FIRE PAYNE and KASPER

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Bullshit.

Kevin Payne is inarguably one of the top minds in the game in this country. It's easy to be pissed off about the way things went down this season but anyone who thinks Payne should be fired is a ********ing knob in my book.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Good grief!!! That's a horrible start. Simms is passable, Tino way over rated and Janicki never was Major League.

Here's the three you start with, Pontius, Wallace and Jakovic........


Kasper and Soehn need to go, but Payne is a whole different ball game. I don't see Payne as the problem except that he needs to pull the trigger somewhat sooner when a Coach or Director of Football fail.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Isn't that kinda like being the tallest midget?

The idea that being president of an MLS job is so tough that there isn't anyone out there worthy of replacing Payne is laughable.

Granted, I'm not in a position to name names as I don't know why they are, but I find it very difficult to believe that there aren't enough savvy people with understanding of sports, business and soccer who could step in and do the job.

As MLS grows, running an MLS team becomes a more coveted job. Just as Garber was hired from the NFL, I'm sure there are execs out there in other sports who know how to run a team. Remember, if they hire good soccer people, they don't need to know the game intimately to do the job.

Afterall, it's not like Payne had a background as a soccer player before he took the job. But he knew sports marketing and learned about soccer on the fly.

No one - NO ONE - in this organization is irreplaceable and no one in the organization has performed well enough the last few years that they should thing they shouldn't be replaced.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

The only irreplaceable parts of this organization are in the foreground of this photo.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Well with this complete failure of a season, we won't have to worry about any International competition since we didn't qualify for CCL or Superliga and we'll have to play in just to have a shot at the Open Cup.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

You do realize that was said last year right?! I still say hold on to Tino and Simms. The work rate and heart of both keep them on this team.

Is Soehn gone yet?

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

I hate to think of Payne leaving; as you say, it could set us even further back.

I also hate to think we could replicate the Redskin/Snyder "savvy businessman" experience with the owner thinking he knows enough about the game to make "soccer" decisions.

(Not that I am at all ready to predict that will happen with Will Chang.)

The most important thing Chang and Payne have to do is find an effective Coach/GM team-and then let them lead DC United in a positive direction.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Actually there is another - The Bruce as Coach and GM. Unfortunately, LA pulled the trigger and scooped him up while we were still dithering with keeping TS last year. While Bruce is not exactly Mr. Personality and I think that's an understatement based on my interaction with him, he is a fantastic manager and coach.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

I was one of the one's saying that Soehn should have been fired last year. I also said that Carroll was a better option than Simms.

Funny how Carroll was bounced out of DC, went to Columbus and immediately took over a starting position that had been a problem for them. In the next 2 years you have Columbus winning 2 SS, 1 MLS Cup and are in the running for another MLS Cup.

Tino has some skills with the ball, but he lacks workrate off the ball, rarely takes players in the final third and just does not play defense at a level required for a wing midfielder.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Exactly right. The draft last year was unusually deep. You almost couldn't miss with the first 10 or so picks. Actually, I might make the argument that we should have taken Stephan Frei rather than Wallace and we would not have had our keeper problems this year.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Well, running an MLS team requires soccer knowledge to such a degree that you can hire an American Football guy to run the league but that would be a complete disaster for a single club...



Wait, perhaps all we need is a guy or gal that understands sports business, knows how to rely on experts on their staff, and sets a professional tone.

Unfortunately, this appears to be the mentality around DC United. Don't change anything but it will get better because we're DC United...

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

In principle I agree that no one in the organization is above review. However, I also think you undervalue Kevin Payne. As many, many people have said, running an MLS Club within its crafted rules for parity and salary cap is very difficult. Numerous "Soccer Experts" inside and outside the US have failed miserably within the MLS framework.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Yes, absolutely. They can be the core of a young, energetic team (as opposed to the dominant theme of our current lineup: tired and old). Not saying we need to get rid of all the rest, but this should be the core of a new-look DCU squad. I say also keep younger players who can fit into this idea - players like Jacobson and Habarugira. But we have got to change the orientation of the team, what we have currently does not work. And of course, to do this we need a new head coach as well, but we all knew that.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

I think Kevin Payne did a great job in the early years and knew when to let people more knowledgeable than him make decisions as stated above.

See below.

Exactly.

DC United has been trying since as early as 1997 to get a stadium. Kevin Payne was the man doing this specific job, for various reasons (many of which he is not to blame) we have not gotten a stadium build AND he hired Kasper and Soehn (and he was held onto for too long).

I truly believe we need a "fresh perspective and leadership" at this point in DC United's history...

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

I think DC United is failing right now.

But interestingly, Bruce Arena seems to be having no problems in LA (granted he has Beckham and Donovan, but he seems to know what to keep and what to let go).

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

But it's much more fun to throw the whole tub off the cliff.

I agree with your hierarchy; however the "failings" are interrelated. The players ultimately fail because they are on the field and Soehn, Kasper & Payne are not. However, Kasper primarily is responsible for selecting the players and Soehn primarily is responsible for teaching them their responsibilities on the field.

I think what has everyone so cheesed off is the apparent lack of direction to the team. Gomez was brought in as a stopgap because Gallardo booked back to Argentina late. Moreno and Olsen are way past their sell by dates and a huge amount of cap space went to Emilio for a DP performance that was poor. In mid season, an allocation was used on Szetela and he promptly disappeared into witness protection for most of the season. The rest of the moves, (James, Habarugira, Vaughn, Shipalane, Cronin, Allen) were incremental "depth" acquisitions. Shipalane demonstrated quickly why he was in USL-2; while James, Vaughn and Cronin showed promise -- but none are major players who will carry DCU forward, they are complementary pieces at best. What concerns me about the off-season is that I have no confidence Kasper can come up with a game changing acquisition, or worse yet, he decides to keep Emilio, Fred and some of Moreno, Gomez and Olsen around for another season. That will make next year far worse than this one already was.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

The "Greater Tuna" argument in a nutshell ("we lost 49-0, but really if you take away the fact that we couldn't stop them and the fact we couldn't score . . . well, you fix those two things and we're right in it").


You probably can't get rid of Payne, but the rest of these geniuses need to go. In MLS, getting a coach/GM with a clue would be a big help since you can't just throw money at better players. If you want to blame the players, fine, but who exactly do you think made the roster?? With MLS' byzantine structure, finding someone who can navigate it successfully would be pretty helpful.

DC was inarguably crap this year - getting rid of the brain trust that put together DC's first back-to-back out of the money seasons (and incredibly unbalanced roster) couldn't be anything but a step in the right direction.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

You weren't alive 2000-2003 the dark years

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

agreed, but kasper in GM, and I believe Payne is working on the stadium project.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Not arguing the crap aspect but we did win the US Open Cup in 2008.

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

Frankly, I thought those teams were more watchable . . .

 

Re: FIRE SOEHN, PAYNE and KASPER

I will say that if United drafts one more 5 feet nothing midfielder I will puke.