Rev News, 7/29/02

Nice job Gus!

I never thought I would say that....

RC

 

Wow, Gus that's as brutially honest a statement about the State of the Revs as I've ever seen in the press. While true on the surface it makes the front office seem like people who are blindly rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic as it sinks. I sure don't think that's true. This organization has been trying to dig out of a hole since the initial draft. Each year new players and new coaches with little improvement. Management made some real effort to remake this team during the last off season. On paper they did a great job. Unfortunately things have gone terrably wrong but not because they didn't recognize that we were/are in trouble and desperately needed to make significant changes.

 

I thought Steve specifically wasn't Smith's choice for assistant coach. Anyone in the know care to weigh in on this?

 

Effort is great, but results are what count. The results (last place for most of the season and a long shot to make the playoffs) and actions by the team (picking Chacon, signing and then cutting Semedo, getting duped in the Serna trade, etc....) show that this organization still is far from having its *************** together.

Good job Gus!!!

 

One word: Wow.

Gus is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. Hey, the truth hurts and, depending on which side of it you're on, can be especially painful.

 

At times the team has been an embarrassment?

At times the team has been an embarrassment!

 

i haven't read the article yet from gus....but, am about to.

i will add this...i was in maine and listened to the gurgled broadcast over the radio (and dammit, we lost the signal for a brief time during the half and it was replaced by the adventures of little orphan annie....what the heck was that about? )

anyway, they were talking to a guy just before the game came back on. the guy seemed to know his stuff (not just on the revs either), he was opinionated and a great interview. i was a bit shocked to find out at the end that it was gus. have to say i don't remember all that was discussed...but, i was very impressed.

 

Management did not put in a real effort to make the team better last offseason. Around the time of the disperal draft FC commented on how the Revs would have been in deep trouble of the dispersal draft didn't happen because, expecting the draft, the Revs didn't bother to do any overseas scouting. Does anyone else think that this may be related to the fact that our two signings during the year are A) Semedo, who couldn't play defense for the worst defensive team in the MLS and B) Kante, who wasn't even offered a roster spot for the only team in the MLS as bad as us? Maybe this explains the fact that we've shown no interest in filling in our third SI slot?

Gus is right about that trade being the joke of the MLS. Whether you like Nicol or not, our season was doomed before he was handed the reigns. Even if the trade was FC's idea, someone else should have nixed the trade, especially if FC were on the verge of being fired.

 

either someone pissed in his cheerios or he has finally had enough

 

i think i'm gonna' haveta' dump my globe subscription.

 

Time for FDA to follow up with a hard-hitting Chiquinho Conde retrospective followed by a rhapsodic essay about the subtleties of the western-Mediterranean football tradition.

Gus gets little credit - but he does a great job. Thank god someone who works the Revs beat can tell it like it is...

 

I think FDA is just so happy to write about soccer for a living that he isn't as critical as some would like

Gus looks like he just had a melt down - a lot like Ron Borges yelling at Pete Carroll way back when

Now the question is - it's out in the media now - what happens next ?

Anyone forward a link to Jeff Bradley ? Grant Wahl ?

 

I agree with Gus' comments. He hits an issue that has been on my mind since the Clavijo firing and trade. Too many changes at the same time tends to cloud exactly what works and what doesn't and why. This was appeared like a classic, let's change a bunch of stuff real quick.

I thought actually that management did a real good job rebuilding the team over the offseason. The knee jerk trade with the Mutts has certainly not increased the talent level of the team.

Relative to the loss of signal during the radio broadcast, I'll open another thread on that. I had the same thing during the TV broadcast, lucky for me at halftime though.

 

The most fair part of this article is the sad truth that REV management thinks making the playoffs is all that counts! You have a 8 out of 10 chance of making the playoffs! A team of monkeys could make the playoffs!

It also accurately points out that REV management does not run the operation, day-to-day, in a professional manner. Loved the part about Serna.

Great article!

 

Re: Re: Rev News, 7/29/02

maybe true, but the Revs can't;-)


rand

 

What Gus is trying to get at is not whether we did well in the offseason or got hosed in the trade, but who's driving the bus in terms of the direction of the club.

Clearly, Zenga was a nutcase who had no knowledge of the workings of MLS, but whoever it was that hired him did.

The biggest problem -- which everyone on this board knows all too well -- is that there is not a commitment to putting a high quality soccer team on the field. Oh, sure, they'd like to do well, but it's not really a very high priority in the Kraft empire. Other things are obviously much more important. From a dollar and cents point of view, this is what firms do, namely to emphasize that part of the business that is likely to generate the best return. Clearly this is the Pats, and actually winning the Super Bowl and constructing CMGI has just pushed the Revs further down the pecking order.

Now, if Gulati were actually working at his "job" and actually had the talent to ID players and the cajones to actually stand up to Sonny Boy and say, "if you want to be serious about soccer, this is what you have to do!" then we might be getting somewhere. But Sunil has other fish to fry, elsewhere.

Clearly, nobody else is willing or able to actually do that.

And poor Todd Smith -- courageously fighting cancer -- as a GM BELOW Sunil in the pecking order is probably lucky when Sonny Boy returns his calls.

What we are left with, is desparate personnel moves (i.e. the trade) without any clear sense of vision of what is trying to be accomplished.

It's clear that anyone on this board who has been writing about the Revs for the past 7 years has done a version of this. Mine (written 3 years ago was called: "The Revs: Does anyone have a clue?"

http://home.attbi.com/~csallen/revclue.htm

A summary and update:

Year 1: Stapleton Era (antiquated Irish/English Football)

Year 2: Rongen's Total Futbol (with Argentinians)

Year 3: Rongen's Total Futbol (with Dutchmen)

Year 4: Zenga Era (antiquated Italian Calcio)

Years 5-6.2: Clavijo's Latin 3-5-2

Year 7: Nicol's English 4-4-2

Accompanying these dizzying strategic and tactical changes, were over 100 players being shuffled in and out of here with only the faintest idea what they would be doing and with whom they would be doing it.

And in each of our 6 "eras" in 7 years, we have been treated to coaches who insist of imposing "their" system on the team whether we have the personnel to accomplish that or not. THIS, more than anything else explains why we will bring players in who have performed well elsewhere, fail here, then go elsewhere and resume their productive careers.

Nothing positive is EVER going to come out of this organization until the Krafts say, "hey, this could be important!" But short of hiring a real GM who: a) knows something about the world of futbol; b) actually lives and works here and not in NYC; and c) is actually given some real power to make decisions, then this club is dead meat at the most fundamental level. (All of you can clearly place our last 3 GMs into one of the above categories.)

Come on, Krafts, are you really this clueless about how big the Revs could be in your "empire" if you only cared about the sport?

 

It all comes down to who's in charge

I think with any organization, the ultimate success or failure starts with who's running the show.

This is where the finger needs to be pointed with the Revs. Now, I'm not saying it's the Krafts. It may in fact be with whomever is actually operating this team on a day to day basis. But there is no leadership here.

Somewhere along the line, the ball is getting dropped. And the fact that even Gus doesn't know exactly who's in charge over there sums it all up.

Whoever is in fact running this operation, probably needs to go if the Revs ever want to get on track.
But you also get the impression that the Krafts really aren't paying a lot of attention to it, because no one knows who's in charge.

It's a wishy washy organization and whatever it is, be it a business, a trade association or a service club, the organization is doomed to fail without strong leadership.

This is why the Revs have stunk for 7 years.

I'm glad someone covering this team for one of the major papers finally had the gonads to tell it like is.

 

I wonder what brought about Gus's article. He makes it sound like he's getting quotes now about how the season will be a "success" if the team gets the eighth and final playoff spot. It's too bad he didn't offer a bigger list of players who think practice is optional, as it's not too soon to start with the "players we need to dump before next year" lists. It's also a shame that this is occurring the same season that players were losing their jobs due to contraction.

 

Steve was not Todd's first choice. Bob Lilley was Todd's first choice. Todd let Fernando make the final decision because, "I wanted him to feel he had a guy, his guy, someone he could trust and work with."

Of course, that's not to say that Todd didn't or doesn't like Steve. I think he was comfortable with Fernando's decision.

 

What's Bob Lilley's background?

 

It's pretty obvious that he wasn't FC's choice either. With FC having to interview with J. Kraft during the winter in order to be "re-affirmed" to complete his contract, it seemed likely that the Kraft's weren't too confident in the Clavijo era. Nicol was given the title of assistant coach, but he was really hired as "interim coach-in-waiting".

Shortly after the trade, Nicol said that he approved of the trade before it was executed. The whole episode gives me a lot of concern either he was dissrespected by shoving it down his throat, or he showed horrible judgement by agreeing with it. Either way, it doesn't reflect well on Nicol.

 

I was under the impression that the object of the Revs' desires was none other than Dan Gaspar. And, reportedly, Gaspar told them he didn't want to work for chump change. What the hell do I know anyhow?

Not that I can speak for Gus, but I think the man's really had it with the team management in particular. He makes some valid points but it's evident his venom is directed squarely at Sunil Gulati's and Todd Smith's foreheads, not that of Steve Nicol or the rest of the coaching staff.

Bravo to Gus. Stand up and be counted...

 

Let's back up on this trade for a minute and see exactly who it reflects badly upon.

1.) Diallo was not going to work here. He plays single forward with midfielders and wings coming up to support. Twellman's quickstart emergence made it clear that this was not MaMagol's team. If you accept that then who do you trade with and for? On paper Serna made sense. He partners well with other forwards and he worked beautifully with APC in Miami. At the time it was one head case for another and we didn't know he was damaged goods.

2.) Our defense was terrible and especially in the middle. Llamosa was a long way from returning and Hernandez has (and has) a great deal of positive potential there.

3.) Williams was out of favor. A bad judgement, I believe but it was a judgement made with the hope that APC would step up and blend with Serna, Ralston and TT.

4.) Chrono was hurt a lot and apparently slowing down. Kamler might be seen as at least as good and, for the Revs, he has been.

Now I admit that none of this has worked out. Diallo has gone nutz scoring, Williams has been very good and Chrono OK. However, if you saw the Mutts v. Chicago last Sat can you honestly say they looked any better than the Revs? They have more points now but that may not be the case in two months.

The crux of the criticism of the trade is whether the Revs bothered to give a full medical to Serna and full character/gut checks to Serna/Hernandez. If they didn't, then the ENTIRE staff should be sacked but if the trade was made with full reaearch well, it is a bad trade to be sure but not an incompetent one.

On the subject of Semedo, we don't really know the story but if the Rev didn't completely spell out all the options to the player then the management should not only be sacked but sued.

On the other hand, where the hell was his agent and why didn't Carlos call him before signing anything? I know what it is like to be working in a country where you don't speak the language but I know enough to cling to my trusted translator/advisor like a lifevest in the open sea. However, if that trusted translator was a Rev mole, then bring on the torts!

Finally, I seriously think the Patties Super Bowl success has blinded everyone to the fact that the Krafts have a fairly poor track record in picking effective operatives on the sports side of their enterprises. Gulati and Bobby Grier immediately come to mind. Poppa Kraft does have a fine record on the business/customer relations side but highly checkered on the competitive part. That doesn't excuse the way they have dealt with the Revs, not at all but it does explain it some.

JIM DOW