There's probably a lot of truth -- and blame -- on both sides. Friedel made some serious, avoidable blunders with player management and needlessly alienated a lot of the guys he needed to be leaders in the locker room. AND... Burns was totally useless, not only in backing up his coach, but in being able to deliver and bring in better (or at least equal) players than the ones he already has. The Revs have a long history of cutting loose guys who were anywhere from serviceable to adequate to good, gambling that they could do better with whoever their replacements would be. That was like Bullwinkle pulling a rabbit out of his hat--that trick never works! You could be critical of guys like Stolica, Zerka, Caraglio, Lekic and a host of others, but were a lot better than their replacements -- no one!
I think it's been proved that he's a bad match for MLS. He came out of a system that gave management a much more dictatorial role than US players will put up with. Either he has to develop a radically new approach, or probably better, pursue opportunities in the UK (where they'd probably sympathize with his struggle with spoiled American players!). I still think he *could* have succeeded IF he had strong management backing. It's no coincidence that Arena came in with significantly more control, more spending authority and the ability to remove the entrenched one. And, I think Friedel did ultimately smooth the way for Arena - after the unprofessional atmosphere before Friedel and the harsh regime he brought in, the players were likely wide open to completely buying in to Arena's program.
Well, Arena commanded much more authority than anyone other than maybe a couple of exceptions could, and certainly not an ex-player with little/no coaching experience. And Arena wasn't going to take the job if Burns was still over him. There was a lag of couple of days between the coaching change and Burns' firing, and a lot of us were scratching our heads until the other shoe dropped. I remember before this happened, Frank D wrote a piece how the Revs had talked to Arena at some point before hiring Friedel. I'm sure Bruce said no way he'd consider the job unless he could do it on his terms. The Revs weren't ready to make that commitment, so we had to wait a little while for that to happen. Another Friedel story I remember hearing about from some Crew fans from a few years ago... He showed up unannounced at training camp and sat down with a legal pad and began frantically writing notes. After several pages, he tore the pages off and handed them to the GM or owner (forgot which) and left without saying a word to anyone. As we'd say around here, "Wickid bizzaaaah!"
Why are we talking about Friedel or Burns? Seem like topics best forgotten. If we must talk about the bad-old-days, let's talk about Kraft. Krafty and son are still around and running things. So: They forced Burns to fire Friedel - it had to be done - GOOD Then they fired Burns - GOOD Then they went a new direction on the next coach and hired Arena - GOOD so far I assume they felt MLS was approaching the time to go to a new level. They saw the possibility of good TV revenue and growing revenues in general. The team responded to ARENA, it was a good season, fun to watch - GOOD The optimism in 2019 lead to signing Bou to add to Gil and in the offseason more good (on paper) additions happened. - GOOD Then COVID Happened - BAD: A long hiatus took place - BAD Stadia can no longer be used to capacity - BAD MLS is back took place but a continued schedule (and I assume associated TV and sponsorship $$$) are week to week at best. - BAD Operating costs have increased I assume due to COVID safety and testing logistics. - BAD It took them on the order of 25 years to engage. Will it take them 25 to disengage? Or will the financial challenge of COVID make them immediately revert to the pennywise and pound foolish MLS Krafts of the first 25 years of MLS? I ask because I don't know what logic applies to concepts like "backfill Gil" or get another forward or any other signing.
Taking you out of context, but Burns was great at dealing with naked guys on Planes!! He did however, suck more at GM'ing than he did covering the post. Great post (and almost positive -- are you sipping kool-aid?). I'm not sure one off season from a $ point of view will affect Kraft. I think he's in this for the franchise appreciation ($$$) rather than the operating $.
Doesn't sound so bizzaaaah to me - sounds to me like someone asked him to come in and do an evaluation, but there was poor communication in the organization so the players/staff didn't know what was going on. I never thought that it was about the Revs being pennywise ... I've always felt that they've wanted a 'general' (like a Belichick) who would run the whole show and be able to convince them that it was worth spending on something.
rkane is right, now that the old days are behind us, who cares, on to bigger and better things! Yeah, but even the Crew brass were puzzled at the whole thing. Of course, ex-players are always welcome if they want to come to a training session, but the story goes, no one quite knew what he was doing there. If someone had asked him, you'd think he'd have a conversation with them about whatever he observed... [/quote]I never thought that it was about the Revs being pennywise ... I've always felt that they've wanted a 'general' (like a Belichick) who would run the whole show and be able to convince them that it was worth spending on something.[/QUOTE]Well, they did speak with Arena before they hired Friedel, but if they actually asked him if he was interested, he likely said only if he had a Belichick-level of control, and a financial commitment to allow him to do that. For whatever reason, they weren't ready to commit to that and went one more round of the same method they tried with Jay Heaps. An ex-player with little/no coaching experience in a situation where he would be handicapped in how much control (and ultimate success) he could have. It just wasn't going to work, and even Stevie Wonder could see that. I'm glad they finally decided to take the plunge, even if it was later than it should have been.
Maybe, since Friedel and Burns were friends, they thought they would be able to work through these things. I'd bet that friendship is a bit strained these days.