100% agree Doc but accountability needs to fall with Billelo/the Krafts for his lack of performance over the past 18 months. It's been exceptionally poor and if they are "competitive sportsmen" as you've argued in the past, they need to take action and not let their franchise stagnate.
Was waiting for that HOWEVER, take Keane off that team and where are they? In fact, take Keane off that team and give him to the Revs and we could win the cup
Making it sound like everyone here thinks the REVs should sign 3 DPs... I don't think people are complaining about the REVs not signing 3 DPs. We'd just like Burns to competently sign someone to fill the holes even he admits exist. That said, over the history of DPs, I think Bruce Arena has probably had the most success fielding a competent, fairly deep, and very competitive team with one or more DPs. His ability to sign other (non-DP) good players and to meld them all into a team far exceeds RBNY, Toronto, Seattle, etc. This is the first post-Landon year though... Hmmmm....
The single biggest question I have concerning the Revs in the 2010s is how in the hell didn't they sign Robbie Keane? You play in Boston(ish) and Ireland's all-time leading scorer, who is still playing at a high level, is willing to come to MLS. Yet he goes to L.A. In fact, the Revs never even went after him. It boggles the mind.
His agent had said that at the time, two MLS teams were interested, but one made a laughable offer. Many here speculated on which that other team might have been... hmmmmm.
Of course JDEeq09 misses the point, that's what he does best. Must be the language barrier or somefin like that. So anyone thinks when Drogba's deal is up with Montreal, they are going to low-ball him, because, hey, he is getting older and even though he brings a lot, how long can they expect him to be healthy? What the Revs are doing is their usual penny-wise/pound foolish approach. They have no idea the extra intangibles Jones brings--look at the quote from Davies for one example. The Revs have not had a single player of this magnitude since Alexi Lalas, who, well, let's not make any on-field comparisons between those two. And when Joens walks, they will never again. The Krafts have set themselves up to fail, and fail they did. Their strict requirements for a DP meant that Jones was really the only lightning in a bottle guy they would ever get. And they came within a goal of winning the whole shebang. But because they spent all that money on Jones, that was it, no reinforcements, no nothing to help put the team over the top. And now that Jones has walked out the door, anyone who thinks they will be able to sign another player like him is deluding themselves. Anyone who thinks they will be willing to do this is even more delusional. And in addition to Burns' total incompetence, players are going to see what happened to Jones and decide they'd rather be in Chicago or Philly, two crap teams that we will surely be looking up at next year. Kraft has self-destructed the Revolution all by himself. He didn't need other teams to make us look bad.
I can't argue with that, but still, the last 18 months have not been typical of Burns tenure. We know they have chosen not to hire a full-time scout, but we don't know if that's due to the cost or other reasons - despite the fact that lack of spending is the popular narrative. Aside from that, there's not much evidence that they are unwilling to spend money on scouting - in fact I'd say it looks more like a problem of time and manpower more than anything. Actually, you can - but when that is not supplemented by other acquisitions, your margin for success becomes quite thin. Not having any significant draft picks in '15 and no one making an significant impact from last year became a major problem because we didn't fill in by other methods.
Drogba didn't just miss half the season after he was signed. Anyone who thinks its a no-brainer to sign Jones to $3M/2 or 3 years just isn't being realistic. That would be a tough decision for any team in MLS. Along with spending $6-9M, that requires and lot of hope and faith.
Because he spent $$$ and signed JJ, or because he did virtually nothing thereafter? IMO, the most atypical behavior was spending 4.5 million. I think almost everyone here is worried that that was a one-off experiment. I personally don't think so -- I can't see how they can sell sliding backwards -- but I absolutely understand the fear.
The other teams may have replaced him with another DP caliber player. Many people make the valid contention the revs won't - or at least, the evidence they will replace Jones like for like is lacking.
Chicken or the egg argument. They're not willing to pay for a full time scout, but since they're not willing to pay for a full time scout, the current staff doesn't have the time or manpower to do the scouting.
So what is "typical?" In the cut-throat world of professional sports, 18 months is an eternity. Some (terrible) teams may be on a 2-3 year "rebuilding" plan, where they bring in young players and expect to lose while those players mature, and (hopefully) turn it around in a year or two. That ain't us, not by a long shot. Time and manpower, huh? Now call me crazy, but maybe, just maybe the way around a shortage of time and manpower to do all the scouting you need to do would be ... to hire a @%^&*%$ Scout! It's easy to say "We don't know that it's due to cost" but what else might it be? Lack of awareness that you might need one? The irrational impulse of never,ever wanting to do the same things the successful teams do, in fear of being called a "copy cat?" What could it be? And don't say "we don't know. we just don't know. I'm afraid we just don't know..." That would be next season, so it's hard to say if he will have a drop in form (I can't imagine he wouldn't after the amazing half-season he's had so far). The Drogba as this year's Jones scenario is pretty accurate, but their scenario hasn't fully played itself out yet.
Even if you don't hire a scout on your staff, there are 3rd party services that can provide you with the services. Do the Revs utilize such tools?
Similar to this idea, this is one of the things I was hoping that they would get from the Sporting partnership. Assuming that Sporting scouts and/or has contacts around the world. I have wondered why the Revs could not pay a finders fee for anybody identified via Sporting who signs with the Revs?
Well, first Burns has to remember that he can use that to his advantage. Unfortunately, he's still celebrating the Revs making MLS 11 months ago, but I'm sure he'll get to it at some point.
The latter. Until this current dry spell, the Revs *have* brought in foreign players. They haven't always (or often) worked out and sometimes they were overmatched in MLS because of inexperience or (old) age, but at least they brought in at least 2-3 each year. Lately, nothing. I'm not confident they would get another DP for next season either, but that doesn't mean ownership should (or will) go all in on a bad deal. But, as many have said, it's not our money - at least not directly. We don't know that they're unwilling to pay for a scout - we just know that they haven't chosen to hire one. There are many possible reasons, but the default explanation (and often incorrect one, IMO) is always they aren't willing to spend ... Absolutely, no argument there. My only point was that Burns used to be able to bring in some players. I don't know what's changed (luck, resources, no Steve Nicol, cap issues, ...). That's all part of the great unknown. We know practically nothing about their process, so it's pretty hard to speculate on what would make them more successful or where specifically they are failing. I don't think anyone would argue at this point that the organization needs more of a "can do", "make it happen" attitude than they have shown. The time for excuses or inaction have long passed.
Was Geoffrey Castillion the last international player signed by the Revs? I think that was in the fall transfer window of last year. At the time I wondered how he was identified and eventually signed. What did the Revs really know about him? How good was he? What did he find attractive about MLS and the MLS offer? As there was no information on these topics and there is no legitimate press to ask such questions I still have no idea. I was curious because I wondered if there was potentially a repeatable process or a new way of doing things? On the other hand, I think the losing streak last season, lack of strikers, and some bad press forced the Revs to do something. Anything. So they figured they would sign a forward at almost any non-DP salary (pro-rated to 1/3 of a season too) and see what they got, knowing they could cut him loose before the expansion draft (<yoda>thinking a few steps ahead, Burns was</yoda>) and that in a 4-5-1 all they needed was one more striker to have "depth". Then, in a completely unrelated and incredibly lucky development, Jones said he would play in MLS, Kraft said "we are interested too", and we won a coin flip. This pretty much gave the FO 24 months where there was really no pressure to sign anybody. The first 18 months of that period is just about up. We have the first 6 months of 2016 to see exactly where we are on the field if Jones and Goncalves cannot be retained. Although I would prefer to keep both players, I am ok with losing either one of Jones or Goncalves, but not both. If we lose both, it will certainly happen before any new players are signed outside of the draft. At such a time, the roster will look real thin, physically soft, mentally soft, and in demand of MLS starter quality reinforcements. I fear for the team psyche in such a scenario as I am not sure who the leaders are on this team outside of Jones and Goncalves. Anyway, big off-season. Last signing was about 14 months ago.
OK, I'll nibble. Since there are "many" possible reasons, you shouldn't have any difficulty naming, say, two of these possible reasons why they haven't chosen to hire / use a scout. well, Nicol does know a lot of people in the game in different parts of the world. He did have his list of 20 South Americans, which, unfortunately, all were denied by ownership. Not to compare apples to fried chicken, but Toronto supposedly had 20 players on their list when they signed Giovinco. If they didn't get him, they would have signed their second guy, or their third guy. The Revs never seem to have a plan B if their first choice doesn't materialize. If they did, it wouldn't be 18 months between signings.
No, we don't "know". We speculate (that's what we do here) based on the limited information we have. We think of the "many possible reasons", and then find the one that, in our humble opinion, is most plausible. Here are the "many possible reasons" I could come up with: 1. They honestly believe they don't need a scout. 2. They tried really hard, but just couldn't find one 3. The Patriots IT staff blocked internet access to monster.com\scouts 4. They still believe that "No one in MLS has full time scouts" 5. It's not in the budget Plausibility Rating (IMHO): 1. It is painfully obvious they need a scout, I don't think even they could be THAT obtuse - Rating 2 2. Seems to be the case for players, so... - Rating 5 3. Conspiracy theory - Rating 1 4. Burns has said it, so has some plausibility - Rating 6 5. Based on their other spending habits - Rating 8
The Revs have signed ONE international player during the past FIVE transfer windows. That was Daigo Kobayashi. Now please, someone tell me why Mike Burns still deserves to have a job.