To give up your first round draft pick and (#2 overall) for a coach is nuts! The Metros should do the smart thing 1)Hold on to their two, first round picks and 2) Move to plan B and hire either Dave Sarachan or Dave Dir. This is a real test of Nick Sakiewicz charactor. To Give up a top pick for a coach who is marginaly better (if any) than the other candidates (who would cost no compensation) would be a stupid move.
Damn straight. No way we're giving up a potential Alecko Eskandarian for Bradley. Not that Nick will listen, of course...
We don't really know if Sarachan is even interested, and the Ledger article quotes Howard as being really excited about the idea of playing for Bradley. That's enough for me. We'll probably offer the #5 pick, Chicago will ask for #2, and Garber will decide which is appropriate.
Well the question is what will eventually happen with that first pick. Will the player leave after 3 yeras???? As for Bradley, he is the best coach in MLS. In many ways, what he has done with the Fire is more impressive then Arena's run with United since no one has had more man games lost to injury then Bradley. And yet....the Fire are always competitive. They always make the playoffs. They are a truely professional side. Now to the Metrostars. The real question I feel is do we deserve Bradley.
Too bad he doesn't play attacking midfield.. He's a forward.. Besides, Andy Williams seemed to do quite well this year as an attacking midfielder.. Don't get too high on Eskendarian.. He is a short little dude with some scoring punch but he'll be an average at best MLS player..
Ricky Lewis (JUNIOR) of Clemson. Good at using both feet, quite speedy, and an attacking wingback. Was on the other side of the defense at Clemson which had Oguchi Onyewu, a starter for both US U17 and U20 teams. Lewis played some minutes for the U20 team in Argentina during the 2001 Youth Cup. He's at least 6 feet tall. Better this kid than Chronopoulos. Plus, he would not command as high a salary either. David Stokes (SENIOR, IIRC) of UNC. Said to be Eddie Pope like (without injury bug). As much as we need offensive pop on this team, Bob Bradley made his name with the Fire team that won MLS Cup with DEFENSE. And if you want an attacking player, Know Cameron (SOPHOMORE) is supposedly a good player. Think Conor Casey with a touch more speed.
I agree with the principle that a team shouldn't have to give up a draft pick to get a good coach. That said, I'm sure Bradley could still build a good team without a top draft pick this year. We need discipline and proper instruction more than we need a young talented player. After all, drafting Davis didn't help much with OZ running the show.
That's what some people on this board were saying about Carlos Ruiz before the start of this season and look what happened. There's no way you can say that he'll be average at best because no one knows. But, to Alecko's credit, he's performed very, very well at every level leading up to MLS. In US youth teams and at the Collegiate level he's had some outstanding games and put up some impressive stats. At UVA this year he has 18 goals and 4 assists in just 12 games. http://virginiasports.ocsn.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/va-m-soccer-CumulativeStats.html#TEAM.IND My best guess is that he'll make a great MLS player one day. Picking him up would be great if we could do it. But even with the #2 pick, there's no guarantee because DC may take him at #1. We shouldn't let this draft pick stop us from getting a great coach like Bradley. But I would much rather see us trade BOTH of our Allocations rather than our top pick.
That's a good point by Gamblor. Honestly, I saw Eskandarian play when he was in high school, because we came out of the same part of Jersey. He was always amazing. The knock on him was that most of his goals came against the easy teams, and against the better teams he didn't show up as much. By his senior year though, he played well all year, and led his high school to the state championship. Now. Our history of drafting is in some ways better then that of our allocations. Our allocation history is pathetic, and I am positive that it will continue. Combine that with the fact that Andy Williams and Faria are SI. This means we can only use one spot on a foriegn player. Which American will we be able to get from abroad? One of them is definately expendable in my view.
Bradley will Draft Better Bob Bradley is a better evaluator of talent than OZ ever will be. Even if we give up the #2, I am confident that he wll find a gem at teh #5 and then train him properly so he will contribute to the team.
Keep the pick and draft via some scouts and huys that know what they are doing. getthe best college/national team type players with past history, not guys we think are going to shine but ones that have excelled on youth national team level. Give up trying to pick guys and making them stars. Go for the proven thing. No more Ndayia and Shaks already.Hire Sarachan and keepp the picks. Give them a prove P-40 player like Klinger or Alvarez and maybe Forko as well.
Either Bradley or Sarachan would be fantastic coaches IMHO. But, Bradley's track record is considerably more reliable, and that matters when remembering the instability of things under Nick's reign. Bradley built a great team from the ground up, and then continually rebuilt it with strings when everybody got injured. The Metros have talent on defense that performed poorly last season, but under Bradley I'm certain that they would do just fine. A 3 man back line of Jolley, Petke and Akwari man marking ahead of Howard could do great. Bradley will find a true Dmid to put in front of them and protect them from counters, so the defense would be near the top of MLS most likely. On offense you have Clint returning, and I expect him to focus on his club and showcase his ability for the Euro scouts, so I'd expect that he'll be dominant next season scoring a lot. Bradley would bring the most out of Brad Davis and likely bring in a creative midfielder to supply Clint. He'd likely get another decent forward (i.e. Dante Washington, Dwayne DeRosario, etc.) and score a decent amount of goals. You guys wouldn't have a losing season for the next 10 years. I doubt any GM could resist that if it only cost a single draft pick. -Tron