There it is. This is what's been bugging me. I've been unconvinced on PV for a while. As soon as he took over as coach he created a new coaching and scouting position. This seemed like an admission that the organization wasn't set up to help the previous coach succeed. Since then...the signings (save for Smith) haven't gotten considerably better...he stripped Conrad and handed the armband to Davy (who labors under the weight of it)...young players are not progressing...and he seems unaware that there are styles of play beyond the 4-3-3. And it doesn't matter. Nothing says 'we suck' like firing a coach in the middle of a season. For that reason alone OnGoal is not going to fire PV as the team heads into the shiny new stadium. I suppose if we get to Aug/Sep and all is simply lost then maybe it happens to get some buzz and keep SKC in the news (especially if there is an NFL delay).
i've lobbied for vermes to be fired for awhile now.. and i didn't see much sense in retreading my thoughts once again in this thread, hence why i haven't posted here. that said, i'd lobby to KEEP vermes if bradley was his replacement.
I had a conversation with someone who claims to be on friendly terms with PV. He says PV is a big fan of the Dutch Total Football Concept of interchangeable roles for all of the players. I'm not sure if this is true or not. If it is true, it would be pretty ironic since none of the players seem to understand their own role, let alone anybody else role.
Bob Bradley (no matter how tongue in cheek my suggestion was) I respect but I know he is as popular as cancer in some quarters despite his numerous achievements and quality resume. But seeing as your lobbying against Peter Vermes but would reject a guy as much silverware as the Wizards in their entire history ..... who would you have replace Peter Vermes as coach? In all seriousness -- there are plenty of people that don't want PV around and if there was a good replacement I would accept him being shown the door but I have yet to see anybody name a realistic replacement as coach. Who is available? Who out there has a track record we can trust enough to turn around this season that we'd dispense with our coach now? And who would join us?
i'll admit i don't have a good replacement... but i'm fine with that, mostly because it's not my job to find a replacement. it's my job to criticize or praise the decisions. the fans do enough of the front office's work as it is, from spreading the word about the team, to attempting to answer all sorts of lingering questions from casual observers about the rebrand, to creating atmosphere on gameday including many of you cauldronites paying out-of-pocket for banners and stuff.
I was being mildly serious when I said Avram Grant. No clue if it's possible, but I'd definitely be all for that move.
Would love Alan Curbishley ...... don't think it would happen but that'd be the calibre of guy I'd have us look for. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Curbishley#Management_career
There simply is no empirical rationale for that. History speaks for itself, Bradley is only unpopular because Americans grossly overestimate the depth and overall talent level of our NT pool and are thus disappointed to get bounced in the World Cup round of 16 when they should actually be swooning with pride for what was nothing less than an heroic team effort. He, Arena, Schmid, Nicol and Kinnear are pretty clearly the standard bearers in MLS history and I would personally be pretty optimistic about our future if we brought him in (assuming he were given complete coaching authority).
blame would then fall on the person that selected to pepper the roster with crappy internationals... yet can't grasp the concept of why our best CM by quite a bit plays on the reg...
Yeah, anyone who thinks that Bradley wouldn't be a massive upgrade from PV well, just isn't thinking logically. I mean, we had 5 players in our pool start in a top 5 league in Europe last weekend (it would be 6 with Holden). That's been pretty consistent over time. The fact that we won our group with 4-5 top Euro starters, starters from lesser European leagues is a miracle. It would be almost equivalent to SKC winning the conference with our talent. I'd take that.
nonsense, for me at least. i won't speak for other people, but i'm under no illusion about our talent pool.
Neil Lennon? He has to be getting tired of his life being threatrened by Ger's supporters and might be looking for a change of scenery. Or not.
i try to avoid it as much as possible. this thread isn't really about bradley. my preference is that we fire vermes yesterday. i don't give a shit about how it coincides with the stadium opening. i don't own this team, i'm a fan. i want my team to be as good as possible as soon as possible. the longer vermes drags this club down, the longer it will take to be respectable ON THE FIELD. ongoal is doing many things right off the field (definitely not everything, but many), but none of it is worth a shit to me if the product blows. well, that product has blown ass for the last 5 years, and there's been one name at the top of that shitlist for all that time. it's not a coincidence. nor is it bad luck because of injuries or call-ups. it's time to cross it off and find someone new... now. there's arguments against firing the manager when he's not able to make roster changes, it's been mentioned here already, but the roster is only 50% of the problem. the other 50% is the goddamn system. we've got some talent on this squad, but 80% of it isn't being maximized. players aren't being put into positions to succeed, and some are just plain being left out to twist in the wind. hire a new manager who's willing and able to fit a system around the strengths of our current personnel. we can win with these guys right now. i don't think we can be great. we need some definite transfers for that to happen, but we've got some solid pieces in place already. right now, we've got a manager who keeps trying to fit players into a system instead of the other way around... and the worst part about it is that that same goddamn manager is the one responsible for bringing those players here. how is that possible? how is it possible that he can be doing both? surely a mildly competent manager would be able to do one or the other. like i said earlier, it's not my job to find a replacement. it IS my job to tell the ownership when i'm deeply unsatisfied and why. if they are as committed to being "the best organization in the league" as they say they are, THEY'LL do what they're supposed to do and find and hire the right person. it is the single most important thing ownership can do to being a good organization - hiring the right man to lead the team. it's not the ONLY important thing, but it is the most important. everything on the field (and that's what this whole venture is SUPPOSED to be about, right?) is directly attributable to that individual. at this point in time, ongoal gets failing marks in this department. failing. an F. i've never met peter vermes, so this isn't a criticism of him as a person. he could be a great guy and an upstanding citizen. as a manager of a professional soccer team, however, he is a failure. ongoal's reluctance to recognize this and/or act on it flies in the face of their claim to be the best. i don't doubt that they WANT to win. i DO doubt that they know how. maybe it's time to start publicly doubting the abilities of the one actually at the top, robb heineman. he's the one who made all these proclamations. he's the one responsible for all the changes at the club. maybe he doesn't know how to choose the right guy to lead. maybe he's too focused on other areas of the franchise or just has too much on his plate at the moment. whatever it is, the responsibility of the team's performance falls on the manager, and the responsibility of the manager's performance falls on the president. a change needs to be made... and maybe doing so will show that they give a damn about the performances instead of just about pushing how advanced our new stadium is and other superfluous bullshit.
The problem is Robb loves Vermes and won't remove him regardless of the record on the field. It's a shame OnGoal is nothing but first class in Kansas City. Unfortunately Vermes has been terrible as the TD and now the coach. The team looks terrible all last year on the pitch, yet they have very good talent - same story this year. It was funny listening to the one brit constantley criticize the decision our players made and say that we should be in a 4-4-2. I'm sure he won't be back in the booth after last saturday. Also, the other brit---get some slacks if your going to do the broadcast and lose the jeans and belt buckle --how about a little professionalism.
He wasn't going to be back in the booth regardless of his comments, Barton is a coach for a team in the NPSL out in California, he was on the broadcast because he was a local in the area that KC was able to get. The same way we got the guy from Fox News to do the New York game.
The Attack had the same issue with Zoran Savic and Don Kincaid. Z and Kincaid became really close friends and Kincaid would not remove him even when a change was needed and Z was scaring off players left and right. You have to be able to make the hard calls when you are at that level of management, even if it means letting go of a friend. Because they are friends, Vermes will not be fired. He will announce his resignation to save face.
didnt want to take up the space on quoting, butthere you have it, that is the reason Vermes needs to be gone
Funny - I thought Robb said today that if we didn't make the playoffs and compete in them there would be consequences.
Vermes might lose his job (as head coach) after the season is over. But I think he will remain on "team operations side" in some capacity.
I could see him continuing with Sporting Club in some capacity but highly doubt he would be involved with the professional soccer team in any capacity. So, hypothetically, he is fired, then what? How does an ownership group, with little soccer background, go about hiring a TD &/or coach? Are there consulting groups for this? If so, which consultant do you use? Are there consultants to find consultants? Darts at a ouija board? Anyone with knowledge of these things?
If he gets fired, he will not be coach or TD anymore. If he wants to stay and they want to keep him for a job not associated with the team side, I dont know that anyone would have an issue with that. However, I think that PV would get looked at by other teams for a coaching or TD position and I cant see him not wanting a more high profile, better paying job.
eh, i never liked him being coach in the first place, they should have given him his old job back at the start of the season and got an actual coach. but yeah, seeing too many of the same problems game after game makes you wonder what they're working on in practice. he's a great talent scout, but with all these young guys we need a talent developer.