With all vital signs pointing toward Sigi's departure, perhaps it's time to dedicate a thread to his obvious successor. While I agree fully that Robert's paid his dues and, as a former player, long-time assistant, and someone who's had some success in limited stints as an interim, if Sigi has his heart set on leaving, Robert is about as no-brainer a choice as the Crew's next coach as they come, I do feel there's a lot more to coaching than managing the game tactically from the sidelines. I'd enjoy hearing what all of you think about Robert's capacity (mostly unproven) to handle the other tasks that MLS head coaches - good ones, anyway - must manage. Things like: - Roster development through identifying discovery players and, potentially, DP-level signings: Wasn't Robert directly involved in identifying Zurawski, for example? Does anyone have a clue how we stumbled upon Ekpo? Personally, I think Sigi tenure is/was was a mixed bag in this area; in the end, he assembled a great club, but he also brought in a lot of players who fell flat. Robert's inheriting a talented line-up, but he will need to find fresh talent, and perhaps very soon, if Chad leaves. - Youth development: One of the things I love the most abut MLS is that, each year, a handful of veritable unknown players emerges, evolving into valuable starters. On the Crew, in the past year plus, it's guys like Rogers, Ekpo, Hesmer, Moffat, Evans, even Chad's second-coming. But if we're to repeat, Robert's going to have to help players like Lenhart, Garey, and Zayner (and guys we've never even heard of yet) continue to evolve as players. - Locker room management: Perhaps Sigi's most impressive achievement, in my book. It looked easy, the way this team came together, but I doubt it was just some sort of organic thing. That recent article about GBS is illustrative; Sigi mentions how vital it was to measure the kind of person Guille was, and that GSB knew the kind of person Sigi was (through mutual acquaintances) before bringing GBS to the Crew. The Jon Busch Episode is so memorable, because it's almost the only instance I can recall of a Crew player speaking poorly of Sigi. I don't recall one time where Sigi, for instance, criticized a player publicly in a personal manner; he'd say that Player X had an off game, but it was never emotional, personal. Look at Pat Noonan: you think he came here to play so few minutes? Yet he accepted his role with grace, presumably because Sigi was clear and honest with him regarding what that role would be. Has Robert learned enough in three seasons to manage a locker room as well as Schmid did in his time here? - The FO Relationship: I have fewer qualms here, just because Robert has such a long history with McCullers and HSG. Still, he'll be the man now. if someone has to fly out to Dallas and convince the Hunts to open their collective wallet to buy a player, that someone will be Robert. How do you think he'll do? - Dealing with MLS: The draft, trades, salary cap management, allocations, shifting roster rules...it's a lot to juggle, and Robert's going to be making the call in a many of these areas. - The Long Haul: Stepping in as interim is great, but it's along season, and without a safety net. Even great teams stumble; we went four matches without scoring a goal, and Sigi basically allowed the club to work its way out of that slump. How will Robert perform throughout a full season, especially one in which we're involved in international play? How will keep everyone match fit, yet happy with the limited amount of playing time that often goes hand in hand with that situation? And so on... Many of us have focussed on Robert the Tactician, the guy who might play a more offensive style. Fine, but there's A Lot more to it than that. How do you think he'll do?
POLSKA *clap clap clap* POLSKA *clap clap clap* POLSKA *clap clap clap* I'll wait till the official press release to make a more serious opinion.
This is probably the biggest question mark. He brought in Rzepa and another complete bust. Of course Sigi has some busts too, e.g. Coiner (sp?) What really worries me, is somewhere (Sirk article maybe or dispatch article) I read somewhere that he had doubts about Guille after the first week or two of training. He may not have the patience for players who don't train as hard as he likes. Or he may have learned from this experience too. Plus he has Bliss to help in player selection now. He did very well with low level talent as an interim. Whether that speaks to just game management/motivation or development I'm not sure. We don't know if he'll be able to take a good player, break them down and rebuild them into a defender of the year, but I'm pretty confident in his ability to bring players along. This is pure conjecture but I think this is one area Sigi and Robert are very similar. Both seem to be hard nosed leaders that will not keep guys who aren't good guys for their locker room. I don't want to start the Busch debate again, but it certainly seemed that Busch's constant yelling was a detriment to Marshal's game. Bob's been in MLS from the first year, and he's been coach in some form for what 5 years now? I think knows all about Calvinball.
When I went the coach's talk in 2007 he talk about several players who did not play to there level, and I think he even mentioned Herron?
The challenge with the reserve side being gone is that you have a lot less time to look at the lower level players--without that time it's going to be much harder to tell an Adam Moffat from a David Testo or a Steve Lenhart from a Knox Cameron. And maybe a guy like Brian Carroll never gets a chance to turn out to be exactly what you needed.
The criticism about Sigi bringing in some players that fell flat could be countered that said players didn't stick around for long (Hernandez, Kitimirke(sp?), So, etc).
Moving anyone up from assistant to HC is a crap shoot no matter how long he's been around or how well you think you know him. It's an entirely different job. Not even close. One thing I do hope - IF this goes down - is that the FO has the good sense to give him the authroity he needs to be effective. With a guy like SIgi, the players knew there was literally no place else to go - they could do it his way or they could go screw themselves. Period. If MM makes it clear that if you show up at his door with your complaints about Robert all you're going to get is a swift boot in the ass, it'll go a long, long ways towards helping the guy succeed.
Obviously no one is going to have a perfect record in signing players, especially for a salary cap constrained league. I only mentioned it because I was saying Robert had some questionable history in the identifying talent area, but that the same was said about Sigi a year ago. i.e. we shouldn't assume Robert won't be good at assembling a team based on Rzepa and Williams.
....and this is going to happen to every coach at every level of the game. They just take the chance of bringing in players here and there to find the one or two that will actually work. It'll happen to Bob, it'll happen to Sigi again, it'll happen to all coaches.
Carroll was the 11th overall pick in the 2003 draft and has been a senior roster player for as long as he's been in the league...the reserve league really didn't have anything to do with Carroll's development.
I agree that no coach will be perfect on finding talent. The point, as Bill also pointed out, was that Sigi was quick to jettison the defunct parts. He took no crap and wasn't afraid to cut your ass after one game. I hope Robert wrote that down in his "Things Sigi did that I should do" notebook for next year.
Correct me if I'm wrong but both Rzepa and Williams were late-season signings which is a whole lot better than a Dulio Davino upon whom FC Dallas built their whole defense this season. Bob will do fine. Frankie is in control of the locker room anyway. We'll be in the market for some defenders this season. We'll pick up 3-4 and 1, maybe 2 will work out. Nature of the business.
Unless the head coach job was promised to RW at some point during the last 3 years, my hope is that MM will conduct an actual search for a new coach. If RW ends up being the best choice then fine. Otherwise, to just hand it to him is not doing what is best for the team.
Point was that he was left unprotected in the expansion draft and who knows if you take a chance on him if you know you can't park some of your draft picks on the reserve team and wait for them to develop but have to use them now. Or you choose to keep a Duncan Oughton around (who ended up being parked on the reserve team) rather than take a chance on Carroll because you already know what you have in Dunc. No Reserve Team has greater implications than just to the bodies on that part of the roster. The fact that Carroll originally was drafted where he was and was a senior roster player doesn't mean too much to me in this argument (see Oughton, above). I mean, wasn't K-Mart drafted higher and a ROY as well? He's out of soccer. That could have easily happened to Carroll if the roster sizes were tighter.
True--which is why the expansion draft should be after the end of the year and the transfer window opens. We had to essentially waste a spot on Marshall, not knowing if he would be gone or not, and he was out of contract.
In general, I'd agree with you. It's a by the book approach and by nature I'm a rules follower. But I don't agree with the book in this instance. The Crew organization has stated publicly that it sees RW as being coach someday. To not appoint him if/when Sigi leaves would be ridiculous. And while expediency is no reason to just name someone coach, this team needs to know who its next head coach is going to be. We have training camp starting in, what, six weeks? And an international tournament to prepare for. Finally, I really can't think of any other obviously better coaches out there who might be interested in the job. There are coaches with better resumes, but few (if any) of them would be familiar with MLS. We'll know soon enough. But if Sigi leaves and MM doesn't name Robert head coach, I, for one, will be shaking my head in disbelief and disappointment.
A concern for me (and maybe just me) - don't forget these two's dust-up the last time Robert ran the show. Plus, Robert went with a 3-man back line last time, which does nothing for Frankie.
Robert knows this team. He knows what they are capable of. An outside coach would take time to learn the players and their habits. This should be nothing more than a formality as to why it hasn't been announced yet.
I think Warzycha will be poor as a coach and we will be lucky to scrape the playoffs next season. The Warzycha part is simple; he's shown nothing to make me think otherwise and in fact the main thing that stands out for me about his track record is penchant for falling out with our top players. That and his mustache at Everton. What a disgrace! Was it still 1978 in Poland??? On the playoffs side, our defense will be a shambles and will curtail any hope at scoring points. That's all.
I'll admit that I dont know shit about Robert's coaching ability. He served as interim coach s/p GA and made an improvement. But, who else is available? Paul Mariner is another front runner to get make the step to head coach. Why not go with the guy who has been in Columbus since, well, forever? Plus, I dont like Mariner's spectacles. I think they're condescending. In my opinion, he has paid his dues. Will we be sacrificing competence for the sake of rewarding loyalty? I dont know.
Would those be the SAME fans that complained about Osorio before he went to the BullPen.... Then called him a traitor?
Obviously, none of us knows if Robert will be a great coach. But this isn't exactly without precedent in MLS: former player with far less coaching experience than RW have done well, Preki, Nowak, even Kreis come to mind. Hell, miserable wretches of coaches like Rongen and Sampson won championships in this league after inheriting quality rosters. It tells me something that a veteran leader like Moreno wants RW as coach. Moreno's best asset is his intelligence, if you ask me (I suspect he'd make a good coach someday). I don't think he'd have come down in Robert's corner unless he felt he was up for the job. We shall see.