I agree player reluctance to transfer to a poor performing club may be a factor to overcome, perhaps by more money. I suppose some players might welcome the challenge.
Most players coming here probably don’t see winning MLS Cup as some big career goal. They’re either here waiting to hop off to Europe, or hopping out of Europe to use their veteran skills to help a club. NY, LA and Miami all have name recognition that will help them regardless.
Acosta is kind of an interesting one...his salary (because he was TAM below DP) was capped by MLS Roster Rules. We paid the max allowed, but that was the same number other clubs could offer. There was 'posturing' around him wanting to know 'the plan' before agreeing to come here...and wanting to be a central part of the plan...gotta think DP9 and Shaq were part of that.
Not sure I understand what you mean. Do you mean he might have been attracted by a new DP plus Shaqiri staying or do you mean the (likely?) departure of Shaqiri and a chance for him (Acosta) to become a DP? OR was he unhappy with certain of those possibilities? You seemed to imply something more than just a general concern about direction of the team.
He held off signing until the DP9 was signed (we reportedly missed on 2 prior DP9 targets), was quoted to have been negotiating for influence on the roster (during his contract period), and a commitment that he would be a focus in the upcoming changes. And here comes the window…should be interesting. I do not see him becoming a DP, he’s locked in.
So, here's a how language works (and this is a mistake most people make, including several folks here, so you're not alone at all in this): I said it is dumb as hell to believe that how much is being spent to achieve the league's worst results isn't something worth caring about. *Presumably* because you think it doesn't matter (about how much $$ is being spent). That was your statement of opinion and that opinion *is* dumb as hell. There is a difference between *who* you are and *what* your opinions are. The smartest folks around can have gigantic collections of *dumb* opinions. Having a dumb opinion doesn't make you dumb. If you want to weld your self-image onto every dumb thing you say and take the ego damage for the feedback that you get, it's on you. That is another *dumb* thing to do....and yeah, perhaps if you're only capable of dumb opinions and dumb actions...you actually might be dumb....but that's not the most likely answer. As for your thoughts of us agreeing on something....nah. The ownership being lost enough that they didn't understand that Heitz needed to be *fired* and not *renewed*.....*that* is the problem. That's *not* the same thing you're pointing at.
The product on the field is jobs 1, 2, 3, 4, an 5 of the management of a professional sports organization. We have 10 years+ of that product being (on average) worst in the league. That is nowhere close to a 180. That's not even a *slight* change of direction. Your last accountant filed a tax return that got you fined $50k. Then you got a new accountant and *they* filed a tax return that got you fined $50k. The fact that the new guy files *prettier* returns in a more timely manner *isn't* a damn improvement in any substantial way. Not a damn thing you're pointing to the FO doing better about was actually holding us back from winning matches in the league. That's all *window dressing*.
Team performance now vs potential future improvement. The problem is especially troubling when the now is so bad nothing else can be seen.
Many years ago, some jerk admin on a forum site told me I had to have at least 20 characters in each post. So, being incredibly petty, I continued posting whatever I wanted, then added "Pete (is adhering to them minimum character count)" after every post. It wasn't 1997, but it also wasn't much later than that, so yeah, we all used to sign our posts back then. Eventually I started varying it up. One day I decided I Iiked it and I just kept doing it. Pete (usually has more than one thought going on in his cluttered brain anyway)
4 of the 5 finishes under Joe have been in the bottom 25% of the league and not once have we been in the top half of the league. Only 4 of 12 finishes under Andrew were in the bottom 25% of the league and we were in the top half 4 times. 1 year before the transition, we were 4th out of 22. That's not a difference between 1 and 2 on a scale of 100.
Under Joe's tenure: FCC spent 2019-21 having worse seasons than us and 2 years later finished first in the league. The Rapids had a worse season than us in 2019 and finished 1st in their conference and 2nd overall 2 years later. NER had a worse season than us in 2020 and finished 1st in the league the next year SKC had a worse year than us in 2019 and finished first in their conference and 3rd overall the next year. It doesn't take 5 years and 10's of millions of dollars set on fire to turn it around in this league. That's not, like, my opinion man. That's facts. Your opinion, however, is trash. Unambiguously.
You like to imagine my opinions and make them up as you go so I’m not sure which opinion you would be referring to (or creating).
Yeah, the stone age of forums were like that, back in ~1997 - 2002ish. Its a bit dated to sign posts today. Not as dated, as say, the medication "Anacin," just more like using "AOL keywords." Anyway, I see the fire still suck, despite the amazing move to NSF. Good luck to you guys, although some of you already know what I would suggest.