My contact in Norway says that Solér's appointment is all over Norwegian media now as well. Also, one of the names he is looking at as manager is former Norwegian national team manager Åge Hareide (who he says is currently considering a number of job offers from various Scandinavian clubs). Will pass along more as I get it.
Re: Goff : Soler lead candidate for GM Spot It was just confirmed by the two biggest newspapers in Norway, http://www.vg.no/sport/fotball/artikkel.php?artid=588452 http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/11/25/sport/fotball/erik_soler/new_york_red_bulls/9203804/
Re: Goff : Soler lead candidate for GM Spot More info on Soler if you guys want. He played for the Norwegian clubs Lillestrøm and Brann, and also Hamburger SV. He played 39 games for the Norwegian national team. After his playing career he became an agent, with Steffen Iversen and Erik Mykland as his most famous clients. In 2003 he quit as an agent and bought himself into Start. This past few years he has been a studio commentator on the Champions League broadcasts in Norway. It was on the CL-broadcast, just a couple of hours ago, that he announced that he is going to New York. Why is he coming to New York you might ask? Well, he and Dietmar Beiersdorfer are old friends from his time in Hamburger SV.
Re: Goff : Soler lead candidate for GM Spot Well... Success is good. If he is really only successful with winners already in place... no comment is necessary. More wait and see.
Re: Goff : Soler lead candidate for GM Spot Hareide is a good coach. He kinda ran out of gas with the national team, but other than that he has been a success. Rosenborg (the best team in Norway), just lost their coach to the Swedish national team, and Hareide is the favorite to take the job. He has job-offers all over scandinavia. I haven't read anything about Hareide being a candidate for New York Bulls, not yet at least.
Re: Goff : Soler lead candidate for GM Spot I wonder if he was supposed to open his yap yet. I've been assuming all week that we haven't gotten any official word on this because they've been deferring to PU for the news cycle. Guess RBNY may as well put out some sort of confirmation now, eh?
Re: Goff : Soler lead candidate for GM Spot As someone who works in PR, I can tell you that the Wednesday afternoon preceding Thanksgiving is just about the worst possible time to announce anything (so it's probably what NYRB will do).
Re: Goff : Soler lead candidate for GM Spot My god, I don't know what any of those words mean, but it's just like shopping at Ikea. I guess that does confirm it. Here we go.........
I've just sent e-mail to Goff and Ives letting them know that this news is all over Norwegian press, and asking them to press NYRB for an official statement on the record. Goff replied almost immediately, saying "Many Thanks!" Hopefully that means he's on the phone right now.
Re: Goff : Soler lead candidate for GM Spot Here are links to the pages as filtered through a webpage translator. (Results may vary...) First one Second one
Scouring the net and reading norwegian press through a translator for local NY news. Who the f@ck runs PR for this team holy sh@t. The more things change the more they stay the same. Does this guy speak the local lingo at least or will we eventually be graced by his words and presence through an interpreter?
You've been here three years? (kidding) I guess they planned to save it for Monday and Norway beat em to the punch. I don't buy the 'nice to Philly' moratorium because it isn't like the Fire sat on letting Hamlett go to give Nowak more bounce for that massive LeToux draft pick news to hit the wire. I guess he is waiting out work permit clearence and then they'll fly him here and announce it in a press conference (remember Il Bruce at the Mandarin Hotel) so that he can get more coverage, but, internet is too fast for him to open his trap in Norway and expect us not to hear echoes.
Could be worse, my only question would be what is to recommend Soler as a GM (i.e. evaluator of talent)? Of course he may take the same approach as Peter Wilt said he would; i.e. pick the coach and give him the job of chooseing personnel. Or he could tell Jeff to work with the coach in picking players. In which case we'd be back in the same boat. I'd like to wait and see if Soler is indeed hired and how he constructs the rest of his staff. However, it certainly does seem as if putting the best team on the field was not the overriding reason they chose Soler.
So will Agoos be assistant GM or is he out of the picture altogether? I mean someone will need to show the new GM their way around the MLS regulations right? Who better than Agoos to handhold Soler?
Please no. Agoos has been awful and an awful judge of talent. He basically got rid of Arena and Arena's personnel choices were so much better other than Reyna who just got injured too often and the turf did not help. I think it was Arena who got Angel and look at the Galaxy who have quite a few former Red Bulls. I really hope Agoos goes very soon.
Bondy has this story now: http://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/bondy/soler_confirms_hes_red_bull_sporting_director/
Is he likely to bring some scandinavian players with him? He likes in particular Stokkelien and Perkins. Iversen, Mix and some FCK defender might be amongst who he can convince to come with him for a "nice price" and a big challenge.
Soler isnt very popular amongst norwegian clubs so it might get pricy, just to please fans, Perkins is signed until 2013 with VIF ( afaik)... Iversen is signed with RBK until desember 2010, and RBK refused to sell him in 2008, doubt they will sell him at all, considiring is local legendary status.. and i seem to remember that he has expressed that he will only play in England ( because of his wife) and in Norway.. not to mention he is getting old. Mix maybe.. FCK players might feel that they are in a much better league ( with the ability to play in CL almost every year) already.. but everyone has their price. As long as "you" dont take Huseklepp, i dont really care either way Soler is quite good at what he does tho. Grats.