Mike Petke: stay or go?

not integral, but he scored some absolutely massive goals for the club that year

 

To me the continued berating was one level. He took it to a whole other level with (a) lying about it and (b) showing absolutely no remorse about it.

 

Ok, now I understand.

 

I disagree with this. While Kreis was a gamble, it wasn't one that 'just paid off'. The team was playing increasingly better under Kreis (the goals allowed dropped steadily, the percentage of lost matches dropped steadily) and had a clear identity through uniquely (at the time) playing the diamond with a strong possession orientation with tenacious defense. The 'fortress' period of RioT started long before the club began its run to land in the playoffs and then run through the playoffs to the Cup. I know, because I was tracking for evidence of improvement and those things were obvious. The team began to win when it added consistent goal scoring to the other factors.

 

The Atlantic is reporting on Petke firing and the background is why we have not heard Petke apology. Since I was chastised for posting the text last time I'll give a synopsis.

RSL offered Petke a buyout in the low six figure if he would resign on his Monday back. He would apologize and resign
Jake said last week on the podcast I believe.

RSL believed this was what was going to happen until Sunday night when Petke informed the club he will not resign. RSL then fired him with cause. RSL believes its moral contract allows them to not have to buyout the rest of Petke contract. In other words no severance. I kind of interpreted Petke does not believe this and that he would get more if contest the firing with moral cause.

So part of the past 2 weeks was the negotiation of the exit that collapsed at the last hours.

I still see posts about the meaning of the word. Laungage changes. Gay use to not mean what it does now in the english language. I also get historically the spanish word was/is a catch all swear word. Pehaps kind of how I can use MF as a adjective, verbs, adverb, and noun swear word with multiple meanings. The problem is the Spanish word ALSO is used as a homophobic slur. Because it is ALSO used it is tainted and hard to reclaim back.

I recall when facist and racist chants happen seria a in the past, (side note WTF is facist coming back even in the USA), teams had to play matches in empty stadiums. MLS, LigaMx, FIFA, Concacaf may need to do this to rid of the P word

 

Thanks--good color. FWIW--I just subscribed to The Athletic. I have been impressed with some of their stories on both Jazz and RSL.

 

The Athletic has been well worth my money for sure. For college football too.

 

The athletic writer, Sam Stejskal is a former RSL employee. He has contacts to feed him info off the record

 

That doesn't seem super rational from Petke. A contract dispute will probably be expensive, and he's going to have an uphill climb to demonstrate that his actions didn't constitute a breach.

I guess Petke acting rashly shouldn't be a surprise. He didn't hand deliver any insulting notes to Del Loy, I hope.

 

Also reported sponsors Ford and Zionsbank told RSL if he was not fired they would reevaluate partnership with RSL

 

Great post!!

 

Money talks.

 

Question: Is there an example of another coach firing similar to this in MLS? Can't remember one off the top of my head. Aside from the Peter Nowak firing, I can't remember another quite this ... unsettling.

 

Not that I can remember, but I can't remember any other coach doing what Petke did so you could say that this is an unprecedented situation.

 

what attorney is going to take thi... wait, I work with attorneys. I'm sure Petke had 4 phone calls this morning already

 

Hold on, just how much was Petke being paid? He was offered a low six figure buyout (lets call it like 100K to be safe) and he turns his nose at it to fight for the rest of his contract? How much is he making a year to turn that down?

 

The article from Matt Montegomery on RSLSoapbox said a "conservative estimate" of his unpaid salary during his suspension was 20-25k which would put him making over 500k. That seems exorbitanly high.

 

I think rarity on such a firing is to be expected.

 

[emoji44]

 

but hey, lets keep this "DLH is cheap" narrative going

 

Uh, so, Petke has finally spoken. His apology is weak, at best. But an interesting point he claims is that he had an agreement to stay on as coach... wtf

 

I don't understand this narrative. I think we're the 3rd highest paid team in the west and I can't think of a single player on our roster (outside the league minimum) who isn't overpaid. Maybe Everton and Onouha?

 

A couple interesting notes:

1. He agreed not to speak publicly until after the suspension, per the team's request. That would explain why we heard nothing earlier from him.
2. This is worded SO CAREFULLY. 100% chance this was reviewed, revised, reviewed again by legal counsel.
3. He uses present tense saying he "hopes" to continue coaching RSL. Is that true? Or just part of the legal defense for wrongful termination?

 

Seems like the RSL FO went through their Javi notes while planning out how to handle this. What a mess.

 

I'm confused. Why would he need a written agreement to stay on as coach is he is the current coach? Unless he was going to be canned anyway and the written ageement was that if he served a suspension, he would still be able to coach after the suspension.