Response to The Perfesser, et. al.

Fair enough, no personal attacks should be made, nor are they warranted. You're right about that, absolutely.

I do think, however, think that a lack of transparency exists in the personnel decision-making process of the Revolution organization.

Surely, it must be obvious that Sunil's position and your own seem somewhat at odds to the uninformed outsider. In other words, does the buck stop with Todd Smith, does it stop with Sunil Gulati, where does it stop?

It's just that the "consulting" model for personnel decisions with the Revs is not a standard one in the soccer/football world, going beyond what happens between a coach and a GM and an owner. There's this extra step that no one understands.

God knows, Todd, that 15K on a Wednesday night should tell you how badly people here want a winner. That same night, San Jose had 9K. It's just that MLS and soccer in general have grown too much in this country for people not to know who's in charge of a club's trades, once and for all.

When the Krafts back away in "we just pay the bills" mode, and the coach retreats into "I just coach the players I'm given" mode, a huge gap of responsibility is opened up in between, and unfortunately the GM must bear some of the brunt of criticism. That's how it works in any other league in the world.

 

Dear Todd:

I appreciate your response on this thread and know that you monitor these boards fairly regularly. As someone who both loves the Revs but has been critical as well it certainly helps to know that our remarks are taken in and responded to.

We all want success for the team and we each have our ways of trying to push the wagon a little bit further down the road (not over the cliff). What we often fail to realize is that the institutional memory of the current Revs players and upper staff is, at most, three years. We fans, many of us, go back the whole seven. So the institutional experience is somewhat different than the supporters versions.

I know that we all share a level of enthusiasm for football that makes many of us, certainly me, get worked up on all sorts of counts. We just want the passion that we feel for the game to be mirrored by positive results on the pitch. But it is a good wake-up call to realize that the discussion may sometimes get a bit too personal.

So even though I have written recently that the pressure should be turned up on the front office and brain trust, I hope it is taken in the spirit it was written in, just wanting a better, more successful team and a string of packed houses at Chapter 11.

JIM DOW

 

Todd/Fernando,

I feel the need to interject here because there quite clearly are some breakdowns not only communication, but the nature in which the context and tone are being misinterpreted.

I've know "The Perfesser" pretty much from day one: he's one of the original members of the Midnight Riders, an early contributor to the old ISFA Revolution listserv, and has been a fixture at both Revolution and U.S. National Team matches in what is now his seventh year following the club.

This is a guy who cares passionately about this sport and the team, and has remained a fixture throughout the turnover of club staff, player personnel, and any number of long-standing Revolution supporters.

Quite frankly he's one of the few remaining reasons that I continue to attend soccer matches at Foxboro.

I can give up on soccer, but I won't give up on my friends.

He's one of the few threads of continuity associated with a club that quite frankly has never achieved it, and some would argue, have never aspired to it.

And you know what, The Perfesser's frustrated, much like all of us are who take more than a passing interest in this club.

He's frustrated that Sunil Gulati's seemingly more interested in career advancement than he is with the Revolution. To be honest, none of us has any real clue as to his role with the club, other than maintaining a good title and collecting a pay-check. I've seen him at...what, one game this year. Does he sign the players, what sort of influence does he hold... does he put the Revolution first in the pecking order of his professional interest?

You'd be hard pressed to find a supporter that believes that. Go to the bulk of your season ticket base and ask them as well, see if they even know who Sunil is.

He's frustrated at the lack of a progressive attitude with the club, and in some respects I have to agree with that. Revolution staff talk, and I've been quite fortunate to know a good few over the years. I've also seen a lot of good people, talented people who could really make this club work... let go with seemingly little thought. They can be replaced, much like my seat can be replaced with another season ticket holder should I chose to give them up. It's frustrating to see good players move on, and good players never seemingly able to find success here. You think it's fun watching Diallo, Williams, and any other number of players find success after their Revolution tenure. Good Lord, some of these players are rubbing our noses in it, kicking us while we're down. We're pissed off like Hell, we want to do...something, we want to see Steve Nicol come out on record and say how complete #@!$ Diallo was, or how Andy Williams just never matured into a team leader which the club could have used.

You want things summed up.

The Revolution are not a club that plays to win. The Revolution are a club that plays not to lose. Fear of making the wrong decision, saying the wrong thing, upsetting the wrong people... it's paralizing the club. Advancing a progressive attitude is exception. Maintaining the status quo is given.

We're going through the motions, year, after year, after year.

Players have changed...

The stadium has changed...

Members of the front office have changed...

Supporters have changed...

I was having a conversation the other night with a friend of mine, again, someone who's been making the trek down to Foxboro from almost day one. I told her, "you know, a lot of people I used to know don't come to games anymore, and I miss that."

They don't come to games because not only do they think that the Revolution won't stand up for their fans, they don't come to games because they understand that the Revolution don't stand up for themselves.

The Perfesser's comments about "poor Todd Smith?" Well, only the gentleman himself can best articulate the context of his comments, but if anything, were positive.

So some may measure up Todd's soccer pedigree against Sunil's and think it doesn't measure up. But what I think The Perfesser was trying to say was that, here's a guy in Todd who's busting his ass trying to get things done, taking on the legacy of a club that's full of bagage and a good bit damaged goods. How many people are out there with his background are big enough masochists to take on that job, dealing with the personalities both on and off the pitch, then only to find out that he's got another battle on his hands that makes Wolde's goal-scoring problems look like nothing. This guy's fighting cancer, experiencing something that I cannot imagine, while also breaking his neck to get to games, to stay active, to set a ************ing example for everyone... all while working with any number of those people about him who don't put in the effort, take things for granted, do the bare minimum.... thinking only of themselves.

I'm very, very, very tired when it comes to following this team. I've been running a marathon for seven years now, like The Perfesser, and we've been real road dogs emotionally while others have faded away. I've had my enthusiasm beaten down to nothing, worked up again, only to be beatne back down. I miss a lot of my friends, people who really acred about this club and didn't take it for granted, but nobody seemed to care.

This was a club that used to carry some sense of expectation, even through the poor results and constant changes.

There's a difference between having expectation, and going through the motions of trying to have expectation. You either have it, or you don't, and you really can't convince yourself to the point to believe it.

I'm rambling I know it.

I'll try to finish here:

The New England Revolution lack the progressive philosphy needed to make them winners both on and off the pitch. They're afraid of risk, they're afraid of making mistakes, and they'd rather protect their own interests rather than possibly advancing them by advocating someone elses'. This attitude creates disillusionment in the front office, in the locker room, and in the stands.

It's not about learning to love winning, it's about learning to hate losing. The Revolution haven't figured that out yet, and until they do then more people like The Perfesser are going to get upset, but as many people who do like him, there's some family of four that will buy their season tickets, and as long as the Revolution have that, what's the point.

Stand up for your club, stand up for your fans, and stand up like Todd Smith, who's not fighting the fight he is so he can "live with" Leukemia, but so he can "beat it."

Bottle that, give it to the players, others in the front office, and throw it in the face of those who need a wake up call, be it Kraft, Sunil, anyone.

The Magpie

 

I have already sent Todd a personal message apologizing for stepping over the line by making an ill-considered remark about his health.

As I mentioned to him in my note, this was not intended.

What was intended is the suggestion that there seems to be a lack of organizational clarity at the top of this organization, which is making Todd's job much more difficult than it should be.

His title is GM, but the fuzzily-defined role of the mysterious Sunil, from my perspective, is not helping Todd in accomplishing what a GM usually charged with doing.

 

Todd,

I think it's good that you've posted on this issue and to know that you are reading what the fandom has to say. And I think you make a very valid point about things getting a little too personal to the point where a line gets crossed. No doubt about that.

At the same time, it needs to be understood that many of us have been sports fans in this town for a long, long time. We've seen organizations succeed and fail enough times to know when something's not right. And when something's not right, the end result is fairly predictable. A lot of games get lost.

The Patriots certainly are the classic example of this. As someone who's followed this team since Jim Plunkett was drafted #1 out of Stanford, I've seen the cycle run up and down countless times.

And just to stick with the Pete Carroll/Bobby Grier comparison that I made earlier in the thread, you could see that whole mess developing from the minute it became obvious the Bill Parcells was leaving.

Point being we know when something's wrong.

And we know that something's very wrong with this team.

It has not succeeded on the field. And while I thought you guys did a good job in the dispersal draft, I watch this team defending like a high school team far too often and I see enough players playing like they don't care, and I look at this team's record and I conclude that there's a serious problem here.

And sure, we overdo it saying this guy's got to go and that guy's got to go, but that's part of what being a hard core fan is all about. It's not about saying what a nice evening of entertainment that was as the Revs lose to Colorado 3-1.

To me it's nothing personal. But at the same time it's very frustrating to know that something's fundamentally wrong here and up till now, it hasn't really been clearly stated as to where the buck stops.

You may want to debate me on the something's fundamentally wrong point, but I will also just point to the won/lost record, which until Saturday was the worst in MLS, and I'll also point to things like what Gus wrote in the Herald and what some on this board who have some inside knowledge have said, and the end result is I stand by what I say.

Something's wrong that needs to be fixed and it's up to whoever's running the show to fix it.

But know that it's defintely not personal and no matter how carried away some of us get at times, at least we care. And judging by the number of posts I see on the Revs board vs. those of other MLS teams, I think we need more people caring and not less.

So I would urge you to participate more and not less on these boards, and to know that in the end, we just want this team to win its share of games and draw 25 to 30,000 a match at CMGI which, as someone else has noted, this team has the potential to do.

It's just that when the team plays like it's played for much of this season and you read about some of this off field stuff, that vision seems like it belongs on Fantasy Island.

 

Todd/Steve:

Please take this as a sincere suggestion. Ignore these boards! Many people come here to vent, and, while it is surprising that comments by the Perfesser were the ones to cross your threshold of tolerance, more ill-conceived comments will follow.

If you read often enough, you'll even see we all insult and beat on each other. It is a place for venting and the bounds of good taste are just not always observed.

 

my $.02

I am already having second thoughts about adding anything to this thread. Mostly because I think the main issue is between Todd and the Perfessor - and it sounds like it has been or is being resolved.

But in reading the few posts so far, it occurred to me that they appear to be from long time (lifetime) Revs/soccer supporters, journalists, and other insiders.

I don't fit any of those categories so I may have something different to offer. The first soccer match I ever watched was the 99 MLS Cup. I have been hopelessly hooked ever since. I bought my first pair of season tickets this year.

When I look around the league, I see that every other team can boast about at least a strong year or two. Our biggest boast is that we have won one play-off game and made it to the final match of a tournament that few people care about.

I am not looking to lay blame, nor do I think that is productive. But when a team doesn't win there is a problem. The problem needs to be identified before it can be fixed.

The pile of players and coaches (has anyone had more coaches than we have) naturally get blamed and then get fired or waived or traded and then frustratingly many become successful once they are gone. That hasn't had much positive impact for us.

Even though I am not an insider, my limited interactions with staff seem to support what I read and see. Something higher than the players and coaches needs attention.

Other MLS teams seem to be promoting themselves better, finalizing signings quicker and with better results and have produced at least a few good years to look back on during the lean years.

With the lack of success following the numerous player and coaching changes, I am left to look further up for the answers. Do we not have the 'right' people running the show? Is it a money issue? The Krafts are not St. Phil and I have heard about the very limited resources available to the Revs. Is there an attitude trickling down from the top, the oft-mentioned un-loved stepchild theory?

I do want to end on a positive note. Everyone I have met in the Revolution have been wonderful. Rui and Darius and Tim have been kind and helpful and enthusiastic. The players my son and I have met at various functions have been true class - from John Harkes to Yari Allnut to Fernando and John Murphy to Taylor Twellman and Adin Brown. They have all been encouraging and kind to my son - and that means the world to me. He has lifetime memories of even the smallest of kind words and gestures from these guys.

The players, coaches and staff have earned my respect and admiration. If the players get what they need, the fans will get what we want.

 

I would say that between the post above, there is really little to add from a frustrated fan and season ticket holder perspective. Magpie's especially should be "bulletin board material" for the staff offices and the player's locker room. If the staff don't see these posts as a mandate from some of the most hardcore proponents of their endeavors…..then I'll find it really difficult to be a part of this adventure in american soccer any longer.

however, given the fact that there are 2 posts attributed to todd/fernando:
1. after a declared "victory" in the dispersal draft
2. after a "personal attack"

…..i would sincerely hope that

…..means we will see a meaningful DIALOGUE of ANY kind from the revs office on these boards.

and with regards to the Perfesser's comments:

At the risk of sounding like I'm equating someone's life with what they do for a living (and I certainly don't begrudge Todd for his response on commentary he felt was over the edge)….what I read from Gus seemed like a personal attack of sorts too. Like others, I'd love to see a "compelled GM" respond to that article…esp. if it's way off. Would the "barbs" or even the "follow up discussion" be necessary if we had some explanation from the people mentioned in gus' article clarifying it further.

Taken from the old addage "hindsight is always 20/20". Well, shouldn't foresight be at least 60/20 or something? (see serna's apparent non-physical examination assertions) I can at least understand the failings of this sentiment b/c it’s the conundrum I'm in every single time I have to rationalize sending in that renewal check.

What that stephen wright joke?...when someone asked him "how are you doin'?"
his response....

"well you know when you lean back in a chair too far and just when you're about to fall backwards, you catch yourself at the last second...well, I feel like that all the time"

 

Evan's reply perfectly articulates the burnout that I also feel, despite supporting a different, and arguably more successful (very marginally) team. There's certainly a feeling that no matter how devoted the support for a team is, the management will see that as a low water mark, taking for granted that the enthusiasm from a relatively small group is the starting point. There's no recognition that poor decision making on all fronts (player personnel, supporter relations, etc.) has any effect on the morale and interest of the devoted fan. Every MLS management type, even the fan-friendly Peter Wilt, ought to read what Evan wrote when they get to the office every single morning, and every owner who shows ambivalence towards his investment needs to have a look at the less tangible price of underfunding his team-- a sense of bad faith from the supporters that will be very hard to buy back.

 

Funny how we all start our posts with "there isn't really a lot I can add..." and then write 15 paragraphs, but I have to second The Magpie's response. I, too go back to Day One, and perhaps some would consider me an "insider" from my days with the late fanzine "Pictures of Chairman Mao." (RiP)

Todd, we exchanged e-mails in the off-season, and that fact alone shows a lot about your character that you'd take the time to address the concerns of sometimes disgruntled fans. I (and others) appreciate that. We also appreciate that you come in here and comment every so often. I hope to see you here more often, even if you do need to take some things you read with a boulder of salt from the Mass Highway road crew.

So, with that in mind, would you care to set the record straight about some of the rather serious allegations made by Gus Martins, namely that the Revs didn't insist on a physical for Serna? If that's false, shame on Gus. If it's true, shame on ... um, I don't know if it would be you, or Sunil, or Fernando or Steve, or all of you... And that's the point. Not that we want to blame anyone, but we don't even know who is really in charge.

I realize that the last thing you want is to get in a pissing match with the press, but if someone writes something that is as potentially embarassing and damaging to the organization like this, it needs to be addressed. Otherwise people will make their own conclusions. Right or wrong, many would tend to believe the paper (Gus' reputation is first-rate), and therefore come to the conclusion that those running the Revs (all the way up to the Krafts) either don't care or are totally incompetent, or both. I hope that niether is the case.

No one expects you to share proprietary and confidential information with your fans, but I think I speak for many fans when I say that we need to be shown that the organization is both committed to and capable of building a decent (Rapids/Burn/Crew level) team here in New England. No one expects to win MLS Cup (wasn't that a cruel hoax?), but to be good enough to beat any team on any day, and to actually do that about half the time--and at least look like you can when you don't win--isn't a lot to ask for. To quote Dr. Evil, "Just throw me a frickin' bone here."

Everyone has said what a "sleeping giant" New England is, but the bloom is off the rose as far as the new stadium is concerned, and there has to be more reason for people to want to come to games. It would be a tragedy, not just for us, but for the whole sport, if we gradually devolve into Kansas City, but that's exactly what's happening right before our eyes.

But at least they have good barbecue there.

Tom

 

Sigh... I remember when we used to say that no matter how bad things were for us, at least we weren't Metro. Funny how in the last 3 years you've put together a team that may be frustrating, but is at least competent enough to make it worthwhile.

And I even hear you're going to get your own stadium in 60 to 90 days

Tom

 

First, personal attacks or insinuations on someone's health isn't nice -by the sounds of it the perfesser has apologized on that one. I can understand where Todd/Fernando were coming from on that one.

But back to the Revs; I'd also like to know if Serna was required to be given a physical as a condition of the trade... The only other possible justification for this (if it's true) would be that this trade was going to happen regardless of what the Revolution organization wanted, hence making the physical entirely without value anyway. If that were the case, because the Revolution organization were not insisting on a physical, were they sending out subtle signs they were powerless on this one?

So which is it? Or did I miss another reason?

 

I've read it twice, now, and I don't think it was meant as a personal attack, although I understand how Todd might have interpreted it that way. Just a misunderstanding.

I would be interested in hearing some sort of response from a Revolution official to some of Gus Martins' statements, however.

 

I am told that ALL MLS trades are "buyer beware" and that no physicals ever take place beforehand.

 

Everywhere and I mean everywhere from EPL to part time clubs in Patagonia a medical is absolutely insisted upon by ALL parties before any player movement. If this is true it is even stupider than the shootout. I mean, please!!!!!! It protects everyone involved.

JIM DOW

 

This is patently idiotic if true (Don Garber: Are you listening, you ex-NFL executive?).

Thank God I'm not a MLS front office executive because I'd be beside myself. It's like having unprotected sex - you may be OK afterwards; you might not, too.

In most other professional sports - NFL, MLB, NBA, etc - there's a caveat that requires a player passes a physical before the trade becomes final.

When you hear about things like this - again, if it's true - you really have to wonder if the league is concerned about the welfare and health of its assets.

Again, patently idiotic...

 

If it is true that MLS teams abide more or less by an "honor system" with regard to trades, how much does this tell you about Nick "the Dick" Sakiewicz that he may have actually used it to shaft another organization.

If true (and I do say if), the man is some kind of vermin.

(Remember the quote? Something to the effect of, "They gave up a lot, and they got nothing in return...". Hmmmmmmm. How strangely portentious.)

 

Were you told this before we got stuck with damaged goods, or after?

If this is actually true (and I hope to hell it isn't) then we need to change the name from MLS to RDSL (rinky-dink soccer league). The fact that a team can trade a player to another team when they know he's injured and the other team doesn't would be roughly equivalent to hearing that they were elminating the offside rule and bringing back the shootout. I thought that using a roster space for the grandson of a business partner was bad enough, but this is worse. It's almost enough to make you feel stupid for actually following (much less defending) this league.

 

"Single Entry" strikes again. I guess if it's all in the same family you don't check before you change bedrooms.

As a Shrink, I think all this venting is a good thing

I would opine that the best way to be a Rev fan is to have a good sense of humor and to remember "Our Serenity is inversely proportional to our expectations". We can choose to be a Rev fan, come to games and still keep from going bonkers-----well, at least we can try.

 

Payback!

I remember reading somewhere that the MS were complaining of having traded for Marcelo "Damaged Goods" Balboa...

 

Think about it. In any of the stories you read about the trade just after it went down, was there any mention of a physical for any of the players? Ted C. was told about the trade on Friday morning, got on a plane that evening and played the next day.

In fact, do you ever hear about physicals on inter-league trades?

Not that I didn't get it from a reliable source...

 

This is an example of where it would be nice if we could get some clarification from Revs management. Then again, if the deal WAS made without checking out the health of the players involved, then the silence, I guess, tells us everything we need to know.

Also gotta love that hard hitting journalism by FDA and the talented Jim Greenidge in not at least asking the question. BTW has Gus ever asked it?

 

What I'm giving you is clarification from Revs' management. Do you think I'm bright enough to come up with that stuff all on my own?

No. I didn't think so. ;-)

 

With that at least partially answered, I wonder if there's any reason to believe that it really had any effect in this case.

Serna seemed okay in the first game he played for the Revs (albeit as a late game sub). I never noticed him limping or favoring a leg. So it just is possible that he was not dinged-up when the Revs got him, and it was his lack of practice time (or so Nicol has intimated) that got him injured. Then again, maybe it was just horrible luck.

Gus said in his (widely discussed) 7/29/02 Herald article:

But he never really gives any evidence or sources to back this up.

Besides this, does anyone have any reason to believe Serna was injured when he got to New England?

BTW, if true, the league really has to change the rule to prevent slugs like Nick "the Dick" Sakeiwicz from making trades a complete joke.