Not for long enough. My understanding is that Andrew joined in on the opinion that Greeley was a total douche bag long before he fired him.
Ill be honest with you.. one of the few issues i did have with Bob when he was coach of the Fire was him taking too long to make some needed subs in games.. but I think he has adjusted.. Bottom line is though, he did bring us the team and the players including Nowak, Kubik Stoitchokov etc that made us the exciting team that we were.
Chris, You are spot on...based on my conversations with some folks with direct links to the front office the team is in cost cutting mode right now.. and the main problem the Fire is having is micro management from the top on down.. Hauptman and Leon DO NOT allow frank the autonomy to make decisons on players and coaches that we think he does. Hauptman and Leon (who is NOT A SOCCER GUY) are not soccer people.. Leon in fact has a disdain for soccer people in that he thinks they dont have the business skills needed to run a team...but regardless Frank was GM only in title.. as most GM's like Peter Wilt in his past were given the authority over their P&L and budgets.. Frank does not have that authority...Hauptman is a micro manager and his inability to get out of the way of the soccer people to soley make all decisons is showing on the field,, OFF the field and in the front office... So the problem is two fold... will Hauptman pay for Bob,, based on what is going on in the front office right now finaically NO.. Second matter is will hauptman get the ******** out of Bobs way should they even get so far as a interview? the answer is initally yes then JHauptman being the finacial micro manager that he is no.. which would cause Bob to leave... similar to what Nick Sakeweicz did to him at the Metrostars and Javier Leon did to him at Chivas.. Leon hired him yes.. but then Javier Leon is a know it all who started getting in the way of and questioning Bob's decision making.
Let remember that Bradley was making close to 500k, and will likely have many opportunities available to him. We are the club who tried to hire a head coach for less money than he was making as an assistant in Houston, so we hired someone else would would work for peanuts. It doesn't sound like a fit.
The B.O.B. ship has sailed. Thanks for the memories but it's time for some new blood. Personally I'll take J.Marsch. Fire pedegree and (for those pining for Bradley) played under Bob at Princeton(IIRC) and for the Fire. Bring CJ back home as an assistant and we move forward.
Who knows if Bob and Javier would even be willing to work together again. I don't know much about their relationship. On the "cheapskate" card, I think its a warranted argument at this point. Look at the past few years. We wouldn't pay Rolfe a decent wage to stay. We try a bunch of cheap wing and a prayer fixes like Collins John and even the two Uruguayans that came very cheap. The counter argument is that we have splashed money on big name players, but it seems that Blanco, Nery and Pardo are as much marketing promotions as players, so Andrew figures he will make a bunch of it back just in ticket/shirt sales. Then there was Ljungberg. Good signing, but we never made a serious move to keep him here. So, piecing some things together and hearing some whispers about money from people who I think know what they are talking about, I think the cheapskate argument is at least worthy of discussion.
I'd be fine with this. I'd be happy if Bob came back, but as I said earlier, part of me would rather see this move for Jesse and or CJ in one combination or another.
Absolutely, I agree. Ideally, I would like to see Bob Bradley and Jesse Marsch join the Fire, with Jesse working towards becoming head coach. As for those pissing on Bob Bradley's memory (Mattinho, et al), let's look at few things. 1) Bob Bradley coached the Fire from 1998-2002. In that 5 year time, the Fire went to 3 MLS Cup Finals (1 win) and won 2 US Open Cups. In the 9 years since he left, the Fire went to 1 MLS Cup Final (the year after Bradley left, with largely the same team, mainly adding Damani Ralph to the 2002 team) and 3 US Open Finals (none since 2006) 2) When Bob Bradley coached the Fire, the Fire developed the following occasional/regular USMNT players; Armas (66 caps) Beasley (93 caps, many after leaving the Fire) Bocanegra (93 caps) Brown (15 caps 1998-2003) Razov (26 caps) Thornton (8 caps, including World Cup qualifying) Wolff (52 caps, many after Wolff left the Fire, but he developed with the Fire) Since Bob Bradley left, the Fire have developed no regular National Team players Rolfe has 10 caps (to lead Fire players after Bob Bradley left). Mapp has 5 caps. Logan Pause 6 caps (5 from the 2009 Gold Cup, 1 other cap) That is pretty much it. Bob Bradley is not god, but he is the best coach the Fire have ever had. He is also one of, if not the, best MLS coach of all time. He also is still fairly young and I would welcome his return to the Fire. If he does not want to return or if the Fire do not want to rehire him, that is fine as well.
Yes, he has 6 caps (almost all in the 2009 Gold Cup, he had 0 caps going into the Gold Cup and I believe, only one cap outside of the 2009 Gold Cup). I meant to add that to my review. I was able to edit my post to add Pause. Thanks for the reminder.
Yes he did. 1) Sean Johnson will (or at least) should get a lot more caps in the future. I hope he is the start of a change in the Fire development of young players. I want Sean Johnson to be the replacement for Tim Howard over the next few years. 2) If you want to count players who have "at least 1" cap, then Jesse Marsch, Diego, and John Thorrington (although he had one cap prior to playing with the Fire) would be added to the Bob Bradley list.
i don't disagree with your premise or your verdict, but a couple of factual errors: 1) Fire went to two MLS Cup Finals (1998 and 2000) under Bob, not three. 2) 2003 team had a HUGE overhaul from Bob's 2002 team. The 2003 team was not "largely the same team, mainly adding Damani Ralph to the 2002 team" After a lousy 2002 season in which we under achieved significantly, we were more than a million dollars over the cap. Dave and i moved Piotr Nowak, Josh Wolff, Dema Kovalenko and Hristo Stoitchkov in the off season and brought in Nate Jaqua, Logan Pause, Damani Ralph, Justin Mapp and Andy Williams. That team with the new acquisitions went on to win almost everything in 2003
First of all, this makes no sense. Secondly, why are you bringing men's asses into this discussion, is this something you think about often? Why is it so hard for some people to accept that we aren't all Bob Bradley loyalists? Also, congrats on a fine post, super constructive.
I think I would rather have a combination of Klopas and Armas or Marsch than Bob. I don't want another 2-3 year coach or one that isn't going to work well with someone above them finding players. After the USMNT I'm not sure if Bob would go back to working under someone.