Yes, and I wrote the M-N telling them so ; Elliot Almond deserves some praise. (Not that I think the M-N editor cares...).
Robert Jonas Interview with Jesse Fioranelli dated June 27, 2017: "When did you make the decision that he wasn’t going to come back next year? “'Last week.'” https://www.centerlinesoccer.com/2017/6/27/15880348/complete-interview-san-jose-earthquakes-gm-jesse-fioranelli-talks-firing-head-coach-dominic-Kinnear
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/27/analysis-did-earthquakes-err-in-sacking-veteran-coach-kinnear/ BTW, I encourage all fans to click on this article (even if you have already read it). The only way the Mercury would consider increasing its coverage would be if its online articles drew a considerable fraction of Avaya attendance. For those of you on Facebook or other social media (I am not) perhaps you can forward it or encourage others to click on it. In the old days I guess a bunch of letters to the editor or phone calls would cause them to increase coverage of a sport or an event. Now it is "clicks". I'd like to see more Elliot Almond reporting and less reliance on Quakes Press Releases to learn what is happening at the club.
any word on those big summer DP signings we were promised? I highly doubt replacing Dom with a guy who has never coached a pro soccer game in his life makes much difference in terms of results and convincing dwindling fan base that this team now means business, finally.
I look at these two events as a direct result of long term goals of the ownership, taken in order of difficulty. The first goal being obtaining a permanent home for the club and the second, the product on the field, they let wonder. Keeping a 10k stadium filled was still not going to turn anyone, but SCU, a profit. They cycled a bit in the FO until they got a team that got them UXO stadium. With that part of the profit machine in place, they turned to the show on the field, their new primary goal. If you were to separate the timelines into Before UXO/After UXO, things have moved at a reasonable rate in my mind. Keeping Doyle around for 9 years is only dysfunctional if you assume they really cared whether the product on the field was any good or not. With a proper stage to exhibit their show, (A big reason, we are led to believe, that good players were not interested in San Jose), Doyle's failings became clear. He got a couple years to show what he could do (If you count 2014 when things we falling into place for the stadium) and they dumped him when it was clear his decisions were not making the show a success. Taking into account their investments in the academy and finally seeing some fruits of that labor show on the field (the attack minded player gets "eh" treatment, the defender is shown the red carpet to a starting position) they see this coach is not going to be doing anything to help their development academy investment pay off. His use of the new players has been questionable, I don't think Hosen is a winger, he should be where Wondo or Urena is, maybe I'm not alone? Where would he play Vako? Certainly now where he should be playing... Anyway, I'm rambling and I just wanted to take the liberty of using my favorite nick name for Avaya, (UXO, "Unexploded Ordinance") one last time
You're kidding right? His nickname is "Vako", from Georgia, and not the one that's on Ray Charle's mind
Playing exciting soccer (and winning of course) will fix the "dwindling fan base". Even if existing STHs cancel, the team will sell more tickets to non-STHs that want higher entertainment value than Dom Ball. In case you didn't know, Peter Vermes moved from TD to head coach of KC without coaching experience and greatly improved a team that was supposedly starved of talent.
Oh wow, we made a move! I've kind of been out of the loop so that's nice to see. Hopefully they have another signing or two up their sleeve, we should be in full building mode.
CL is a huge gamble of course but stranger things have happened. Here's hoping he's the next Peter Vermes then!
So if he quits then he's free to find another job! I've got nothing against Ralston. Seems like a fine guy to me. And his boss just told him that they value him and want to keep him so he DOESN'T have to find a new job! Ralston's been in pro soccer for 22 years. And he spent four years in college. He has options...he chose the coaches life. It cannot be a surprise to him that sometimes the head coach gets fired. And this is total speculation of course, but I'd wager that given the circumstances if he went to Jesse and said he'd like his permission to go look for another job Jesse would agree to let him, thereby eliminating any anti-tampering concern. Are you his accountant or his mother? What's your angle in this?
Some are implying that there is something immoral or unethical about using lack of STH as a reason for making changes in the organization. I think that's backwards. If you think that the Quakes are a club of which the community is an integral part then when the community speaks they should listen! It'd be 10 times worse if the supporters were NOT listened to. STH renewals speak volumes about how the community is feeling about the club. I have no idea, nor does anyone else here, how much that played into the decision to fire Kinnear. But hopefully it was no small part of the parameters in Jesse's mind as he 'matured his decision'. Failure to do otherwise would be like Apple iPhone sales falling through the floor and Tim Cook saying, "I think our products are great so we aren't changing them!"
So was the janitor but they can't be assessed in week. He has 6 months worth of investment in the process. He has 6 months of getting to know Chris Leitch. Making the decision and preparing for the potentiality of needing to make the decision are different. Yeah it's more than just stubborn.
Well, that's an intriguing question. It's a much higher profile role, and thus a higher risk assignment. If he's successful, that would be great, but all coaches get fired eventually. I keep thinking that ChrisL is more of a placeholder coach than the guy who's going to run the team for the next four or five years. It is a powerplay for ChrisL though. He gets to sack Kinnear, something he's wanted to do for a while now. He gets to put his stamp on the club, and then even if he steps back into the Technical Directory roll, he'll still have influence on the way the team plays. OR, maybe he's just the figurehead, smooth things over dude with Covelo really runs the ship? I think that Chris really cares about the team, and he wants to modernize the club, and this is a great way to achieve that. But, I don't see how this works out in the longrun. Maybe Colvelo or some other Euro coach takes the reins next season? That's my guess, but I could be full of it. Go Quakes!! - Mark
Jesse made a comment to the effect that "we weren't responding to STH." The team exists not for its own self-glory but because others want to watch the team in action. Any organization that doesn't prioritize customer needs risks appearing arrogant and potentially failing.
Really? Jesse Fioranelli says he made the decision to fire Dom Kinnear last week. If true, that means the hiring process for his successor was all conducted within a week. That process, we are told, included assessing multiple candidates, only one of whom was Chris Leitch. So, yeah, assessments can be made within a week, and purportedly were in this particular case.
Did you happen to catch the Q & A session with Quakes players on the video board before the RSL game? "What's your favorite junk food?"
Of course not. I can research new cars for 6 months. And for one week of each of those months reflect on whether now is the time to buy it or should I lease it or keep going with what I have. And I can decide it's not the right time and I'm not ready yet in month 2, month 3 month 4 and month 5. And then in month 6 decide I've finally done enough research to pick one and s that's now the right time to replace old car with new for financial reasons or whatever other reason. The decision is made only in month 6. But process occurs over 6 months.
What does Chris get out of it? My answer: Something he thinks is valuable to him or he wouldn't do it. I'm pretty sure that Chris doesn't need anyone on this board looking out for his best interest. He's a big boy. I see it as Chris increasing his influence within the Quakes organization, similar to what Mark said. I don't know how things work in law practices, but in my world people all the time take on increased responsibility and 'steps up' with no immediate increase in compensation or perks or office size or job title. They do it because 1) they are a team player and the team is asking them to take a step up to fill a void and 2) they think that it will, in the long run, lead to increase compensation BECAUSE they have increased their influence within the organization. I've done it several times and never regretted it. It may also be the Chris really wants to try his hand at coaching at a high level and this is a great opportunity to do that. If it turns out he's the next Zidane then it's a big win for everyone. If it turns out he's not as good at it as he is at managing, then it looks to me like Jesse would just convert him back to the technical director role. Big upside with very little downside is my take.
"Research" on new cars is not the same as buying a car. Reflecting on possible new coaches is not the same thing as conducting bona fide interviews of replacement candidates following the decision to fire the incumbent. MLS requires teams hiring new coaches to conduct interviews of diverse candidates, we've been told (which some on this board have said was proof that the decision to fire Kinnear had to have been made long ago, except Fioranelli says he made the decision last week.) In order to conduct a non-sham interview with a candidate, such candidate must be assessed with an open mind, not one polluted by six months of research and the prejudice of having already arrived at a decision. So the assessment of Chris Leitch relative to the other candidates necessarily happened in less than a week, which means it can be done.
So, now you're trying to say he brought in random people he knows nothing about who are are just hanging about but can get to San Jose in a week and that's how to select a coach. This has gone so far beyond ridiculous I can't even laugh any more.
That's not what I'm saying. No interview process consists of "random" people "just hanging about." That's your gloss on my comments. If you think the particular MLS-mandated process of fairly considering diverse candidates is "ridiculous," then take it up with the other Don G. who runs this league. But, undeniably, the process happened within a week, or it was a sham.
What other names were considered for the job in addition to Chris? “To be frank, in the last months, there have been considerations that I have made, talks that I have held, many coaches have been proposed. I didn’t want to get to any concrete considerations because I had to have myself be certain that this was the right move at the right time. And so I had it grow on me to the point that I came to realize that this was the right decision to take.” “Sure, I can explain it to you. What I would like to say is that we have been proposed several coaches in the last two months.” Did you seek them out or did they seek you out? “No they were proposing themselves to us, and that’s the difference.” I wonder if any of those "talks that I have held" or the "proposed several coaches in the last two months" were with a potential coaching hire that would of appeased the MLS mandate process of interviews with diverse candidates?
Who knows what the policy says, because MLS is so opaque, but the league's tweeted statement posted earlier on this thread says that "interviews" were conducted before Kinnear's "departure." You don't, in good faith, interview candidates to fill a position until you decide the position is open to be filled. And, in this case, as we know, the decision that there was an open head coaching position with the Quakes was not made until last week. All of this discussion is a side-show addressed to KMJvet's incredulity that deciding to fire a coach and deciding on his replacement can both be done within the span of a week. Of course they can.