If this was the first time someone made this claim about Burns, it would be easier to dismiss. But it is not. "Once is chance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern..."
Agreed, you are saying what I have been thinking for years. The question is: what is it the Krafts need/want? From outward appearances, one take is that they just want a GM who won't tank the value of their investment, and other than that, nothing else is critical - beyond preserving asset value, it really comes down only to wanting a GM who doesn't consume much, if any, of their (Krafts) bandwidth. I think the same applies nicely to Bilello. He fits the Krafts needs nicely. Krafts do not seem to want the same things (at least not in the same way, nor in the same relative priority) that many of their fans want for this team.
I didn't say that. Me either. It's something that should be of great concern to the organization (and a source of embarrassment). Yet, you've assumed it was the Revs/Burns fault. IF that were the case, why would the same player be so willing to negotiate and sign with the same team/GM months later? One really can't answer that without knowing what the specific complaints have been. Believe me, I don't want him here any more than anyone else.
You implied it. If I have grossly misinterpreted your statement, feel free to clarify what you meant.
It was hyperbole. Don't kid yourself, Mike Burns is not Danny Ainge. Clubs and agents don't want to work with us because Burns is incompetent and difficult; they're not worried about getting fleeced.
Well, my guess is that Marcelo Neveleff got on the phone with him and did some damage control to try to make the situation right for him. It's good that he was able to convince him to come, but it would have been a whole lot better if he had come in December according to the original plan. Here's an article that goes into some detail on this: Why it took so long for the Revolution to sign Cristhian Machado https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/new-england-revolution/revolution-cristhian-machado-wilstermann/ The Revolution declined to comment on transfer negotiations or contract specifics with regard to the delay in getting Machado to Boston. However, Machado is on record telling Los Tiempos, a newspaper based in Cochabamba, Bolivia, that he had his plane ticket to Boston booked and was ready to fly before backing out at the last minute due to the length of the contract New England wanted him to sign. Machado told the paper he was expecting a two-year deal or a loan, not a four-year deal the Revolution reportedly presented him. A source with direct knowledge of Machado’s current contract with Major League Soccer said the player is on the books through the end of the 2018 season with three option years. Reading between the lines, why do you s'pose the player was expecting a 2-year deal? Maybe they had verbally agreed on it? Or when the player said he wanted a 2-year deal, they didn't immediately push back and suggest a 4-year deal, but continued the discussion on other things? You don't get far enough along in the process to the point of arranging a trip to Boston without having a pretty solid verbal agreement in place. Is it 100% on Burns? Who knows, but based on what we do know, people will make their own judgments,
So, Krisztian Nemeth was apparently making $900,000/year, according to the MLSPA. He was not listed by the league as a Designated player. That means that prior to the trade, the Revs were going to use $500,000 in allocation funds in order to buy down his cap hit. They have two open Designated Player slots. If they had simply made Nemeth a Designated Player, they still would have saved the $500,000 in cap space, and they wouldn't have had to spend any extra allocation money.
And of course, that elephant over there in the corner chowing on a yuuuge sack of peanuts is asking what happened to all those stacks of RAM/TAM/LAM cash we have and why we somehow are not able to buy/sign a really top-level needle-mover, and instead get these middling guys, some of whom may turn into serviceable (or even good) players, but never a truly elite player. If the choice is between saving some money or putting a truly championship-worthy team on the field, we all know which direction the organization will go.
So, they traded Lee Nguyen so that they would have enough allocation funds to pay down Nemeth's cap hit so that the Krafts would save enough of their own money to afford to renovate the Patriots' locker room?
The Revs have 3 keepers with MLS experience as a starter. The Fire have Richard Sanchez in net, and have given up 48 goals (only Orlando is worse). You would have to think they at least made a call about Cropper. Did Burns not return the call, or did he ask too much in return? Yes, Your Honor, I know, speculation. I'll withdraw the question...
Good point raised by Sean Donahue online... Dielna makes $780,000/yr and the league says he is a DP. Now, why would you use allocation funds to pay down Nemeth, but not Dielna? If you make Nemeth a DP and pay down Dielna, you'd end up saving an extra $120,000 in allocation funds. Of course, if you handle things the way the Revs did, you end up saving your owner an extra $120,000.
Ooh, tough call. But I'd give anybody on our roster for Darwin Quintero, so still picking Burns. Remember, this is the guy who protect Bobby Shuttleworth in the expansion draft instead of Femi Hollinger-Janzen, then traded Bobby to you to get Femi back.
Don't give Manny too many bonus points for Quintero...if Kevin Molino doesn't blow a knee early on, Darwin is either still with Club America or lining up alongside Zlatan. Because...Adrian Heath and his wingers!
Regardless of hindsight and how things panned out, it shows a total disregard for strategic, coherent decision making to protect one player instead of another, and then when the player you didn't protect gets taken, trade they guy you protected to get the other guy back. All it shows is a lack of faith in your own judgment and inability to make up your own mind. Is it a tough decision to decide who to protect? Of course, but everyone else seems to be able to make decisions (right or wrong) and learn to live with them. Plus, it would have cost Femi a lot of money and time to go to Many-sodas and find a place to live, move, get settled in with his new team, only to be told to go back to where he just was... In terms of team roster building, it's barely a blip on the radar screen, but in terms of process, decision making and strategy, moves like this show a lot more than the results.
These decisions are made a different points in time, with different factors. They aren't necessarily inconsistent or even bad strategy. As I mentioned, Turner was developing and perhaps by the time they considered moving Shuttleworth, they considered him a viable backup. When they looked for offers for Shuttleworth, Femi was someone they liked and were familiar with. Teams re-acquire players quite often, that doesn't mean that they lack strategy or are incoherent.
It was a couple of months later into the off-season. It wasn't as if they were in the season and because of someone's play, things changed and they realized they needed to make a move.
Lighten up, Francis. I used that example not as the ultimate Burns fail, but because it would be one bluecat82 (a Loons fan) would be familiar with.
Turner was developing in Richmond after the Femi trade with Minnesota. They're not really connected here. I suspect it was because Burns didn't want to get caught scrambling for another keeper.