After the whole Bradley to Chivas, Mathis-Cunny switch-a-roo, and Dunny being shipped to hellsville, USA a.k.a. California, I started contemplating whether it was good or bad business that MLS opts to be so incestuous with it's players and coaches. Yes, I realize that just about every pro sport in America is incestuous with it's coaches. But during this past season, when watching a Quakes-Gals match, you'd see many players who had played for both clubs at one point in their carreer. kicking around the ball, in front of fans who had at one point loved them, but were now forced to hate them. Yes this is sports. But does it happen a bit too often in MLS than not? And isn't this disheartening for a fan? For a player like Todd Dunivant or the well publicized case of Landon Donovan,to be so disheartening as to go to the rival club seems, in my opinion, to be a mishandled situation.
Two words: Roger Clemens. Every sport has the players that either follow the money or follow the prestige.
At present, with a limited number of pro-caliber players and coaches, you are going to see this recycling. It is a symptom of the relative newness of the league. You see this when you realize that both Bob Bradley AND Eric Denton are both gainfully employed in the highest echelon of American pro soccer. I do not know how big a leap there is between coaching in college and the pros. With the recent trend that many coaches are either selected from a. former players (Kinnear, Johnston, Nowak, and even the stop gap of Warzycha) or b. promoted MLS assistant coaches (Sarachan, Clark, Kinnear and Johnston again, even Bradley) over college and A-League coaches, it may be harder than it appears. Once MLS is twenty, I think that 1. coaches will be trained/educated with the pros in mind as the ultimate coaching pinnacle rather than college programs and 2. there will be a greater pool of MLS assistants and former players to break up the recycling. Plus, heaven forbid, there may be a little more money to spread around.
true, MLS rosters are pretty "incestuous". but the number of ex-MLSers on A-League rosters changes every year too. so there's a decent amount of turnover. to answer your question, i'm not sure if it's good or bad. the jury is still out for me.