This one is looks like its happening. Interestingly Chris Leitch is being retained as GM, but reporting to Arena. Hopefully Arena can really advance the young domestic players at San Jose. San Jose Earthquakes reportedly name ex-USMNT, New England Revolution boss Bruce Arena as new manager and sporting director | Goal.com US
Whoa, more coaching news. This one is a bit of a shock. Report: Philadelphia Union set to part ways with longtime manager Jim Curtin after missing out on 2024 postseason | Goal.com US [And yes, this would be a good hire for Pochettino and the USSF as a domestic assistant coach.]
Reading between the lines and talking to a friend I have who works with the Union (She's in Tickets Operation so take with grain of salt) the big disconnect between Curtain and the front office was about integration of some of the young players. The Union felt, especially during the summer players like CJ Olney, David Vazquez, Eddie Davis, and Olwethu Makhanya should have been given a chance... also Jesus Bueno and Tai Baribo playing so well once El Brujo and Carranza left after Curtain barely used them also didn't go over well. Ultimately while the Union are insanely cheap, the front office was ready to rebuild after last year and Curtain convinced them to keep everybody together and it bottomed out. Would not be shocked if they promote LeBlanc from Union 2
This is official now: Philadelphia Union part ways with Jim Curtin | MLSSoccer.com ..................there's plenty of blame to go around.
That leaves: Peter Vermes (Kansas City) - 15 years, 92 days in charge Jim Curtin (Philadelphia) - 10 years, 147 days Brian Schmetzer (Seattle) - 8 years, 101 days Oscar Pareja (Orlando) - 4 years, 336 days Everyone else took over in 2021 or later.
Begrudgingly admit that bruce arena is exactly what San Jose needs. Squeezes max out of modest players
So, current job openings in MLS................. Atlanta Austin Dallas St. Louis Sure seems like Dallas is going to retain their interim manager, Peter Luccin. If I was any of those other teams, I'd be thrilled with Jim Curtin as head coach. He had a bad 2024. But the previous 5 years are about as good as a franchise can expect in a league built on parity. Rebuilt New England pretty quickly into SS winners, while also giving some young players a chance. Could be a great hire by San Jose. IF, IF, IF ownership and the front is willing to up their investments as implied in this ESPN article. We'll see................ Arena eyes new challenge as San Jose Earthquakes coach - ESPN Things can only go up, so.................
Yup……. If. Expectations are certainly measured. Can’t fault him much if Fischer is still fisching. There is literally nowhere to go but up. Cannot do much worse than this season
He and Leitch have some work to do. They need a bunch of new players. Hopefully they can also really drive the development of their young homegrowns. "I already know that we want to bring in anywhere from, three to five new players, at a minimum," Arena said. "We're going to target some guys and try to attract them to San Jose. "You can't change a dozen players in one year, so I think we need to have some patience. I think the roster's a heck of a lot better than they demonstrated this past year. It's not a 21-point roster. Is it a 30-point roster? Is it 40 points? Is it 50 points? I don't know, but the roster is certainly more capable than they showed in 2024."
There is. The Union are insanely cheap so on that end the fans and Curtain can talk about investment but to the Union side, Tai Baribo and Jesus Bueno were never used and once they were after sales.... they were insanely good. Just felt like time for both sides to move on Atlanta were interested in Curtain previously so maybe they go back. Luccin seemed like the sure fire a month or so ago but Dallas fell off again so tbd
I guess I'm happy everyone won't be expected to fit a 442 diamond no matter what. Quinn may be able to play winger now. And it sounds like there's frustration about the lack of integration of youth from not just USMNT fanboys @jaykoz3 . It's win-win if he's added to the senior nat'l team as an assistant coach/advisor to Poch that he can listen to as far as the domestic pool. It'd be just in time for January camp.
Its one of those things. You're not competing with the likes of Inter Miami, Columbus, Cincinnati, etc. with a team of teenagers. The front office didn't replace Carranza and others in the off-season. If they did that to force Curtin to play teens, then they weren't making the team better. Not in 2024 anyway. Its like FC Dallas during the Luchi era when they were giving lots of game time to kids. We loved it on these boards. But.....................they weren't winning.
Damn curtin would have been really nice……. That kinda hurts. But…….. Bruce needs us, and we need Bruce. Hopefully it is an agreeable relationship. Will he take the academy seriously? That’s kinda fallen by the wayside since Matthias almeyda. He sounds like he has targets
I still think having those kids is a huge advantage over teams without them. Philly and Dallas still need to get top level HG's and really good veterans at positions the kids aren't ready. The not ready bunch can fill in when a team has a big lead or is way behind, when there a lot of injuries or callups. The object is to turn some into top level starters and others into decent backups and even some as occasional starters. Adding Ferreira, Pepi, Tessmann, Aaronson, Aaronson etc didn't hurt those teams but neither made the leap to match what the top teams were doing with DP's. Miami has done both even without as many HG's. They have played a lot of HG's alongside Messi and they somehow manage to win.
https://fox40.com/sports/soccer/sac...ramento-republic-fc-stadium-rancheria-wilton/ Plz……… don’t play games Sac. Don’t…… would be first tribal nations ownership of any league in North America.
lol maybe it meant majority. Idgaf if it’s the most vanilla white dude ever at this point. I’d literally even take Donald Trump at this point. Basically anyone but Jon Fischer. I just want a mls team and a railyards stadium any news on Vegas, Indy, Or Phoenix lately?
I suggested this exact thing back when Curtin was still employed and no one expected him to no longer be the coach for Philly lol
To be clear, it's not just the kids (but that's a big thing), it's also things like not integrating Jesus Bueno and Tai Baribo into the rotation until you sell Jose Martinez and Julian Carranza. It's begging the team to resign Alejandro Bedoya to be a veteran leader and having him be one of your primary starters despite being cooked. With Elliott and Glesnes also seeing their form crater they also wanted Olwethu Makhanya to get a chance and he never did. It also just so happens that the Union 2 have made a run to the conference finals with the youngest team in MSLNP and a lot of their teenagers had great seasons in positions of need who much like Paxten/McGlynn/Craig/Quinn are looking like they will be in contention with the u-20 WC team. So its more why are we not using some of our kids who are scoring for fun in MLSNP on the bench over the likes of Chris Donovan, a cooked Ale Bedoya, Oliver Mbaizo, Damian Lowe (before being sold), and Sam Adineran
I would be more surprised if Arena DIDN'T get some sort of agreement from SJ ownership to increase their spending (even though Fisher is a notoriously cheap bastard). Arena is probably the only coach in league history that has the clout to make that happen as a condition of signing a contract.
Yeah no. The 4-4-2 diamond comes from Sporting Director Ernst Tanner. So that's not going anywhere. It's not solely about the integration of the youth players. as has been mentioned by other posters it was about Curtin not integrating Baribo (Carranza's replacement) and playing Donovan over him, as well as as not playing Jesus Bueno more. Makhanya not getting a chance when Elliott and Glesnes were making schoolboy mistakes hurt the team too. They did replace Carranza. They brought in Baribo in August 2023!!! They scored 62 goals this season, second most in team history. Agree with all of this. IMO, Bedoya is still a good player to have in the locker room and as a late game sub. You are correct that they relied on him far too often as a starter this past season. Especially when other younger players were ready for a shot (Bueno specifically). A lot of this stems from not playing Baribo in the first third of the season. That forced Sullivan up top, and subsequently Bedoya into a starting position in MF. M'Baizo I disagree with. I think he should have played more than he did. He was, afterall, the starting RB on the 2022 team. He also didn't play Adineran all that much if at all down the stretch. Which I was okay with, as he didn't show much in the time he did get. In the end, IMO, it was a combination of factors. 1.) lack of faith in reserve players (playing the kids, as well as Bueno, Baribo, even Danley when he was first signed). 2.) Polite criticism of the owners lack of spending nearly every press conference 3.) Didn't want a major overhaul of the team 4.) Tanner wants to overhaul the team 5.) Recommitment to the pressing style that got them their success 6.) Players possibly spoke for the need of a new voice (pure speculation on my part) After 10 years, both sides need to go in different directions.
When you are the coach and GM of a team with a great academy don't buy players in a position where you have a great HG who is ready to start. Trade a player in front of a great HG who is ready to start unless they are one of the best players in the league and then you probably need to find another team for the HG so they don't stagnate. I think the hardest part is knowing the right for a young HG to move on to a Euro team, convincing them to wait until they are ready and for both the team and player to go to a team that is the best for their career and not one that is a short term money grab. So far no team has figured out how to do this the best way and I'm sure there is a lot of judgement and convincing skills needed. I keep waiting for a team to put it all together. Great DP's, an ascendant academy to add starters on the cheap to help with the cap and create money when they are sold, solid players to fill in around the DP's and HG's.
Seattle have done a good job with their academy while also spending money. Admittedly they've spent less this year to be 24th in team payroll. In 2023, they were 9th.
Why the huge drop? Seattle have done surprisingly well with their academy. Kind of odd though as they all are just solid starters and none are high impact stars that go to Europe. Morris might have if not for injuries.