So we know Greg isn't going anywhere anytime soon, especially with the state of the front office. However, there may be a chance come 2007/8 to resurrect this team after years of Ancluesness. By this time Brian McBride will be 35ish, will have (hopefully) finished his international career with a spectacular showing at WC06, and will retire to go out on top. If there is anyone who the front office would consider replacing Greg with, it is Bake. He's a class guy, good leader, and one would assume he could coach a team better than Greg (that last requirement is a given: anyone could do that). .... don't know what i was trying to say, but maybe Bake could coach us someday, wishful thinking
There isn't a problem finding coaches now. I'm more of a fan of an ex-player working their way through the ranks and not jumping straight into a top coaching position. Besides, who says he will want to live in Columbus instead of back home in Chicago?
Exactly. I'm pretty sure he sold his Columbus house and bought one in Chicago. Take it for what it's worth.
Yep, he sold it shortly after leaving. I thought he might be coming back someday to retire at Columbus Crew, but after reading that, it became evident he doesn't want to return
That would likely be his first choice, but if he's interested in coaching he knows he'll have to go where the offer is like everybody else. Look I take a back seat to nobody in my admiration of BMB but good players do not automatically make good coaches. In fact, oftentimes it's a handicap since they have trouble understanding guys who aren't as talented or motivated as they were. In any case, we really don't know if he's even interested. If you want an ex-player who we know wants the job, talk to Harkes. Heck, let's forgive and forget and ask Dooley.
Whatever happened to Dooley? Did he drop off the face of the earth or just move back to Europe? Should he be up for the US Soccer Hall of Fame by now?
He was coaching at Saarbrücken in Germany for a bit and now he has a soccer school in LA. What's the deal with Germans and southern California?
I saw and spoke with him at the All-Star game in DC this summer. Very nice guy indeed, I vaguely remember what happened when he left town but someone wanna provide a refresher for a man whose memory is fading.
I too saw Dooley when he was in town. Seemed friendly and relaxed. He had a blowup with Fitz and more or less demanded a trade so he could play with Lothar. We got Duhaney in the deal. Thomas retired after a season or 2 in NJ. I'm not sure how high in the org his wrath went. Bob was with the team then and some of the HSG principals are still there. Presumably he'd be replacing GA and the rest of the front office has turned over a couple of times so he might conceivably have a chance at the job. Of course this would require the Crew job to come open, good references from Lapper and Mais, and being a good candidate otherwise.
Am I remembering it wrong then? Because I thought that we d1cked over Dooley and that he didn't want to be traded.
There are two schools of thought on Dooley. That he d1cked around behind our backs and then d1cked us over and deserved everything he got and then some. -and- Those that believe that what he was doing was not intended to be underhanded, that he contributed to the community and the team, and that the Crew organization (Rootes and Fitz?) royally d1cked him over big time - like John Holmes big time. I heard both arguments first hand from "folks in the know" so I'm not sure whom to believe. I usually default to "it was probably a little of both with some stupidity thrown in to blow the whole mess out of proportion"....
How soon we forget. All of you are partly true, but you have to put it all together. The problem really started when the Crew hit a rough patch. Dooley thought he knew more about soccer than Fitzgerald and could run the team better than Fitz could. (Which may or may not have been true, but that's not the issue) And because Thomas was obviously our most experienced and successful player, a lot of the other guys looked up to him. So when he started badmouthing Fitz to his teammates, he had some sympathizers. Basically his playing days were about over, he had always wanted to be a head coach and he figured Columbus was as good a place to start as any. Unfortunately, what he managed to do was split the team, create a lot of anger and harsh words amongst the players and completely undermine Fitz' authority. You hear now about how Fitz had to go not because he was a bad coach but because he "lost the clubhouse" - that is, the players tuned him out. Well the main reason was they had Dooley there TELLING them that Fitz was a moron and that they SHOULD tune him out. Finally, after trashing the team and the season, he then went to Rootes and asked him to fire Fitz and that he wanted to be the replacement. Instead, and to his credit, he picked up the phone and shipped him to Metros. At which point Dooley, being the wonderfully nice guy that he is, started telling his old teammates on the Crew that they should leave too and started arranging tryouts in Germany. I loved Thomas as much as any Crew player. His personal story is inspirational and he was a wonderful role model for young players. But frankly, he let his ego screw up his career here. If he had sat around quietly being a good little soldier, he would have retired in glory with the Crew, immediately been hired as an assistant coach by a grateful HSG and would, in all likelihood, currently be the head coach of the Crew. Instead, I doubt anyone much will even return his phone calls.
So, without me actually knowing what it takes to get into the US Soccer Hall of Fame, or really caring, do we all agree that there's a spot there for Dooley? How many years does a player have to not be playing to be considered, because I thought he'd been out of the game longer than Wynalda (and once again I'm at work so I don't have to time to actually look up these details right now).
Bill, You have a good memory. For the rest of us, here's some more info from Dooley's side and from Fitzgerald's side. I remember the mess as being mostly Dooley's fault, too. But it did prompt the overreaction from Fitz that turned him down the path of self-destruction, as he tried to make the transition from being a "player's coach" to a disciplinarian. I doubt that has ever really worked, even without the team's most-repsected player undermining the coach. I wonder if this clash of egos, and the tremors it caused, had a role in causing the franchise to remain so fond of Greg Andrulis, who seems to have no personality at all. Edited to add: on the possibility of Brian McBride as coach, I'd actualyl be inclined to give him a shot in about 2007 or 2008. He'll have been gone from here for 4 years by then, and though he's talented, as international strikers go, he is not a world standout. He always struck me as a student of the game. I remember being impressed with his analytical ability when he would do radio and TV broadcasts while injured. I doubt that he would have trouble explaining the game or get impatient with players who aren't natural superstars. After all, it's not like he is burning up the Premiership on natural ability. He's working his ass off to try to get on the pitch. If John Harkes is qualified to coach in MLS, I can't see how Brian McBride isn't, also.