I'm really curious about the Elliot Fall guy that was promoted to Assistant GM. How can you have an Assistant GM and not have a GM? Is Waibel the GM with a different name, Technical Director? Who will be fulfilling what roles that the other guy was performing? Very interested to see how this will all play out. I also really didn't need another reason to dislike Seattle but thanks anyway.
I remember getting this for Christmas as a kid. Whenever I see Seattle play, it brings back those fond Christmas memories. BTW, it smelled awful, in case you were wondering.
I remember getting that stuff packaged with a Ninja Turtle toy as a kid and thinking "Who in their right mind would pour this on a toy just to have to clean it up afterwards?".
I have no idea how you might go about judging "rookie" administrative personnel. There are a lot of ex-players out there. I would be interesting how one finds the "office potential" subset. I imagine interviews involving lots of weasel-words like vision, direction, potential, etc. without much actual substance.
Elliot has been around awhile, already doing team admin stuff. He will most likely handle the same issues. Thinking him as the admin guy. As for Waibel I only know him from his SJ-Dynamo time. He was a fierce competitor that got us mad more than once, which means he was good. No idea if he is qualified. Garth wasn't when he got here. Exciting times.
I disagree to an extent, on a couple things, you are right that Waibel was a fierce competitor but I don't think that qualifies him as good. He was a pest, a thorn in everyone's side, he got into you physically and ultimately mentally and that made him a challenge. Was he good? Ehhhh, meh. He was ok. I certainly never put him in any top defender category. As for Garth, I definitely agree he wasn't qualified, but he was given a task as a test (which lead to RSL acquiring Yura from KC for pretty much nothing as I recall). Who knows, maybe Waibel had to accomplish something similar, maybe he was the man running the expansion draft show along with re-acquiring Olave. As of right now I would say Waibel is more qualified from a soccer experience standpoint than Garth was, Waibel has at least coached on multiple levels beyond playing at a professional level. We'll see how that translates to a talent spotting and acquisition role. I do worry that 2015 will be another step back for RSL, it's obvious that 2014 was just another small regression (for a lot of reasons) from the previous years. With the turnover of players and losing Garth it might be a double whammy for the team, we can't rely on someone to go out and find players to fill in for the ones we lost like Garth had done in years past. We'll see, I'd put my eggs in the "probably just contending for a playoff spot" basket right now for 2015 results.
Interesting, the term Technical Manager was assigned to Craig as a way to limit the vertical hierarchy in RSL's system, such that it does not feel like Craig is boss over any one person, but a coworker with Bill and Jeff in terms of identifying and acquiring talent for RSL.
BIG NEWS: Plata on the verge of signing a 5 year deal with RSL. Uhhh, I don't know what Garth is watching, but he thinks "everyone is coming back who played significantly on the field" and will be better than next year. Uhhhh, even with Olave back I'm not sure how can say that with the losses of Ned and Chris. No mentions of new signings, even bread crumbs of some new ones.
Garth? You mean DLH? Playing < > Managing. Don't care if he was the best defender in the world - I care that he can understand team needs, evaluate talent, can close deals affordably, and can keep guys happy (that we want happy).
Sounds like DLH is putting all his eggs in the CCL basket, like....REALLY motivated by winning that thing.
Lol, yes, DLH and not Garth. Whoops. Wow, DLH basically just admitted that RSL doesn't like playing teams like Chivas and would rather play teams like LA, Seattle and that's why we lost to Chivas. So basically we play to the level of our competition and we're expecting the schedule next year to be murderer's row in the west....so we should be good. Uhhhh, ok.
A lot of other good nuggets in this story: http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/1957042-155/more-from-waibel-on-replacing-lagerwey
My comment about Waibel being fierce and therefore good was tongue in cheek. I'll remember to change my font next time. However he was a good defender and his attitude was intense. I hope he brings the same passion to his new job. And I'm fine with Daddy Warbucks wanting to win CCL. Give us the tools my man!
I guess this was the roundabout point I was trying to make in my post, I don't think there is much of a relationship between being a good player and being a good GM.
The quote was something 'now we have a chance to go back and beat Mexico'. I like that attitude. The article on Waibel in the Tribune is a good one too. What's not mentioned is the fundraising he'd done as a player for different causes - another reason he's probably a good all-around fit with the 'Team is the star' mantra.
So with this transition with Garth to Craig I pose a question the to the RSL BS folk: Who do you think on this roster will be apart of the next core? Personally I think we're going to see a large shift in the next year or two, next offseason I fully expect to see another main player or two moved off to pasture (for lack of a better term). Whether that's Javi, or Sabo, or Tony, or anyone else, I think it's Craig's new duty to identify that next core of players for the 2016-2020+ seasons. Who on this roster will be in that group? Schuler? Gil? Plata? Velasquez? Attinella? Mulholland? My biggest question mark is outside backs, we're paper thin right now and really there is nobody on this roster that looks to be apart of that next main group of guys. If I'm Craig I would be looking at those guys, Attinella, Schuler, Gil, Velasquez, Plata, Mulholland, sitting down with them and telling them "hey, we're looking to you guys to be the next Rimando, Borchers, Olave, Beckerman, Javi, and Sabo, we need you guys to be the core that carries this team through 2020." Then go find the pieces to put around them and see if they can rise to the occasion.
Five more years of Plata means five more years of buying season tickets to be honest. I'm kinda surprised by the news though cause he's mentioned a couple of times he'd like to prove himself in Europe. (then again what player doesn't)
Strangely this change in line-ups and change in management are making this new addition of RSL a lot more interesting to follow. Watching the core players play less and less inspired soccer the past couple years have been tough.
After reading that article, I'm 99% certain that Carlos Salcedo is gone. They're working towards a "win-win" situation with him, and Manning doesn't bring him up when talking about the guys he feels are first-team quality at then end. He's not mentioned anywhere outside of the talk about his twitter tantrum. GONZO
Hadn't noticed that until you pointed it out. I think that's probably good analysis. If that's the case then you have to think that they are planning to get some decent $$ in trade to make it worth protecting him in the Expansion draft. Enough maybe that they can get a good backup center back. We essentially need another starter worthy CB if we assume Olave will miss many of the games played on turf.