Now that the draft's over, I thought I'd kill a little time with this question. If you could take back one past decision by the Fire, what would you pick? I'll leave some of the more obvious ones on the table and say that I wish we could have held onto Damani Ralph. I know he was eager to get to Europe and make some big money as soon as he could. In retrospect, I think the Fire could have talked him into waiting at least a season or two longer instead of sending him to BFE. Everyone would have been better off. The Fire would probably have had to sell him eventually if he wasn't just a one hit wonder, but we could have gotten a much better price and perhaps have had a little bit better chance to get his successor lined up. Damani could now be in a much more comfortable living situation, probably in England with its large Jamaican expat community, with a better chance for selection to his national side. Rubin Kazan wouldn't have spent 2 mil + wages to bring a Caribbean striker to the Russian steppes, which might not have been their best laid plan. Since Razov and Ralph left at the end of '04, we have not had strikers of sufficient quality to win the league. I can't help wondering what we might have done these past few years with Ralph and Rolfe up front. He'd be 28 this year. They would have made a damn good pair.
picking jeff curtin and calen carr instead of Jozy Altidore and jonathan bornstein in the 2006 superdraft
Sweet merciful crap, what a no-brainer for the winner: the decision to hire Sarachan. My runner-up would be adding the guarantee clause to Hristo's contract. Third place goes to the disastrous Lagos/Kotschau for Wee Paul/Curious George trade.
The Fire had a booth at Taste of Chicago that year and the Friday Manny was there.I think he was actually traded that day while he was down at the taste in the afternoon. also I saw Brian Bates walking down Jackson in the gameday white away strip with a suitcase during lunch one day... later that day it was posted on the internet he was traded to Dallas for Soehn (good trade) .I always thought it was odd he was skipping town with his Fire jersey on...