My gut told me that JD and FY screwed the pooch AGAIN in this expansion draft as, they did in the last one, by leaving one of their lower salaried younger guys that has potential to become a mainstay in MLS unprotected. These jokes don't get that there is an fing cap on how much can be spent on the team as a whole. That means you need to sometimes expose better players and protect those that are not quite as good but that have a much lower salary. If Hernandez does in fact have a frigging lame ankle that managements is so worried about that they feel somehow they need to use Bobby Burling as to start the season why didn't they expose Hernandez. Also from a financial side, how many Quakes fans were excited to come and see a game becasue of Bobby Fing Burling. What the F*** did they spend all that time and money on marketing Shea Salinas as part of the Earthquakes brand for if they only planned to let him get taken for free in an expansion draft. Even if we needed another defender why wouldn't they have kept Shea protected and let Burling go in the expansion draft, which he wouldn't have, and then traded Shea Salinas for a defender that is much better than Bobby F-ing Burling. I have always said that I wanted to let John Doyle and Frank Yallop start this season but at this point I am sick of giving them the benefit of the doubt. It is time for both of these clowns to go or at the very least the one who was responsible for letting Salinas go unprotected. If they were both at fault then both need to go.
Good shout. He's another one I forgot about. He was the #1 pick though. And to be fair, he's also a special player.
I could careless that Salinas is gone or not. All he is, is Scott Bower Version 2.0. All Flash, Speed, and nothing else. He won't be in the league another 5 years.
I feel very badly about losing Shea Salinas as I think he was a very good young player who was getting better. I found him fun to watch as his speed brought excitement and attaching chances to the team. When I look at what speed brings to MLS, I think of Findley, Landon & Zakuani. They are a nightmare for defenders when they run at you. Findley is a straight down the Middle guy and Landon can be that and a threat wide as well. Both of them scare people. Zakuani is more comfortable being a fast wide guy who has the job of creating chances wide. He had 4 assists last season but also scored 4 goals which is a bonus for a wide guy but something they must learn to do more and more if they are to become top players. Shea had 5 assist in limited minuets but although he came close a number of times he did not get goals. I think with a good attacking team (I am not sure Philly will be that team) he will improve that part of his game and he will be an even more exciting player to watch in the future. It is not all about speed you have to be able to play as well. When I think about other fast guys I think of Oduro or to a lesser degree Kamara but I don’t think either one of them can play at all. I also think of Corey Ashe but Shea had better stats than him and I think Shea is a far better player going forward. I was looking forward to seeing Arturo on the left and Shea on the right next year and I am disappointed that I will not see this combination grow together. With a new class central striker alongside Ryan Johnston and add a new class attacking central midfield player we would be fun to watch and greatly improved. We need speed, we need to attack, we need to get the opposition on their heels instead of them pinning us in at our end. We need at least 2 players who are considered the best in MLS in their respective positions. We should try to get 3 players that are All Star Class. If you think that this is impossible I ask you to consider the following roster on 2003: Goals Pat Onstad Goalkeeper of the year, All Star & National Team player Central Defense Jeff Agoos All Star & National Team Player Troy Dyak All Star & National Team Player Eddie Robinson All Star & National Team Player MFD Ronnie Ekelund All Star & National Team Player Dwayne De Rossario All Star & National Team Player Richard Mulrooney All Star & National Team Player Forwards Brian Ching All Star & National Team Player Landon Donovan All Star & National Team Player That is 9 players who I consider as good as anyone in the League that year. Add to that Brian Mullen All Star & National Team Player Mani Lagos All Star & National Team Player Ramiro Corrales All Star & National Team Player Todd Dunnivant National Team Player Arturo Alvarez National Team Player All good team players who worked their ass off combined into being a very good attacking exciting team to watch, that could also win things. That is what it takes and we must get back to this as quickly as possible. I don’t think we have aimed high enough from the Ownership down. I don’t think Frank has been given the tools.
Wee Man wrote: "I don’t think we have aimed high enough from the Ownership down. I don’t think Frank has been given the tools." I agree with Wee Man. (No surprise, many of us do - I only add on here to clarify to Mark what my feelings about Yallop are). However, I am not as big an Alvarez fan because I think he has no desire to change from being a one-footed player, and, if at some point he decided to change, he would not be able to do so. (I think playing for El Salvador only reinforces in his mind that he has no need to change). If he is to be our right wing then I would rather trade him or have exposed him in the draft. If he were to make a real off-season effort to become two-footed I would probably feel differently. If the plan is to trade for a midfielder to replace Shea, the question becomes who do you trade? You have to give something to get something. I think in that case our needs would have been in other parts of the field first.
Great point about finishing last and still losing players in each of the last two expansion drafts. There can only be one of two conclusions from that: 1) We have a full and talented team including the back ups and FY just doesn't know how to win with those good players, or 2) JD doesn't know who to protect and who not to. I'm voting for this one. Did he think for one minute about what kind of player Nowak was likely to want? It seems everyone on the Union board knew, why didn't JD? Does Joe C have a expansion draft ineligibility clause in his contract? I wouldn't be surprised, that may have been one way to get him to lower his salary last year. But, that just means that JD screwed up the contract. Hartman and Onstad (year after year, btw) prove that nobody selects older, expensive goal keepers. Does John understand this? Why not? And I like what a previous poster said about replacement cost. If Corrales or Cannon were exposed and taken, would you be able to get equal replacement for equal or less money...probably. Can you say that about Salinas...no way. I'm not buying the 'we'll pick one just like him in the draft bit'. Draft picks are a crapshoot at best and SJ has not shown an ability to particularly shine in that department. In addition to that, the equivalent to SS will have to sit on the bench for two years to learn how to play at MLS level. SS was just getting there. The other alternative is a high pick like Zakuani was, but that means you are using the pick to replace Shea, and you are not using it somewhere else where you have holes needing filling. So that doesn't really work either, because you're not improving your team, just replacing players on the worst team in the league (two years combined). When JD was in the broadcast booth, he never struck me as having an unusual gift for seeing the game, nor frankly, for his analysis and intelligence. I think we're seeing that here as well. A smarter GM makes better choices when they are playing poker or chess.
Moore and Yallop together did produce a championship in San Jose, so we have at least some evidence that given the right situation they can work well together. From the Wee Man's post above I think it is clear that since he left the Quakes he still has an accurate analytic eye and has kept up on the league and its players.
I've been saying this since 2008. Frank was limited by Lalas, now he's limited by the Poor Man's Lalas (John Doyle). I figure if Yallop was given full player control, the situations would be different. As you said, Yallop went out, and picked up, Lagos, Agoos, Dayak, De Rosario, Robinson, Ibsen, Donovan, Ekelund, & Agogo in 2001, which he built a championship team. In 2003, he had many holes to fill after a not so good 2002 season. He picked up Mullan, Ching, Waibel & Onstad, and once again built a championship squad. So in reality, I think Yallop can still work the magic, but with Ding Dong Doyle at the top its not going to happen.
I'm as pissed about (needlessly and stupidly) losing Salinas as anyone. It was probably a no-brainer for Novak to look at a guy making 34k, contributing 5 assists in half a season's worth of play. He can look then look at a little film to see what kind of player he is - OK, fast winger who likes to run at people, and can go outside for a cross or cut inside, and think, "sure, let's get that guy" - at 34k, he'd be a good backup at least. But why does everyone seem to assume that it was some kind of unilateral decision by Doyle? I would image that Doyle and Frank talked about it, and agreed. If they can't come to a consensus, then if anything I would guess / hope that Doyle would bow to Frank on player personnel decisions. If not, I think that's a problem. OTOH, I can imagine Doyle looking at Burling and thinking of another tall, lanky, not necessarily fast, caucasian defender who he thought was pretty good in his time, and thinking, "I don't know what it is, but I really like this guy".
Lew has given his approval to spend up to the cap and now has given his blessing to go get a DP. Seems to me the ownership isn't aiming high enough, it's the GM who isn't using his tools properly, which means Frank isn't getting the tools he needs.
I really liked Riley, and they left him unprotected. I liked Salinas, unprotected. I guess next expansion draft RJ and McDonald will be exposed as well.
Nah, they'll be traded mid-season in a deal that gives us back Kei Kamara and a third round draft pick.
ABSOLUTELY!!! As a few people here have noted, if you are the face of the Earthquakes, or appear on the cover of the game program, or your goals make the best Quakes commercials, it's bye-bye. The FO needs to take Marketing 101. And, I don't think Yallop knows how to develop talent. I felt that he was holding Shea back and bringing him along too slowly. Shea definitely got better each year despite meager playing time. Game-to-game, he was inconsistent, but by season-end, he had clearly figured out how to send in some very sweet short and long crosses, and his ball control equals Q's and Artie's. I predict that Shea will do well someday, altho maybe not at Philly. Looking at their expansion draft, I think that they will supplant the Quakes at the bottom of the MLS.
Don't know about that. You can't blame the FO in relation to marketing. When they crafted this year's ad campaign they used Joe, Hucks, Shea and Garcia. All 4 were fan favorites to various extents and reasons after the close of 08 and all 4 had decent 2008 seasons. The business side of the FO could not have known Hucks would get hurt (with what ended up being a career ending injury), that Shea would not progress as much as everyone thought he would and would end up being left exposed by the soccer ops guys (John and Frank) and subsequently taken, and they could not have foreseen that Garcia would collapse as a defender and be traded away to continue his collapse north of the border. What can you say other than shit happens.
There is little evidence that Yallop has acquitted himself well with the current club, or in his last couple jobs. Obviously because of his previous stint with the club a lot of people would like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I think its unfair to Doyle to assign all of the blame to him unless you are familiar with the internal workings of the decision making process. If the next GM wants to retain Yallop then fine, but he shouldnt escape blame on this one.
I think that if they had left Burling unprotected and if Burling were chose in the expansion draft, and in a month or two when practice resumed if they were still thinking they needed another defender that they could have then traded Salinas for a better defender than Burling is. Chumps.
1. How old was Huckerby? When you take risks on aging players they more often than not will get hurt. 2. What did he show in his first season that made you feel he was a talent? He showed me that he gets so nervous in front of goal that he is able to miss a sitter. 3. Garcia has always been shit. He wold not have been given away essentially for FREE if he wasn't.
Hucks was only 32 last season. Not exactly a geezer. And he didn't have a history of getting hurt, and definitely wasn't injured during the 08 season. Salinas showed some improvement in 08 and was a great off the field presence. Sure he missed that sitter but that was one kick. You can't damn a first year pro kid for one bad kick. That said, he didn't pan out. No one could have foreseen that. As for Garcia, he was the anchor of the back line in 08 and was a damn good player in 08 (remember our D in 08 was in the upper half of the league. It was our offense that blew in 08). The FO could not have foreseen that he'd take such a dramatic and quick dive into suckitude in 09.
When central mids drop in the lap of the central defenders, bad things usually occur!! In most cases, it is Not the fault of the central defenders. BTW, did you notice how cr...ppy our central mids played at the beginning of the season?
Excellent points! Even if we blame Doyle for a fair fraction of the personnel blunders, it's Frank who trains the guys, Frank who picks the starting lineup, Frank who picks the captain, Frank who gives the pep talks, and Frank who makes the subs. I know that a lot of fans want to blame JD and think that Frank deserves another chance. They both need to be sacked my friends. This is a team effort blow it. Go Quakes!! - Mark