My supposedly ambitionless club, which has spent its entire existence under league management, then a very cost-conscious owner, has parted ways with most of its coaches during the season: Dave Dir: Fired after 2000 season Mike Jeffries: Fired 2003 midseason Colin Clarke: Fired after 2006 season Steve Morrow: Fired 2008 midseason Schellas Hyndman: Announced end-of-season resignation during 2013 season. Óscar Pareja: Moved to Xolos after 2018 season So that's two postseason firings, one of which came after five straight playoff appearances, but no MLS Cup, and the other of which came immediately after finishing top of the Western Conference in 2006; two midseason firings; and one midseason "We've been garbage for three seasons, and I probably should've been fired a year ago, but I've got a special relationship with the owner, so I'll finish out this year" resignation. Yeah, this whole "midseason firings are new and unique and are a sign that MLS is now a 'serious' league" thesis that @Deadtigers is putting out there doesn't stand up to any sort of scrutiny.
The number of firings before Memorial Day does strike my, subjectively, as somewhat new and kinda sorta unique.
I think the league makeup has a bigger role in this. Back in the day, you were never out of playoff contention when 80% made the playoffs and they had an even shot basically once in. Over time, as more teams come in, more miss the playoffs which now actually has incentive to finish higher as opposed to just getting in. Now a bad start puts you below the line quickly. Management has to decide if it's better to leave you in charge for the season and hope everything clicks (Dome Torrent could not have been far from getting the axe) or just cut bait and start the new chapter right away. It easier to fire a coach when they are 11th and only 6 get in, as opposed to 5th and 4 get in, and your only 1 point out. One other contributing factor, the league's profile has risen. Higher quality coaches are now willing to come here than 5 or 10 years ago. Starting in May, a lot of the higher quality coaches are in a position to come to MLS. If you know your coach sucks or you can do better, you need to bring down the axe in May. The longer you wait, the more of those coaches have signed elsewhere or have committed to stay with their current club. Fewer coaches are available in August and even fewer (non-domestic) are available in the winter. There is no better time to be searching for a coach than May/June.
Why LAFC GM John Thorrington thinks his best move was hiring Bob Bradley Boehm: Why the Revs need Arena, and vice versa Meet the Coach Hoping to Change New York Football Forever Liam Manning is one of those who discovered the likes of Declan Rice and Reece Oxford but is leaving West Ham for a key role with Major League Soccer's NYCFC Fine Lines: 1-on-1 with Whitecaps coach Marc Dos Santos
The more teams, the greater distribution we'll see. Teams coming back from being down 3-0 in a best of seven happens a hell of a lot more frequently because there are a hell of a lot more best of seven series these days. Plus every new team pretty much adds one more annual failure to the list. The number of MLS Cup champions, Supporter Shield winners, and USOC winners per year has remained constant as the league has grown from 10 to 24 teams. The large majority of teams fail each year and most teams will fail multiple years in a row.
Eh, maybe. But if you're firing a coach that early in the season, it sort of begs the question as to what the hell you were doing in the last offseason and why you didn't just fire him then.
New England didn’t care. Cincinnati didn’t know what they were doing. Colorado just wasn’t paying attention.
This implies that New England is starting to care and Colorado is starting to pay attention. Not sure I buy it.
I mean they just hired Bruce Arena. I'm not sure he takes that job without certain assurances regarding spending on players, coaching staff, front office, scouting, etc.
The world-wide coaching market for Almeyda is as strong or stronger than that for Arena, so it follows that Almeyda had as much or more bargaining power in setting the terms of his hire with the Quakes as Arena did in setting the terms with the Revolution. Whether he used that ample bargaining power to full advantage is another question, and one we have been pondering on the Quakes board, because his hire does not appear to have coincided with increased investment in the overall operation.
Instantly plonk-able between the implication that MLS hasn't been a serious league and the unnecessarily chauvinistic language.
The really intersting thing about Arena's hiring is that it is the only move the Krafts could have made that didn't reinforce the (well deserved) reputation of total apathy. If they had gone down the Heaps/Friedel route (inexperienced coach) no one would have taken notice. Arena is the closest thing to the soccer version of Bellichick, and it seems the Krafts have finally woken up to see the emperor is buck-nekkid, they hired someone who could actually turn things around. I've never been a big fan of his, but he's definitely the right hire. He needs to change the culture of the organization from top to bottom. That was never going to happen with the current crew in charge. "Good enough" is good enough, but Arena is not the kind of guy who is going to stand for that. He also needed to revive his legacy from the debacle of not qualifying for Russia, and what better way to do it than to turn around the sorriest organization in the league. In 5 years, he can turn over the operation to a protege and ride off into the sunset. What will really be interesting his the dynamic with Jonathan Kraft. Arena doesn't suffer fools, and considers it a favor that he is allowing you to breathe the same air by being in the same room. JK is, um, not exactly used to someone telling him directly and bluntly that he is more full of crap than Tony Meola's colon 3 hours after Thanksgiving dinner.
The Athletic: ‘I have nothing to redeem myself for’: Bruce Arena is back, and it’s all about halting the Revolution devolution https://theathletic.com/981193/2019...-all-about-halting-the-revolution-devolution/
Now there's that Arena wit and charm that we've all missed so much! Saying the bold part to a bunch of sportswriters is downright hilarious! I said this on the Revs board, earlier. No doubt he's an arrogant prick, but now he's our arrogant prick!
Really at the end of the day the USMNT losing to Trinidad and missing out on the World Cup for the first time since 1996 is no different from Houston not being able to get past the Warriors in the NBA playoffs. It's all just sports teams, winning and losing. No big deal.
That's how you throw the players under the bus without out feeling like you're throwing the players under the bus.
Nashville's Jacobs shares transfer market strategy “As much as it was game-changing to pursue players like [Miguel] Almiron and [Carlos] Vela for our league, it’s hard to maintain that level of spending for any club," Jacobs told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday. “I don’t think it was just about spending money [for Atlanta and LAFC], but it was about spending wisely. There have also been teams that invested poorly. "For us, we don’t look at it as an arms race of trying to spend as much, or more, as those expansion teams as much as looking at how thoughtful they were in their process and spending wisely.” ... Nashville are focused on exploiting market inefficiencies like that and, equally as important, being "uniquely Nashville." They will be on the front foot in analytics, exhaust their scouting department and tap into the eclectic contacts throughout their front office. “Because of Michael Lewis’ book or a movie with Brad Pitt, people fixate on the term 'Moneyball.'" Jacobs said. "The idea behind that isn’t coming up with algorithms, but in the simplest terms, acquiring things that are undervalued and discarding things overvalued. I’d say we’re definitely data-driven and statistically strategic.” It sounds a lot like the behemoth that Jacobs' former boss, Peter Vermes, has built at Sporting Kansas City. Will it be like SKC or Cincy?
Probably age. I wouldn't be surprised if Almeyda had enough to retire on, but at his age, would he want to? Bruce is at the age where he could take it or leave it.
Arena: Revs don't need to spend like ATL to win Extratime goes 1v1 w/ Bruce Arena on Revs, USMNT Arena: "Not easy to walk away from" soccer Build it and they'll come? Arena starts with Revs Bruce Arena wants to bring a winning culture to New England Revolution NESN: Bruce Arena Dreams Much Bigger Than MLS Cup Wins As Revolution Boss
I do think there should be a parody account of Bruce Arena's early tenure at NE Revolution: "Landon Donovan ends indoor soccer career to rejoin Bruce Arena at the Revolution.... Donovan then realizes the New England regeion can have just as much gloomy weather as Germany and retreats back to southern California". ...
That is funny and makes me wonder if they have had any recent discussions since the Arena announcement.