In today's WPost, DCU will not renew the contract of head trainer Rick Guter. I suspect this has more to do with Hudson wanting the team to go in a different direction in terms of physical development (ie: like doing more weight training--the AU sessions) than it does an evaluation of Guter's performance.
I thought I recalled that Petrosian of AU was now a full time fitness coach or something like that. I wonder if Petrosian is filling Guter's role or if he's in addition to the "trainer" position? Whichever, I'm very glad to hear of Petrosian having daily workouts with Moreno, at least through the end of December. As one of the people who at midseason was adamant about our trainer--at a minimum--calling players like Moreno on a daily basis to ensure that they are training daily, and wanting him to accompany them at offseason workouts, I'm happy to have Petrosian aboard! You can lay some of the blame for our team's offseason largess on the lack of a coach for so long, but really, the trainer is the guy on an MLS staff that needs to push the players. By this I mean push them to build and maintain fitness, endurance, strength and speed in the offseason. United was probably the worst in the league at it, and it showed. Best of luck to Guter in his future endeavors. He presided over some good years at DC United. -Tron
I saw that Guter was listed as the team trainer for the US Men. Ahh... here it is: Arena Names 23-Man Roster for Match vs. El Salvador in D.C. Sachin
Sad to see another of our inaugural group move on. Always thought he was a class act. Good luck, Rick!
OJO mods, you may want to merge this with the Off-Season moves thread. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=21898 GM
My two cents: I think it's better to talk about each move as it happens than have some single thread that turns into the thread-to-kill-all-threads covering every single offseason move.
So will Guter go join another team and get them all into really tip top fantasically amazing shape and have them come back to haunt us? Is Guter the next United Killer????
Now all the good is gone Ray Hudson continues to do one stupid thing after another and letting Rich Guter go continues his streak. In Hudson's mind if Rich done his job better DCU would have gone undefeated. Everyone knows a trainer will make or break a team and the coach has no responsibility. When are we going to get rid of this clown, he is an embarrassment to the team, the fans and the city. Hey, anything stupid to say today Ray? We all know you are a quote machine.
I have no inside knowledge on this issue--only from what I've heard Hudson and others say on a range of issues and then how I put it all together. I don't think this is about Guter being blamed for injuries or how the team performed. I suspect that Ray has some strong opinions about physical training (both for the team to be more physically imposing, to help youngsters like Convey not get pushed around the field, and to milk every bit of performance he can out of some players who aren't going to be stars) and Guter may have some differences of opinion on some of that. More specifically, Guter and Petrosian may have tremendous overlap in their offseason roles and strong differences of opinion as to approaches (free weights vs. nautilus, strength vs. range, approaches to developing aerobic capacity). This doesn't need to be a major issue. Sometimes you've got 2 guys who just aren't on the same page and so you need to drop one of them. Having said that, I'd always heard good things about Guter.
Re: Now all the good is gone I would think that Kasper would have a bigger role in this decision than Ray.
Yeah and look what it did for Reyna, Mathis, Friedel, all with the knee troubles now. Don't even get me started on Eddie Pope. Between DC United and the USMNT he has more than enough time to get hurt by this guy!!
Miss the playoffs for a third straight season and they fire the trainer. Yeah, he was the problem. Him and Onalfo. With those 2 gone, it's nothing but blue skies ahead.
Yeah, Ray's cleaning house ... again. Seriously though, in every professional sport the norm is a coach who comes in and clears out the former coaches players and staff in favor of those totally committed to the new coach and his ideas. It now looks as if every staff member has been turned over, and only the best of the old players were kept. Hopefully the results will come, but to expect any less turnover might have been a bit naive. Another last place finish and Hudson may be the one replaced (but apparently not by Dave Sarachan, as we seem to have lost that opportunity with the stories of him becoming the new coach of the Chicago Fire). -Tron
Perhaps this is nothing more than a salary issue. Guter = paid position Petrosian = volunteer That would be a "new direction"...