Ok, now that we see the new coaching staff, let's speculate on which new players will be brought in. I'm going way out on a limb in predicting that we will see Mexicans and/or South Americans.
I'm going to expand on that and add Central Americans. They have a decent track record in MLS and they are affordable, and we might be on a budget, depending on who we can jettison. Go Quakes!! - Mark
All I want is good/great players. Don't care where they are from (although I would prefer US with the hope that MLS will help improve our USMNT). We have good players in the past from Central, South America, Europe and bad players from each region. Sure, there are cost reasons for targeting certain regions, but we have to fight Europe and other MLS Teams for the same resources. The good news is that our current coaching staff should hopefully be better in targeting Central and South America.
But we just got rid of a Uruguayan... Seems like we will HAVE to end up with a clone of Diego Valeri or Urruti, right? At least 3-4 Argentinians, right? Actually, are all the new coaches Argentinian?
And also, if these guys are taking over responsibility for the academy, then I assume most of the current academy coaches will be leaving too (I don’t know who or how many academy coaches there are) and that the academy will recruit largely Spanish-speaking players.
I thought you could only be a "castoff" if you were actually on the team? Not someone who was never even considered for the team.
Yup... Houston Dynamo are dead last in team salary, but they manage to find talented players in Central America (Alberth Elis, Romell Quioto) as well as South America (Manotas, Cabezas).
Where did it say they are taking over responsibility of the academy? If they are indeed Almeyda's assistants they may not have any day in and day out involvement, but, rather may just be reorganizing and overseeing what is already in place.
Haven’t the Quakes said that the new staff’s goal is to bridge better the academy, Reno, and the first team? This is not a huge bureaucracy (yet). They are not putting a new tier of coaches between the different groups. They have to be replacing some of them; i would guess the oldest youth group and the youngest youth group.
Did you just list two random Argentinians? They play two different positions, and do so very differently. And one is MVP caliber and a club legend, whereas the other makes coaches tear their hair out until they trade him to another MLS team.
I don't think that the new regime will have a pro-Spanish speaking bias. These guys are smart. They know that much of the team will necessarily be composed of USians. They are going to find the best talent they can, within the strictures of MLS rules. So most of the team will be US dudes, most of the academy will be local kids (and yeah, some of those kids speak Spanish). But they sure as hell won't overlook a player because he only speaks English or Portuguese. (The Peruvians speak Spanish too, just with more of a Castillian accent.) I'm not sure that Almeyda is going to ditch Vako and Kashia. I hope that he does, because I think that Vako does not produce at a level comensurate with his wages, and I think that Kashia just isn't good enough and is only here to make Vako feel good. I want to see Central and South Americans because I like that style of play, but I don't care if we sign guys from Eastern Europe or East Asia. As long as we bring in good players, they can come from anywhere. The thing with looking in the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, is that we'll have to pay a premium for those players, and we will likely only get dudes that are looking at retirement. But we may find some gems there too. We need to look in more places than we have previously. In any case, I am eager to see what Matías and friends create. Go Quakes!! - Mark
Listening to Omar Zarif and Benjamin Galindo, it is evident that we don't just get Matias, but we get a full Matias-led coaching "package", all on the same page and sharing a plan and vision for the Earthquakes project. As Galindo said, they see the Quakes as a "serious" team and Front Office.
@markmcf8 - Almeyda can’t simply ‘ditch’ Vako unless Vako decides he wants to split, because I think I can pretty much guarantee that Fisher isn’t going to just eat the salary of his highest-paid player. That sure hasn’t been the case for the A’s!
There are ways to make players want to leave and give up on their reminding contracts for the sake of their careers. Getting paid for sitting on the bench or in the stands sounds convenient, but most players prefer to play so they keep their short careers active and their market value high. In MLS players are always paid on time and being treated nicely, but in those parts of the world where our new coaches are coming from as well as in other parts of the world, outcasting a player and making his life miserable until he agrees to leave is pretty common. My guess is that Vako will be replaced with a Hispanic player. He does not like to run and does not speak Spanish. Almeyda will push him away.
People were saying he wouldn't eat a coach's salary either, and he's done it twice, and he did it with Dawkins' salary, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they cut Vako loose. Of course, Vako has been about 1000x better than Dawkins was, so I'm not sure it would be wise to get rid of him just yet, either. If the Quakes are going to buyout a player contract, it should be Eriksson's, anyway. I'd take Vako over Eriksson every single day of week.
Vako is by far the most technically gifted player on the roster. If you're going to replace his skill level then it will most likely have to be another highly paid DP...a lateral move. I would rather invest the money that would cost to eat up his contract into other positions to improve the team around him as that would help the team much more and maybe even light a fire under his a** to improve his work rate.
I agree Vako is the most technically talented. I am dubious that the new coach will believe he can improve his work rate or will want him on the roster, however. If the new coach keeps him and can consistently get the same team-first effort out of Vako that he will get out of Wondo then he will indeed be a miracle worker.
By the way, was Vako hurt for the Quakes' season finale? He did not play, something I don't recall anyone commenting upon.