Rumor: The "Official" 2021 (and beyond) Chicago Fire Head Coach Search Speculation Thread

At what point does keeping Heitz affect people’s opinion of Mansueto? Similarly, when does Mansueto lose faith in Heitz?

 

Like with players and coaches, technical staff hirings and firings are seasonal. The market opens and staff move and then things settle and they are given time to show their worth. He’s apparently not at risk this market.

When he started he was being guided by Nelson. That time is done. He is getting this off-season with a new coach to pick a team. That really should be it as far as I’m concerned. He adds value for Mansueto, but not necessarily by picking MLS players.

Mansueto might not move at soccer speeds, but that might not be all bad. It took him time to fire Nelson, but he’s gone. Kyle Sheldon and Sean Dennison were two of the last vestiges of the Hauptman/Nelson era front office mentality and they’re out. It took too long, but Joe got it right. I assume he’ll get it right with Heitz, too.

 

I mentioned this earlier. First, Heitz' players didn't do that bad after Wicky was shitcanned, so maybe he's not as bad as people really seem to want him to be, and third, if Heitz was the problem and not Wicky, then maybe the problem is Mansueto. But again, I think everyone that believes Ezra was the wrong hire is wrong themselves, so hopefully when we're celebrating a trophy of some kind next season I can dig up some of these posts and laugh.

 

If it was Heitz players were better after Wicky then why did they let most of them go? I am still of the belief it was less Wicky then Heitz. I will say Federico was a good grab.

 

LET’S GO EZRA!

Wish we’d gone down a different route but I’m all in until he sucks.

 

F. Navarro looks great. I am still disappointed we couldn’t see him and Frankowski for the second half of the season.

 

With many of them being under contract, why tie a new coach to them when they might not work in the new system? Trust me, I'm suspicious of a few of the offseason moves too, Medran and Luka (damn it, I really liked Luka) were both varying degrees of puzzling, but I get why you'd do a bit of a restart even if it means letting good players walk.

 

A write-in vote...Keano!

 

Another write-in, Rory Dames just became available.

 

If they're looking to hire a Hendrickson, I could be available.

 

All accounts are the Michael Bradley is planning on staying in the Toronto area after he retires (he and his wife have Canadian green cards now and I believe have begun the process to get citizenship IIRC). Bob gets to stay near his grandkids. Can't fault the guy for choosing family.

 

Yep sucks from our point of view but you can see why Bradley prefers Toronto. They'll invest the same money and they have a track record of being successful unlike us. I thought he'd at least listen to us.

 

I should have been more clear: I am still disappointed we couldn’t see F. Navarro and Frankowski happily training together for the second half of the season.

 

Did we even have cap room to do that?

 

Oops.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/11/22/rory-dames-chicago-red-stars-resigns/

 

I know that’s a concern. I don’t know all the books, but we did have a boatload of funny money from the Djordje trade and Frankowski could have been renegotiated. Regardless, if we were stuck because of Heitz’s signings and couldn’t make that happen, it’s still damning nonetheless.

 

yeah, it's NOT good for Heitz, though I'd heard through the usual rumor mills that the Djordje funny money was needed just to cover our own overvalued roster as it was at the start of the year. Smarter people than me can chime in on that.

 

I remember us telling Djordje we can't afford him so he's getting traded or something along those lines.

 

To this point, it felt like the Red Stars was the only team that players wanted to go to. So this is a pretty big surprise to me.

 

I had no clue.

The only comment I have is that I had applied to USSF for an associate corporate counsel position several years (around the time that the scandals around FIFA were gaining general media attention). At the time, the requirements focused on intellectual property protection, licensing, and related areas where I have relevant background. After about six months of no responses at all, the position was withdrawn.

When the opening re-appeared months later, the requirements had shifted entirely to, for all appearances, labor relations...and from what little I could glean at the time from both the job description and then-current events, they very much wanted a "union buster". Given my family's union background, I had no fkucing interest in that shyte.

To belatedly learn of allegations about the how the USSF has allegedly handled player complaints is...unsurprising. Very disappointed to be now hearing about the nature of the claims against Dames...gorramit. Christ, maybe I should apply for the job.

 

What is taking so long to announce Ezra as the new head coach? I hope he didn’t get cold feet and decided on going somewhere else. It’s been a week since the FO and Ezra have agreed terms.

 

New, qualified coach and three open DP spots to make us Thankful on Thursday?