See my post about dysfunction in the other thread. Non-interim coaches get guaranteed contracts. If the Quakes didn't give Leitch one, they are a small team which will continue to struggle, not least because it will have meant Leitch was not sharp enough to demand one.
Well that is only one of my theories . The other theory is not about well, "he's really interim after all". Jesse's quote here seems to suggest that alternate theory - about being more in sync with Leitch, wanting an internal hire for continuity, probably this idea that he is less set in his ways and they can mold the club together, etc. “Chris Leitch is not just the bridge. He is part of the foundation of this club,” Fioranelli said. “For that reason, we did not want someone to come from abroad and take over this team We wanted someone that cares, someone that knows the players, knows the team to take on this important next chapter. He’s absolutely equipped to take on this challenge. “All I can tell you is, the moment that I confronted Chris (with the opportunity to be the new head coach) he did not hesitate a moment. And he had not been waiting for this either. I can just tell you, when you are working day-in and day-out on several different important areas, you’ll grow a certainty as to how you will see the game, how you would like to develop the game, how you would like to see the players confront situations on the field, how you’d want to communicate.”[/im]
My translation of this impassioned plea is: "yeah, we know he's not qualified" The thing is, I really liked Chris Leitch as a player. But he was also a bit of a thug, and he knew how to throw in a dirty elbow. He was not an all heart kind of guy, like Troy Dayak. I just don't know what particuliar management style/attitude and playing style he is going to bring to the team, that we don't already have. He was at LA awhile, so who influenced him there? People on this forum have said he is very smart, and I know he was the Quakes union rep, but how does that translate to being a motivator and tactician? Despite having been Wondo's roommate, Didn't he fire Wondo's brother 2 years ago?
This year's Superdraft selections were much different than the typical Kinnear picks. He preferred Alpha athletes like Alashe and Tarbell. Yiuell and Mfeka look more like Leitch guys ( technical players).
Leitch? I don't think Leitch ever played for LA. He was selected by them in the 2011 Re-Entry Draft, but he retired from playing and joined the Quakes FO rather than go there. That's one of the things that I like about him.
oh sorry for some reason, i thought he originally came to us from LA. I remember that LA picked him up from us at the end, and that I was shocked when Leitch came back here to be staff. I wouldn't have come back. But I wonder if that is the type of guy Leitch is -- one of those guys who goes after someone who has spurned him, like trying to prove to them that they were wrong about him. Checking his wikipedia page, i see that leitch played for Crew, Metrostars, and RBNY before coming to SJ.
I agree that we won't see an MLS Cup winning team emerge because of this. But I also believe that the Sounders would have done nearly as well had they kept Sigi as coach. I think the fault of that team was with the players not taking their jobs particularly seriously (which may have been Schmid's fault a little bit), but in any case, Seattle won't really care either way since they won the title and the coach they have is on par with Schmid. Of course, I won't pretend that the Seattle team that won the title was the best team in the league that year. They definitely weren't, but you don't have to be, you just have to be good enough. I don't think San Jose will even reach that level, and to be honest, they shouldn't be this year. They should tear down the team has hard as they can, play as many young players as they can, and figure out how they want to play in the future. This season is not about winning now, it is about establishing precedent. Like I said before, I hope they go full on 2012, 2013 Astros mode. I'll take an utterly bottom dwelling team if it is evident that there is a genuine plan. Of course, in MLS, it's hard to have a team as bad as the Astros were then. Even bad teams, like Minnesota or RSL, can have games of competitiveness and keep games close. That's just the nature of soccer.
As an example, think of the way Jesse Marsch has coached NYRB. Marsch had a pretty bad reputation in MLS for being a physical guy who relied heavily on fouling, but I wouldn't say the Red Bulls are a dirty team, at least no more so than any other team. How a guy played is not necessarily indicative of how he thinks about the game. Just because Kinnear was as simple a coach as he was a player doesn't mean every coach is in the same mold. Some players just don't have the tools to execute the game the way they want it to be played. It's hard to know beforehand unless they've coached at various levels, which Leitch has not. I can't imagine he'll be as dull as Kinnear's teams, and my guess is he'll rely heavily on Covelo's expertise in that regard. I also think that any player who shows any kind of resistance is going to find himself traded or sitting on the bench for the rest of the season, so I'm not particularly worried about it. Leitch won't be the coach beginning next year, so it's not all that important what kind of coach he is.
I'm just wondering what the rest of the season is going to be like. I guess we will find out real soon! Could be very interesting to watch Steve Ralston's body language the next few weeks...
After reading this tweet by Robert Jonas, I'm altering my theory a bit. I presume Wondo values Dom over Leitch and will resent Leitch's taking the job. So I think Leitch will drastically reduce Wondo's playing time. An emotional Chris Wondolowski cut his press availability short this morning. "I owe Dom for where I am today. So it's definitely tough."
We sure will. My hope is that the players who are on the list for trades/non-renewal stop getting playing time, except where injury makes it a necessity. This goes against what I used to talk about with regard to guys like Colvey and Francis, but circumstance were different. Being freed from the Kinnear shackles mean they can do everything they wanted to do without worrying about results. Under Kinnear, they had to earn as many points as possible, and that meant playing the best players possible (though Kinnear screwed that up in some key areas, but not the ones that most people harp on about). Since those expectations are gone now, the road has been paved for a real youth movement.
I doubt either holds or will hold a grudge against the other. Not merely because they're professionals but it does not seem to me to be in their personal make-up.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Peter Vermes in relation to Technical Directors with no coaching experience becoming head coaches. He took over a team from Curt Onalfo that was suppose to be dreadful in talent (as a matter of fact, fans were blaming him more that Onalfo for their poor performances). What happen after Peter started coaching those very same players? They played much better and he eventually won both an Open Cup trophy and an MLS Cup. A team that was struggling with an apathetic fan base has transformed into a league powerhouse.
A lot of that was great timing, the talent on the field improved and they became one of the better teams, at the same time that the team rebranded and started playing in their new soccer specific stadium. The Quakes have already blown that new stadium (and mediocre crest rebrand) bump...
Quakes announced this morning that their "Never Say Die" slogan is being changed to "Never Gonna Give You Up!"
Yeah -- I'm a little unclear on the rationale for the apparent level of gratitude Wondo has. Perhaps it's because he's basically played every minute he was eligible for under Dom?
It seems to be primarily related to encouraging him to go to some try out and give the whole pro soccer thing a try.
I actually don't agree here. You talk about great timing with talent on the field improving, and I think about the moves the Quakes have made this year, and I see that as a possibility for this team. We are much stronger than we were last year, perhaps not as strong as we were in 2014, but we have depth everywhere except the defense. Jungwirth is back in training, and is expected to be ready for Saturday (unlikely tonight). Francis (don't groan out loud) is nearing a return to training from his hamstring. If the formation can be tweaked to allow our creative players to create, and even those two players come back, I'd put us as a better than .500 team on talent. As for the new stadium and rebranding, etc. I don't think that's all lost. Even if you lose the "shiny new thing" aspect of Avaya, it's still miles better than playing at Buck Shaw. It's entirely possible that if Leitch comes in and just takes the oppressive reins off the players, and removes the stress of playing for a coach who has to be worried about his job, that could make a huge difference in on-the-field performance. It's a gamble, no one's disputing that.
If I was Wondo, I might actually be a little upset by Kinnear. Sure, Dom was the coach that brought him in the league and he did stay on the roster during years of few minutes, but he was also paid the league minimum for a very long time under Kinnear. How much more could Wondo have earned if Kinnear would have played him more in Houston? He got his salary raised before his contract was up in SJ. He had to live like a pauper in Houston under Kinnear.