Of all the ******** ups they have made in the last three years or so, and there have been many, where do you rank not paying JL his $150K+ and letting him walk out the door ? I say top 3. Boy could we use someone with his calmness, composure and ball retaining skills right about now ?
Lowballing Dorman to see him walk, offering Noonan too high of a contract and watching him walk when we renegotiate, bringing in Khano for round two, renewing Jankauskas' contract, the 2008 draft, whatever lead to Perovic wanting to leave, uhhh...I'm sure there's more but I'm trying to keep it within the past few years.
Dabo and Domi surely belong on that list, for the most part everyone knew that these guys were too old when they were signed. And as predicted, I can't see either of them returning next season.
Exactly. We traded away the key to our possession for a never-was defender and a 40 year old back up goalie who, while he had heart was only traded for because the FO screwed up in not protecting Knighton. Given their two guys are still with Colorado while ours were one-and-done, this should be judged as a failure. The Colorado trade was one among the many screw ups by the Nicol/Burns axis in the past 3 years. A few others: Not signing a quality forward as an insurance policy for Twellman (2009/2010). The Joseph Niouky signing. Leaving Knighton unprotected. Sticking with the 4-5-1 too long. Not offering Twellman and/or Ralston a job to keep both players within the organization in some way, shape, or form. I've been critical of Stolica in the past (4 goals in 16 appearances strike rate) but compared to Lekic (2g, 11app) who has actually had service from Feilhaber in a few games, I'm thinking releasing Stoli and Perovic could have been yet another poor decision (unless they make a significant move for a player good enough to forget about both).
As someone said, I'd put resigning Jank at $240k higher than the Niouky signing as a failure. Also, I didn't mind the Domi signing, but the Dabo signing was worrisome to me (and to many others) but we were told by people that we were just being negative. At some point, this negative BS has to stop ... maybe the people that are being "negative" are actually basing their opinions on reality and how the past few years have played out? Nope, we're just negative and no one posts here because of it.
My question is why would any accomplished or even decent up and coming professional want to come play in New England? The negatives far away the positives. If the FO doesn't address these issues at some point then the Revs will continue to be the toilet bowl that won't stop running. Someone needs to open the tank, close the flapper and adjust the valve and float. Low pay turf cold weather shared stadium Stadium atmosphere High cost of living near Boston Poor level of play from surrounding players little support from FO etc,etc,etc.
Michael Augustine was the same situation as Niouky. Different person, same result. FO didn't learn their lesson the first time.
1. Pocketing the Dempsey money and giving it to Adalius Thomas. 2. Assuming Twellman would get beter and be good again. 3. Letting Dorman walk like he was some scrub.
You can't judge a team based on the players they've passed on; especially when said player is over 30 years old, just like the players that have miserably failed here. They should be judged by the players they have acquired, who have all failed miserably. Castro, Badilla, Niouky, Assengue, Augustine, Dabo, Domi, and Jankauskas were all awful signings. The trade with Colorado was also terrible. These are the decisions that the club should be evaluated on. They had no idea that GBS would have such success in this league.
That is your opinion. I think they can be judged on players that they a chance at and passed on. By your logic it would not have been a mistake to pass on Benny.
They technically have a chance at millions of players, GBS was just another one of the million. It just so happens that he went on to have a great MLS career. The Revs were directly presented with the chance to sign Benny through the allocation order. It's apples to oranges.
It is fair to judge the club on all decisions made. Not just the on decisions to acquire, but also on the decisions made explicitly to NOT acquire. Acquired players can turn out good or bad; likewise players who were actively passed over can turn out good or bad. Both involved judgement and decision making by the FO. If you look only at players acquired, you are not looking at all decisions made by FO. [Again, assuming we had to actually make a decision on Schelotto, and or others who we actively passed over. (As opposed to never being in a position to take the player - where no decision was made/needed by Revs FO as any decision was already made by others outside of Revs organization.)] ------------------------ There are FO feckups outside of the realm of player transactions, no? Are they fair game for this discussion as well? .
Lowballing JL and losing him Renewing Jank for a second year Signing the French Connection Hard to recover from snafus like that. Domi/Dabo could be the one that breaks the Nickel/Blooter back.
I thought that the Revs were directly presented with the chance to sign GBS, that is why I said "if it is true". My understanding was that the Revs had a chance to sign him and passed and then he moved on to the Crew. One of those deals where he signed with the league and then found a team.
Other, non transactional mistakes: The Joe Public home game Their handling of CONCACAF Champions Cup home games No seating on the opposite side for years The playing surface Never playing even one US Open Cup game in Boston Not running a train from Boston for any regular season games No noticeable advertising for years Late to the academy table Years where we were competitive, but finished the season with open roster spots under the salary cap In fairness, should there be a thread for Front Office successes? I can think of some things that they have done right and they should probably be recognized for.
One could say (and Crooked did above) that you could not predict how well GBS would do being over 30 and in a new league, etc. Similary, one could say that Benny has moved around too much for his age, is often injured, made his name for one shot in 2007, etc. I can appreciate both sides of the discussion on both players, but I am glad we have Benny and I wish we had taken GBS. I agree with you though about Benny, but I will say that he just needs time to gel, is not used to the travel, is not used to the surface, is not used to midweek games on the road, and will be better with a pre-season under his belt
This wasn't necessarily intended to be a bash the F.O type of thread more a JL tribute thread. Of all their mistakes I really think not resigning JL was one of the biggest, and thats saying something.
In hindsight, yes you are right. I came in here hoping to see opinions and thoughts on Jeff and instead got a laundry list of F.O mess ups.