Rene was previously Sporting Director and I doubt he came over here to just be a coach. Seems like it was the plan all along.
Are there any successful foreign Sporting Directors in MLS? Seemed like the conventional wisdom was that it was hard for people new to the league to figure things out.
Yep--this has been in the cards for awhile. But strange timing--I figured he'd last through the end of the season. So depressing.
Goff says that Erkut Sogut, a sports lawyer who once repped Mesut Ozil and who helped recruit Rene Weiler to DC, is likely to take over as GM for DC United. He will initially work remotely.
Goff says they've already lined a replacement, a player agent/sports lawyer. Geez. Erkut Sogut, sports lawyer who represented Mesut Özil, is top choice. Helped DCU recruit Coach René Weiler. Executive recruiter but never worked for a club. *** I also find the language (from the team) here kind of interesting: A new leader of the soccer operations department will be announced in the future and will work alongside Head Coach and Manager René Weiler, President of Business Operations Danita Johnson, and the rest of the club’s leadership team. Didn't Mackay, as GM, hire Lesesne and Weiler? I've assumed he was their boss, just as Ben reported to Kasper in the 2010s. That language makes it sound like they are hiring someone to replace Ally in his "chief soccer operations" role, but not his "general manager" role. So...the player agent takes over as head of soccer ops and Rene gets promoted to GM?
Dr. Erkut Sogut: "He is the founder of Pitchside, an international executive search company placing CEOs and senior leaders into football clubs and federations, and the founder of The Football Week, a global football media and publishing company." And if you don't put the "Dr." in front of his name, he will get you fired from your job!
DC United fired its GM this morning and hired a replacement before sundown and the replacement guy is going to work remotely… like you can’t make this shit up. What are the odds he’s living in DC by the start of the next season?
https://erkutsogut.com/ He has a website apparently. Assuming its the same guy of course which i think it is.
My hope is that he was hired for more of the business part of soccer operations while Rene takes player acquisition and coaching. Sure was a super fast hire. I honestly don't know how to feel about this. Definitely lacks the experience that Rene has.
Initially, D.C. United reached out to Sogut to assist with the club’s search for a new general manager, per source. Then DCU decided to offer him the job, despite no experience working for a club. I do believe this team has found rock bottom.
An optimist would cite Garth Lagerway, lawyer and sportscaster prior to one of the best GM/CSO tenures in MLS, as a possible success story. I’m not sure DCU is set up that way. Also, ***k cancer. Get well soon, Garth.
Reading all of this about the FO’s listening and planned investment and commitment to winning, I’m reminded of RDK, Jr and his confirmation hearings. What should we believe, what Levien is saying now when they need our support and the stadium is a graveyard or literally every piece of evidence across a wide career where he and his management partners have chronically hurt the franchises they’ve owned? If they really wanted to win we wouldn’t be on our 7th coach in 5 years or whatever it is. These guys don’t have the passion to make it work.
Oh man, this is gonna knock Friday's astounding news about the Tubbs loan, not to mention the $100k GAM trade with LAFC, off the front pages... I gotta say, though, Ally was genuinely nice. I got to meet him at an Xmas, er, holiday party last year and we had a really genuine conversation over a couple of beers. He wasnt rushed, patiently explained a bunch of stuff, and took any and all questions (especially on how much DK was involved in anything Ally was doing). He was good people. Levien is (still) floundering. Sell the team.
The irony that Leviathan said the mistake in Rooney, Losada and Lesesne was they did not have much experience so they chose Weiler because he does....
Douglas Reyes-Ceroñ posted this on Bluesky. It is an entire unedited interview with ownership. The audio especially and the video somewhat less are below podcaster-in-the-basement quality, which is appalling work from a nominally professional production crew. www.fox5dc.com/video/1708677 Enjoy! It is interesting to me that I haven't seen hide nor hair of these two clowns in literal years and the past week they're doing interviews like they're Bonnie Blue. Maybe they finally understand that benign neglect isn't a winning strategy and the boycotts & co are actually getting to them?
Not great. On the one hand, it's hard to envision how they could be as bad as this year. On the other, I have more than a slightly sneaking suspicion that this guy is just going to sign a bunch of his own clients to five-year deals at Max TAM, pocket the fees, and then dip. He can write a thriller about it when he's all done.