http://chicagosports.chicagotribune...chgone,0,5309896.story?coll=cs-home-headlines There are other NY links to this story (which isn't official but with everyone's silence might as well be) but I haven't the stomach to find them right now. Though substantial blame must be placed upon the Fire front office for this, this reeks of MLS meddling. Instead of letting Metro live or die with their current staff or finding an outside coach, they poach the best one from one of their other clubs (who is still under contract to them, mind you). I am not accusing MLS of outright moving him (a la the Valderamma 'reassignment' some years ago) but at the least looked the other way/greased the wheels for this bull****. Metro favortism has gotten out of hand and lord only knows what MLS will allow him to do with all that they have in the way of coming allocations and discovery acquisitions, etc.
not enough Yea, I would imagine what comes next is the league says, well we've taken Bob's salary off the Fire's hands, so Chicago should give the Metros compensation for that. Oh, and while we're at it, since the poor Mutts have to take on Bob's big salary, we'll give them some supplemental draft picks as well. Hey, league meddling worked to help get New England into the championship game, you know they'll eventually get the Metros there as well. Meantime, we have no draft picks, salary cap problems and no coach. Take a look at DC today and you'll see our future. Which is fine with the league, as long as LA and NY are healthy. P.S. Good luck to Bob. He's the best and you can never blame a guy wanting to go home. This is just very demoralizing for the fans of a team that's looking pretty sad at the moment. Thank god we've only got one more year in naperville.
NJ.com reports the Metro will have to give up their #1 pick for Bradley (the #2 pick overall). I see the Fire were really able to extract the porverbial pound of flesh from the Metro. Oh well, here's hoping it was Chicago that made Bradley into a winner and not the other way around. Sachin
I would think Bradley would want out of Chicago at this time. I'm a Fire fan mind you. This team is going to be broken up and the next year or two could be rebuilding campaigns.
As much as I wish it were true I don't think that in this case it was "the clothes that made the man." Bradley is easily the best coach in the league and his eye for talent can take any team to the top. This has completely ruined the weekend.
i dont blame the guy... he if stayed with the fire he would be practically starting over this winter... losing many players to retirement, transfer and trying to get under the salary cap of the league therefore trading them away...he would be in charge of a major rebuilding process... no thanks.
Cheer up, guys, there are plenty of great ex-MLS coaches looking for jobs- Thomas Rongen, Fernando Clavijo, Zenga, Zambrano, Dave Dirr, Mooch Myernick. My vote would go to Dave Dirr. He's a great guy, he's from Illinois, and did OK with the Burn.
MLS will do anything to have a winner in New York. It is so disgusting. What galls me even more is that Metrostars fans think they deserve this because they live in New York. I will be even more satisfied when the Metros continue to lose.
To be honest, without Bob Bradley Chicago Fire will recover very slowly, just like the lowly DC United right now. It'll probably take about 2 to 3 years at least to become the powerful Fire again. Anyway, good luck to Bob and Fire...There's an article about this transfer: http://www.nj.com/metrostars/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1035018930151190.xml
It will be interesting to see how Bradley and Mathis co-exist if Mathis does not make the move to Europe.
Wow, this is big news. I'd be pissed if I were a Fire fan, but Anschutz and the league need a winner in NY. It is that simple. Before Fire fans get to down, we're a ten team league. Almost every team has hope. So long as Oz doesn't move to Chicago, things still look fairly good. No coach can make up for all the injuries suffered this year. Next year will likely be better.
Did you guys ever think that maybe Bradley wants to move back home to coach? He almost got the first metros coaching job in 96 and I'm sure thats the one he always wanted. Also, the fire will have an overhaul this year while the metros have many open high salary spots(Ramos retiring, Balboa wont be back) plus open foreign allocations. The metros have some decent talent already they just need a couple of key aquisitions to sure up the team. I think this all played a part.
coaches move on. bob won a championship and i doubt there was much more he could get out of the team he built. it was a great run though. i just hope they don't completely destroy the lineup now that he's gone ... wolff to colorado... kovalenko to san jose... stoitchkov to retirement... hey wait a sec... stoitchkov to coach!
QUOTE]Originally posted by tkgunn falcon how do you know that balboa wont be back? [/QUOTE] Don't know for a fact, but Nick stated in a year end interview that they picked up Balboa as a last resort last year. He stated he's looking to pickup a European central defender for next year. Also, rumor has it that Balboa may retire.
You gotta love the irony of a Real Madrid supporter cooking up the conspiracy theories that favor the league's most powerful market. Whatever. I'd say there is about a 99% chance that Bradley looked at the issues surrounding Chicago, looked at the opportunity to return home, made a couple of calls, and the job was his. To think this was anything else is just whining.
just whining well, if you say so it must be so. end of discussion, fellas. the great and powerful numtmeg has spoken. dork.
While I don't think it's completely innocent, I don't think it's a huge leap to think Bob might want this on his own. I mean, he has roots in that area, so that makes it believeable to me.
Conspiracy theory? Did Anschutz conspire with himself?? It doesn't take a conspiracy theory to explain why Anschutz might want Bradley in New York. In a normal league, this probably wouldn't happen. Not the biggest deal, but let's be honest.
I just love seeing any American who's got under favorite team any of the following: Real, Arsenal, ManU, Liverpool, Barça, Bayern.
Not such an easy pill to swallow when you're on the other side of the favoritism,(if it is favoritism) is it Chicago?
If the league just erased all its records and now claimed that Columbus had won all 7 MLS Cups, would Crew fans stop whining? *** Offering such failures as Rongen, Dir, and Zambrano up as replacements is just rubbing salt in the wound. If I was a Chicago fan I would be hoping and praying that Dave Sarachan decides he wants to become a head coach. The thing that bothers me about this is that Bradley will probably make the metros a decent team.