http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11610217 I hope this is just speculation, however I wouldn't be surprised if there was a grain of truth to this. Red Bull can certainly mount pressure behind the scenes without publicly embarrassing Petke, but would they sack the only coach that has achieved any measure of success after only his 2nd year?
Well... A.was he responsible for keeping the same team as last year while every team (in the world) always tries to improve regardless of results? B. was it his idea not to sign a third DP? C. the failure in CCL, terrible coaching or front office? plus the lies about taking all the healthy players to Salvador. not a good year. I like the man but this year makes me want to look close to NYC and look how they treat there fans.
a) He and Roxburgh were both adamant about retaining the squad that won the Supporter's Shield, which was the right idea, they just bombed the few signings they did make over the winter. But that's is way more the job of Roxburgh and Campos than Petke. b) He's definitely not responsible for not signing a third DP, that decision is made much higher up the food chain. Same with the decision not to field a USL PRO team. c) Petke claims that his job performance is not judged by CCL, its by MLS, so it'd be a little harsh to blame him for prioritizing the games the way he did. I think he went overboard with the lineup he sent out against Montreal though, the full reserve team never stood a chance.
Rubish. He brought this franchise the first trophy in its history which is more than any other move Red Bull ever made. He might not be a master tactician, but he's a young and growing manager. I'm so tired of these 1-2 season coaches. I said Backe should have gotten at least 3 and I'll say the same for Petke. Yes, some of the off season moves didn't pan out, but guess what? Some of them DID. Duvall and Oyongo. People were skeptical about BWP and his salary as well, but he came good on that. The truth is that Petke inherited a team with a lot of problems and probably with a lot of players he didn't want. He needs more time and he needs the backing of Austria with this USL side.
Problem I have is the players he wanted this off season like Convoy(missing in action), Armandcant, Crapersly, and Perieneele who all look like crap to me. That and keeping Kimura over our previous RB tells me that Mike's judgement has not been good this off season.
He won the Supporter's Shield last year, our first ever trophy. I don't think he's a great manager but he's earned more rope than to be fired immediately if we miss the playoffs. I think letting Holgersson go cost us a good number of points this year with all the goals Sekagya has been at fault for
I'm not going to sit here and tell everyone we had a stellar off season. We didn't. But it wasn't a complete bust either. Eckersley and Kimura were supposed to lock down the RB spot. They didn't. HOWEVER, Mike and Roxy got this guy named Duvall. So although it wasn't what they PLANNED they still solved that problem. Convey was supposed to lock down LM. He didn't. HOWEVER, Mike and Roxy got this guy named Oyongo. So although it wasn't what they PLANNED they still solved that problem. Barklage has made all of 13 appearances for a terrible San Jose team. I know everyone was crying their eyes out over losing this guy but it wasn't a big loss at all. The guy has been destroyed by injuries which have plagued him his entire career. Dax had terrible injury problems for half the season. Cahill has been $hit all year. You can't predict those things and with the salary cap the way it is you really can't put together an outstanding contingency plan in the off season for that either. The one thing I think Petke really screwed up was the CB partner for Olave. To me, that is the only thing he should really get grilled for in terms of player acquisitions. The most frustrating part is his MLS 1.0 attitude that 2 physical center backs will lock down a defense. It isn't true. The game has evolved way beyond that. You can get away with 1 bruiser provided his partner is a finesse player. You'd also be better off with 2 well rounded CB's. 2 bruisers get you no where these days. Holgersson was due for a SIGNIFICANT pay raise and at the time it made sense to me (business sense) to let him go. However, that was because I was under the impression that either Miazga was ready for prime time or they were going to replace Holgersson with another player LIKE him. Miazga wasn't ready and they totally f#cked up the other CB spot. What I think/hope Mike learned this year: 1. You can't play 2 bruisers in defense. 2. You can trust some of these college guys. 3. The academy kids need a little more seasoning before being thrown to the wolves.\ 4. "Stability" in a roster is a good thing, but you can't sit on your a$$ while the teams around you make significant improvements. #2 is going to be the most important because over the next few years we have some incredible talent graduating from college. We need to sign these guys to homegrown contracts and give them a chance. Our talent pool has never been this strong before. Doing so will have a snowball effect. It will mitigate bad signings (Convey, Armando) because we won't be desperate for players and it will keep the salary cap in check. Therefore more time and attention can be given to that 1 big signing we might need at any given time. Priorities going into the offseason: 1. CB. Olave and Sekagya are approaching ancient. Armando and Perri don't look good. Miazga is still too raw and with no USL side will likely remain that way for another 2-3 years. 2. Replacing Henry's creativity in attack.
Found this gem from the past online one of the best scarves ever!! To be sure the team has had some pretty craptacular coaches in its history. Many people say Bora was the worst--but Bora was brought in as a miracle worker to try and work magic with an absolute crap team. My vote for worst MetroBulls coach ever instead goes to Parreira. There was so much hype around him when he was brought in. The man won a World Cup with Brazil and went on to do absolutely nothing with Metro--at times looking inept and confused. He sure did not look like an "elite" coach while he was here.
Firmani, Queiroz, Parreira, Mondelo, Bora, Zambrano, Bradley, Johnston,Williams, Arena, Osorio,Williams, Backe
The rumored top candidate for the GM spot, Ali Curtis. This move makes sense to me. He's an MLS guy through and through. With Salzburg pulling back, my feeling is they will give more autonomy to the NY franchise. The club will be less focused on bringing in top tier talent from abroad and more focused on identifying quality American players to promote, with the possibility of a new, cheaper DP being brought into the fold. I think the local team will be given certain guidelines and metrics, be successful and operate within a budget and you'll have self-determination. That would also poise the team to be sold in the future, with a solid management team and few loose ends abroad, they could easily transition to new ownership.
Unfortunately without any plans for a Red Bull USL team---the development of these players will be incomplete. However, in general it can only be a good thing if they let the team make more if its own decisions even if Austria caps it in the knees financially.......
We have seen ENOUGH of Petke to make a decision. Give him at least years more years to build something here. I can't think of anyone I want as our coach.
I love the fact that Petke--a product of our league and of our team--is so far a better coach than all the foreign "genius" coaches this team has ever had. Yes Backe had a more winning regular season record but he was never one win away from MLS Cup. Yes Osorio got us to the Cup final, but one always gets the feeling it was due more to luck than hard work and his subsequent meltdown the following year has tainted the memory of Osorio among the fans.
No discussions here on the Firing? http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/red-bulls-fire-mike-petke.2015378/
Really sad to see him go this way. Of the teams since 1996, the classes of 2000 (coached by Zambrano, with Valencia, Chung in the team) and Petke are the most entertaining ones.