Lorient does make a certain amount of sense for Nancy, like you're saying. But in the end, it doesnt really matter where. I just dont see Nancy here long term. Hes talked about it openly. Challenging himself is part of his identity. Hes proved his greatness in this league and in this region. He will seek another challenge. If I put the over/under on him leaving at 1.5 years from now, I'm probably slamming the under.
That makes it sound like the Crew are firing him, in other words Issa is swinging the axe right away. If that's the case it seems premature. Finish the season before doing evaluations.
Stated elsewhere, but had we beaten Pachuca, I'd be more concerned. I don't think winning a championship while playing stylish football in MLS is as visible or means as much abroad as we might think. Bez's link to Lorient is a legit thing. Personally, I think that Thierry Henry's opinion of Nancy is another. But I'm terrible concerned right now. That said, he has to feel as though his partnership with Tall can grow to match what he had with Bez in terms of player acquisition and retention.
There's an old saying that players win games and coaches lose them. Where do GMs and all fit in? We still have the guys on the field, right?
1) I don't know that Nancyball would translate well to the French league. 2) Their current manager is inked through 2027 and if they wanted to fire him they would have already. 3) Ligue 2 is a step down from the Columbus Crew. It will need to be a Ligue 1 job, and they won't fire the manager next year if he earns promotion. 4) Nancy and his family are very happy here and he will be paid well with more job security than he'd have in Europe. 5) Bez loves the Columbus Crew and would not want to intentionally damage the club by gutting our infrastructure. 6) I doubt Bez would want to bring Nancy into a situation where he's never given a fair chance. Lorient will essentially be the Cincinnati Reds; they're a farm team for Bournemouth. I think we're at least two years removed from needing to worry about him going to Lorient.
True, but American ownership groups/GMs have a history of disproportionately buying/loaning in American players and hiring American coaches.
Per the dispatch “Tall confirmed that it was his decision to part ways with Wray, as Tall is looking to adjust the structure of the second team and the academy in a way that better aligns with his own and Crew coach Wilfried Nancy's vision.” "‘I want to thank Corey for what he's done for the club, at the time, his role was needed, So now, you look at the second team, and it's players from the academy and the hope is to have more of that. The hope is to have players that are, maybe this is a little bit aggressive, but 17, 16, 15, coming through.'” https://www.dispatch.com/story/spor...ay-assistant-gm-tim-bezbatchenko/74015068007/
Bez no longer works for us. If Foley tells him to poach Nancy, he’s gonna poach Nancy. Lorient is a club that has the last couple decades been good at finding diamonds in the rough. I don’t expect them to be in Ligue 2 for long. A quick path to Ligue 1 would be very intriguing IMO. French football is a bit like English football, lots of physicality and vertical play, but it’s loaded with raw young talent. I think Nancy would do just fine over there.
From a decided distance and talking entirely out of my hat, it does look an awful lot like there was a power struggle and Issa Tall won. What's surprising is the speed of it all, but Tall more or less admitted that he wanted the guy gone. "Part ways" is about as close as it gets to " fired". The vision that he and Wilfried share is clearly to invest more heavily in the academy. Could they be looking at a residential model? We need to close the book on the old era and there's perhaps good reason to start getting excited about the future.
I doubt Wray wil be out of a job for very long. If Saputo weren't such a cheapskate, I could see him in Montreal, reunited with Courtois.
Sam Jones at mlssoccer says the Crew is done. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/your...bus-won-t-be-the-same-after-bezbatchenko-exit
Saying the Crew have peaked and are probably gonna be not as good isn’t an outrageous statement. We’re the second best team in CONCACAF and reigning MLS champs, and the best coach in the league will probably leave in the next 18 months. Doesn’t get much better than that. Just look at Atlanta. They killed the league in year 2, everyone thought they’d dominate for the next decade, and have been completely hopeless ever since. Shit can change fast.
Agreed all around. We all recall when Seattle was widely considered to be a "dynasty" until the Crew took them down at MLS Cup. They haven't been that dominant since. To me, Nancy still may have to prove that he can win without Bezbatchenko running the show. The two jobs are not unrelated and Wilfried has had one hell of a support system here. We all also recall Toronto back in 17 when they won the double (Canadian treble but who cares) under Greg Vanney. Everyone was anointing him the next great coach, CotY, etc etc, but Bez was running that show as well. After Bez they mostly fell apart and when he left town. nobody was all that sad to see him go. And he ain't exactly setting the world on fire in LA. I think Nancy is wonderful and he'll still do great things but we can't say that he has nothing left to prove.
He took a Montreal team that Thierry Henry struggled to make mediocre, and left days before training camp started, and within two years turned them into one of the best teams in the league. With a roster that wasn’t radically different. He’s shown he can coach at two places, not just here.
I get your point but if the two guys simply don't get along and don't agree on the direction, AND it sounds like Issa intends to hit the ground running, it's probably best that Wray hit the bricks. Issa apparently feels that he knows all that he needs to know about Wray; no further evaluations needed.
I’m sure that whoever wasn’t hired as GM would’ve left. Issa has already interviewed with DC previously. Apparently the other guy has some cachet, so he probably feels he can be a GM elsewhere. I don’t really see the big issue with all of this.
By all accounts Wray and McMillan were doing their jobs well. I'm sure Wray was disappointed not to get the GM job but Tall firing him looks petty and insecure. It's not for poor performance. Basic professionalism should prevail. If Tall can't get along with Wray and McMillan over the rest of the season, then make changes in December.
We don’t know what happened. Maybe Wray Kool Aid Manned his way into Dee or Jimmy’s office and pulled a Half Baked and told everyone that they sucked. Maybe Issa is a cold blooded bad ass. Maybe they had previous beef and buried it, but the new hierarchy made it an issue again. I don’t know. It’s not sustainable to have two guys who think they should be boss when only one can though. Wray is getting paid and I’m sure will land on his feet. Best for both honestly.
He also says we have a strong foundation and will be fine in the long term. I mean, fine. He’s paid to write stuff like this. But the way he describes Tall in the article makes me conclude he knows little about the amount of time he’s spent working with and for Bez. It’s been a very, very long apprenticeship, in MLS HQ, Toronto, and now here. We also have inside info that some new signings are likely already in the pipeline. In short, the team is in excellent shape to challenge for hardware in MLS again this season. Bez wasn’t going to score any goals for us, and seems to be walking out the door having lined up some reinforcements. Obviously, other players could leave, but we have everyone under contract and the roster’s been structured so smartly, we don’t need to sell to stay cap compliant. Sure, we might fade. I mean, it’s been a very long time since any team’s truly qualified as an MLS dynasty. They just done happen in this league. But with Nancy, the quality of the current roster, and rumored new signings on the way, we really deserve to be considered one of the favorites to win MLS Cup again this year.
Here's a sort of ham handed team video meant to show that Issa has been part of the team's success. It's fine, but possibly a little too obvious in it's aim. "No task too Tall... Issa’s time is now ✨ pic.twitter.com/MXeN5aZzE6— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) June 6, 2024 "