearly cant cut it alone as an owner for the club to be successful. We are running the club off of the original MLS model and its not working. We have a "rookie" coach (fan favorite) that is being put in an horrible situation. We are still have to pay 600k to a coach that doesn't deserve to coach many U-15 travel teams, but good thing he knew Spanish. He have signed two forwards that are not goal threats coming off the worst offensive performance in league history. He just traded away a goalie that we gave our left nut to get and still paying some of his salary. The only good thing we have going is an Academy program that seems to be producing talent.
Sigh. I guess if it keeps getting repeated on BS it becomes BS Truth. We know that at least two credible candidates were turned down (Dooley and Silooy) and we know that Payne has said that he made those statements of Olsen's inadequacies to deflect attention from a rookie coach. Why can't we just give the FO credit for a job well done? What I won't give them credit for is the current lack of a goal-scorer. This has been the septic open wound on this team since Emilio decided to play defensive mid. A 15-goal scorer last year and they're sniffing for a playoff spot. I agree with the rest of your analysis except that I expect absolutely nothing from Ngwenya or Wolff.
If anything those comments about Ben not being ready attracted negative attention and made Payne look like an incompetent jackass. "He's not qualified, no scratch that, he's good enough to coach now!" sounds like the Zorn situation where you end up with the guy you wanted lower down the totem pole. If he though that those comments would take pressure off, well then he's a bigger idiot that I imagined because it'll be a soundbite played over and over again when the team struggles under Ben.
What a great starting point for discussion. Echo effect. If enough people think something, it becomes true. And perhaps at a certain point that enough people believe it, even if it wasn't true doesn't really matter anymore? The FO gets a "check" from me. I'm looking for check-plus-plus. Last season was minus-minus.
DCU's front office has made numerous, well-documented mistakes in the last few years, but credit where credit is due; I'm cautiously optimistic that we have bottomed out and are beginning the process of turning things around. Obviously Will Chang needs a new partner (possibly as majority owner) and the club desperately needs a stadium. Everything about DCU is shaky until there is movement of those matters, but still...for a club watching their pennies they've done OK so far this offseason. I'm looking forward to seeing who we land in the draft and I'm still hoping we'll sign a proven goal scorer. Repped!
It was Dooley who said he was saddened that he wasn't hired. Silooy made a God-danged sockpuppet on BS to advocate for himself. If you've got it in your head that everything these people do is wrong then there's nothing I can say to you. Most fair-minded people will agree that they've done far more wrong than right the past few years. But I will at least give them credit for handling the coaching search with grace and aplomb. Now they just need to get him a striker. Unfortunately, as DCURoma alludes, all this discussion ignores that as stewards of soccer in the region they have dropped the biggest ball of all, the stadium situation.
Feels like we re-arranged some deck chairs. Nothing substantial to make this a playoff let alone a Cup winning team. I still want to know where the goals are going to come from? As far as the other issues are concerned, I'm meh about the whole thing. Stadium, investment partners, relocation. It's beating a dead horse and I'm tired of reading, writing and talking about it. Whatever happens, happens. The FO has made it really difficult to give a damn anymore.
Wait a second, Payne's story is Olsen was his number one choice all along, and the only reason he threw him under the bus last year was to throw other teams off the scent? Horseshit. As far as the Front Office Scorecard, I give them a D-. The front office sucks, and it all comes from Payne's leadership. Old Sicilian proverb - a fish stinks from the head.
Says here to mark them down for a triple-bogey for last year. So far this year they seem to be off the green needing to chip in for par.
You're assuming that another front office executive could have gotten a soccer specific stadium deal done. I disagree. I think that the real problem we've got is that the District government and each & everyone of the inner suburban local jurisdictions don't really care whether United stays or goes - and sees no long or short term economic benefit in providing a home for a Major League Soccer team. I also think that the Nationals' baseball stadium deal has destroyed any possibility of financial assistance from the D.C. Council in constructing a soccer specific stadium. I'm at a loss for what Chang is going to do if he can't afford to build a stadium out-of-his-own pocket.
On the business front, the front office is mired in a long slump -- no stadium, no money...Largely the consequences of mistakes made several years ago. Hard to see how they can manage a turnaround. My working assumption is that this is the team's last year under the current arrangement -- maybe relocation, maybe a temporary move to another stadium, maybe new owners, maybe the league takes over.. consult your own crystal ball. On the field, the team faces a three-four year rebuilding project. The best they can hope for in 2011 is mediocrity. Just not embarrassing themselves should be within their grasp, but it's not guaranteed. None of the moves so far are obviously stupid, so that's an improvement, but they need a long string of good moves to create a title contender and they have a long way to go. The disaster on the business side of course makes improving the team that much harder.
Nobody ever said that. What both Payne and Olsen said in separate interviews at separate times was that if people were picking through the rookie coach's every decision to see if he would be an acceptable candidate it would make his job more difficult. So Payne fed the media a message that he wasn't a candidate for the permanent position. Since it was already a lost season, this allowed Olsen a chance to get up to speed a bit more slowly. As it turned out, Payne interviewed several credible candidates and couldn't find anybody as qualified as Olsen. One may disagree, especially if you're inclined to believe that everything Kevin Payne looks at turns to shit, but there's nothing in that scenario that doesn't pass the sniff test to me. It's at least as plausible a scenario as saying that we lowballed or scared off all other candidates, and begged Olsen to stay on, which has become the BS Truth.
But that in and of itself is a telling statement. Payne "couldn't find anybody as qualified as Olsen." I think the more accurate rendering would be "Nobody more qualified than Olsen applied for the job, or, if they applied, they were unwilling to accept the pay and conditions (i.e., no stadium)." Now I rather like Benny at the helm, but it is ludicrous to suggest that he is the "best qualified," and I don't think even Ben would say that. What he will say is that he thinks he can do a good job and is eager to try. I agree with him on that. But the apparent fact that a once highly regarded franchise didn't draw much of a response from experienced soccer coaches tells you something. However, I still give the FO decent grades for its post-season moves, as I said in the opening post. They weren't flashy moves, but seem sensible in light of financial constraints. And I don't think we've seen the last moves yet.
Yeah, it tells us than experienced soccer coaches are leery of signing on with a team that may be contracted or relocated at the end of this coming season. Nothing unexpected there.
No, Benny's not the most qualified coach in the world, but if you include 'understands (or was part of) DC United history' as one of the search criteria then the list of candidates becomes much smaller. Another factor might also be preventing the turmoil that comes with bringing in the fourth coach in two years. I don't know if this figured in the mix, but I suggest there was more to the decision than you imply.
I give the them a grade of a F++. As chico has stated its just beating a dead horse judging them. Payne should have gone after last season but somehow kept his job. I been thinking Payne is Gríma Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings and Will is King Théoden, hearing crap all day in his ear in a trance. Nerd reference