Roster 2023

Don: engaging in this argument on those terms is about self defeating. This makes the Brians of the world happy because they get to act like the fans are unrealistic. It would take some doing to get this elite like it used to be. And to be fair, I wish it still was sometimes. But get down to it, me and most of us would be content just to be the late 2000s/early 2010s version of success, playoff regulars, shot at doing something. Playoffs most years, in a parity league, is not too much to ask and Mr. Stats is uncool for suggesting otherwise. And if we stick to asking for achievable Step 1, they don't get to play semantics games like they don't have to try for Step 2 because it's too much to ask immediately. To me they'd need to rebuild the institutional learning to get back there. The original Dynamo were built and maintained in SJ then tweaked here to keep it going. They weren't at zero. And they weren't hiring wet behind the ears types to make it happen. Which, are they hoping lightning strikes or something.

I would agree with you in one sense, though, which is that the 2017 team was stacked and briefly very high up the league, before settling down to a 4 seed as injuries accumulated. We then played for a couple rounds like the early season version of the team, making the conference final. Moral: if you build like you are trying to win the whole thing, the worst case scenario becomes making the playoffs and advancing a little. Which, your wishes aside, most of us would be content with. That kind of organizational effort. That kind of results. As I have beefed recently, it's much more dangerous and likely to fail to try to aim on purpose for the 7 or 8 slot, whatever the last number is. I feel like that's been the thrust of recent efforts and they constantly underestimate what it takes. Which means you fall short of the red. If you try for top few and hit a snag, you still make it. So I am going to push this as hard as I feel like because 2017 teaches it needs to be a lot better than you think would be red sufficient. Load er up until the window is over, fix everything you can, ship out the crap. Keep doing that until the final whistle is over on the season. I don't see that urgency. I hear plans to make x more moves this season, of specific secondary tool types, without regard to if this is "so close" or "complete crap." That to me reads as going through motions or working within strict constraints, not resources and urgency. And I realize the old teams weren't perfect either, but I never felt like they were just satisfied and content to "just sign someone" later to fill a roster. They had a system plan. They knew precisely their weaknesses. And they didn't have any sunk costs hangups about booting expensive acquisitions right back out the door.

 

The law of averages doesn't owe you sh*t. I wish or we wouldn't be where we are, as a team in a league where 50-60% of teams advance should, well, probably on average make it 50-60% of the time. Now it doesn't work that way in practice but then some teams are resourced and smart and serious and others not. We used to be one side of that divide, now are the other. To me we need to resource the team up and dump the trash and help the ol odds along.

Re the other malarkey I am reading, the line was at 7 teams last year. They added one team to one conference. The line either stays the same or they go to 8. I think some of you want for it to be 9, 10, 13 to end the pain or have some beef where if they prop this up slightly higher it's the league's fault we don't make it. 8 teams would be more than half advance. That's your fault for not making the first pole vault height. I argued above we should be shooting for top 4 and it we fall further we make it but a team should prepare like it's 7 and thank its lucky stars if it becomes 8. Bears noting we are the "14" conference and the east is the "15" so on paper it should be that much easier, you don't even have to be the median team. Though I think the east is actually easier and we suffer for the switch back.

 

The 2008 team lost 3-0 to NYRB ROUND ONE because Barrett played hurt and they sicced Dane Richards on his tookus, period. What game did you watch? Yes, they were on paper the 1 seed, but they had almost as many ties as wins They were propped up by good defense and then Barrett couldn't defend his wing in the darned home game.

The 2009 team had no offense, managed 39 GF for the season and 1 goal in 3 playoff games. The defense was excellent but as with the runnerup teams, they lost to LAG and it was because the defense can only hold up so long without much offense. Pretending that was equivalent to 2006 or 2007 is laughable. The whole deal is over time Kinnear, who had a clue, became a caricature of himself, and lost offense/defense balance, and became a defending team that would run out of goals to keep advancing.

It's funny Brian likes the post because he was an FCD fan at the time, or not a MLS fan, or whatever, and can't possibly know reality. Just like anyone who trolls me, then pretend I am the troll, regardless of facts.

Re the broader arguments, I say what I believe. He just likes anyone wiho disagrees with me. Go cherry pick some stat to make black look like white. Tell me how good our xG is despite the actual GF, which kind of says this should be better than it is and go get some different personnel.

The part you're confused on is I just post what I think. I don't care what you think. I wish people listened. As such I am not possibly a troll. My sin is you disagree with me, after I post. Just for posting. You're the ones under the bridge trolling. I can't be trolling when I just post what I think and you're the ones freaked out by it.

You're the ones who could care less what reality is. You're the ones dogging out everything I say then coming back months later either mirroring my posts from your own epiphanies, or making very very very grudging acknowledgements maybe I had a point. At which point, no, I wasn't trolling, I wasn't being contrarian. The point is being right, not being different, and it's not my fault it people don't want to admit the truth about the team. That we suck. That HH sucks. That Coco ain't that great. Etc. etc.

It is not my fault this board is like groupthink and I don't fit it. I do fit with the general tenor of the fanbase -- however -- and of late I post kind of to give that voice. Since I think this team's been taken over by nonsense. This is what the actual long term fans think.

To be blunt, the reality is most of the other critics have either given up on the team or drunk the kool aid so I see where some of you might get confused. But being the only one with a critical sense of a team that hasn't made the playoffs in half a decade is rational and common sense, not trolling, and the fact I am alone doing it -- and thus can be painted as some lonely troll -- says more about you, or about the ones who have already quit, than me. Westie used to say similar things to me. Is Westie a troll? Is Westie cleansed if he starts singing Cubs tunes each Spring? I did it in 2017 but I ain't doing it until the roster and reality merits it.

I don't think it's competitive yet. I think they added a couple ok pieces but I think they also cut a couple. Which they needed to do but I don't think some of you get how the catchup process works there. As in like we need upgrades all over the place. As in if you chop down below a bad team you have to add a ton to net positive. DQ didn't suck. To help the team not suck you have to be better than DQ. That isn't easy. It is insufficient to be decent and slightly worse or even the same as DQ. We need actual improvement, shutdown defenders, 10+ goal or assist types. Not just ok.

The 2017 team the whole frontline plus the first sub and the 10 could all probably be double digits in either goals or assists. That team had the 1st and 2nd highest goal scorers in team history. Plus Elis. Plus Alex.

So, sorry, but this team isn't confusable with that team, I think people are so thirsty they have lost objectivity what it takes. They don't get how much defensive turnover it takes to fix a 56 GA defense. Nor do they get how many goals the offense needs to live off that.

It's kind of funny because you're giving me crap about not backing this version -- or invoking 2009 for example -- when it's fairly easy to see this isn't some peak Dynamo 29 GA monster "D" nor is it the 58 GF elis/manotas beast. If it's neither fish nor fowl then I don't get where the sudden confidence comes from. Other than by saying if I don't see improvement I am gone and the troll sharks smell blood in the water.

 

And to underline something, over the past few days I have posted several player references of people I think could help, or videos of preseason footage, or of Castilla with a finish lost to offsides, and you're not interested. No one wants to talk about how the team looked vs America, whether the young players could help, or whether transfers could. That is normal soccer discussion. Based on how we have played recent years, or even America, skeptical talk isn't abnormal, inaccurate, or trolling.

I am here to talk soccer. You're here to do something else. Maybe it's to exchange high fives before the season starts or something. It's not to discuss The Thing In Reality.

I mean the only substantive thing in a while is arguing about how low can the league set the bar so we can say we made a height on the pole vault. Is 4 feet sufficient? 5 feet? The winner is going to clear 15.......

That sounds to me like folks who on one hand rip me for being critical, on the other hand panicking like can the league lower the bar real quick so my best case scenario has any hope. Which is telling. If the league has to set the bar at 9th or 10th -- add multiple teams -- then it kind of sucks and drop the JC bashing and the troll talk, TYVM.

 

Juve, the mere fact you want to crap on the 2008 Dynamo squad - which was the most talented and best team we ever had top to bottom - should disqualify you from claiming you are an expert.

you do realize the 2006 team had more ties than wins (13 ties, 11 wins), similar to 2008.

 

Last, to be crystal clear, while you pretend I am the bully, you're the ones openly conspiring to censor me right off the page., or trying very hard to not listen to a thing I say, personal attacks, etc.

On USMNT posts it rapidly builds up to dozens of pages on a thread. Spare me the pouting about post counts. It's a GD bulletin board. How dare he post on a bulletin board. Let's go back to a page of posts a week that all sing the same happy overoptimistic song. Or did you not see how pitiful it got some weeks last season once I quit bothering and you weren't much either.

You all have it precisely backwards. I post precisely what I think. And I read others' posts to see if they have something different or thoughtful to say. I don't freak out if they disagree. I may debate but I am not trying to tell people to shut you out or run you off the page. Nor is my attitude intended to bully anyone. To the contrary, I think what I think. I just maybe expect better from some of you knowing the team's history as well as the board's history over time.

I will change my mind if convinced, either by the team or a sharp poster. It occasionally happens. I am not bowing to what you think to stay on here or in your good graces. I am not going to kiss up to people who don't remember 2008 accurately or who I think are wrong how much chance this has. I don't do politics and it's not a MeetUp for me.

And to clarify my attitude c. 2006-2013, the place was laden with cheerleaders when the team was easy to cheerlead, SG types who wanted to cheerfully talk about the team like a MeetUp. eg i remember a SG mod giving me a yellow and deleting a post saying I don't think recruited players would care one way or another if BBVA had the cushy player bench seats. I thought that was childish. How much money, how good a soccer team, what role. Not are the benches metal or big recliners. Which maybe hints at the priorities then, don't say anything bad about the team or the stadium. Even sensible ones. At the time the board was co-owned by MLS I think.

many of whom knew little soccer but a lot of groupthink, and while giving the positives credit, I saw my role then as a soccer player who could tell when Kinnear had a bad night, or that Grey needed to go, or the tweaks that championship teams have to make to get there. I think the cheerleading circle is coming back and am not sure why. They didn't exactly sign Messi or fix the defense. Only thing I can think of is saying I'd leave if they didn't improve which is blood in the water for the self described shark sweethearts about the place. The same ones who were all for HH coming here and the other reasons we suck. Who for all the aggression towards me don't seem to have the same fire in the belly about The Actual Thing Being Discussed.

It's odd because if you go on a Texans discussion board it is hardly touch football and people don't cry about it. Are we objectively discussing the thing or trying to show who's the biggest superfan of the 13th best team in the western conference. Most people go on bulletin boards to hear frank discussion of the sports team. This is an oddity.

Anyhow, if you're so lame you want to ban me, have at it. Northing funnier than someone who has me banned, pretending I have nothing constructive to say, mirroring my posts unwittingly, acting like they had an epiphany. How about read my post 3 months ago. It wasn't trolling. You just weren't ready for the truth.

 

galaxy brain/existential type question here-

Does this season really matter?

if we do poorly (you decide what that means), then the narrative will be that it's a new year with a new coach, and new players and this takes time, blah blah blah

if we do well (you decide what that means), then the narrative is that we told you so, believe the process, this is the next dynasty, blah blah blah

I mean, clearly we wan't to do well rather than poor and the question is a bit rhetorical (please vapor lock over this questions) but I can't help but take a "watcher" type mentality to this season & try to temper my evaluation believing more data (ie more years) will be needed to determine if this whole sale change has worked or not.

PS

if we beat Frisco and Texifornia I'll consider it a successful campaign!

 

I mean, it always matters to me. This is my team. Even last year every game mattered to me. I know I have a different perspective because the team has pretty much sucked my entire fandom, but I don't feel like it has to be "I told you so" or "this is the next Dynasty". I just want the organization to be better. I don't want 2017 again, because I don't want 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. I want to build the best organization in MLS. I want the product on the field to be better, but I also want our academy to produce, our scouting to be better and more shrewd, and I wouldn't mind having a few actual stars on our team. I think we are actually trying to do all of that, and I'm behind it. I'm just hoping we see it on the field. I don't think people realize how trash of an organization this was. Our scouting was terrible, our academy has been embarrassing, and we had the worst owner in American professional sports history. Add to Coaching hires that were designed to build from the bottom up, then giving them a bunch of 30+ year olds to coach, and there was never a plan or a direction. I think Ted, Pat and Asher are working towards rectifying this. If we are better this year and you can see it building, then I'll think it's somewhat of a success. I'm not really a next year guy, but considering we just hired a new academy guy, a first class scouting and analytics department, and I think it might be another transfer window or summer before we fix LB, CB, and RW.

 

Yeah. It matters to me. The club looks like they are trying. It is all I ask. For me success is competing. If the club seems to be falling into the same old trope of defining success as competing for the playoffs -- I'll be disappointed. With the parity rules in this league any team can compete, and can try to compete to win it all.

 

I can help you out there, having covered the Dash for their first 3-4 years of existence and still maintaining relationships around the league.

I put last year down to luck. It was not a playoff roster, which showed in the back half of the season. Historically, you put a team into a position of turmoil you tend to get one of two reactions: 1) the team collapses, 2) the team comes together and becomes greater than the sum of the parts. The latter worked twice for Washington. In perhaps their two most miserable seasons from a management issues and upheaval standpoint, the team came together despite that and made the championship both times, winning it once.

They got fired up and played way over their heads after the Clarkson thing broke. That can only take you so far, though, and just as they were starting to come back to earth they acquired Ebony Salmon which turned out to be a great move as she scored in buckets and kept them alive. When she inevitably stopped scoring - if someone is performing above their norm you have to expect them to eventually revert - they struggled to score and limped into the playoffs.

What was new under Segal was hiring a President for the team in Jessica O'Neill. They went cheap, hired someone from outside the sport, from a soccer standpoint she had no idea what she was doing (now she's in charge of both teams, by the way). With Clarkson gone, they went back to a GM set up, that process was a total cluster#$#!. Compared to what other teams were doing in how they ran their process, the Dash looked like they were making it up as they went along. Their initial top candidates said, "no f'ing way". They went through a messy process, got down to two candidates and managed to screw that up and got neither. Ultimately they got Alex Singer, who is not a bad hire by the way. They screwed up trying to keep Juan Carlos Amoros, so he went to Gotham. Sam Laity was potentially a good hire, though.

The rest of the league has been making splashy international signings this year. The Dash haven't used a single international spot in a while. They potentially addressed their scoring woes by grabbing Diana Ordonez but they paid a super steep price to get a player that was taken with their own draft pick last season - a pick that netted them next to nothing when you follow the trades involving that pick, by the way. Now they have no #1 pick next year (last time they used a #1 pick was 2018, by the way, which is part of why they have to keep making crap trades to get players.

There's a lot of change and movement around the league this year which makes it unpredictable, but the Dash are unlikely to be a serious contender. Today, I'd probably have them just missing the playoffs. They continue to have a reputation of being a generally poorly run team but at least they've improved on that front from where they used to be which was an utter joke and a team nobody wanted to play for.

 

I want to add something. I'm fine if they don't have success next year, or any year -- as long as they are trying. As long as lack of success is met with evaluation and attempt to improve. I accept that being truly championship competitive is hard, and rare, and harder still to maintain. I don't judge my team by only the results. I consider the whole "results based business" to be a bit unrealistic and vapid. Something that fans use to justify their entitlement to emotional validation by their association with a winner -- while the professionals in the game know context, and bad luck, and all sorts of stuff just happens. You can't win em all.

I trust that if Segal tries - and that means willing to invest what his competitors are investing - then winning will happen and the team will have some seasons competing for the supporters shield.

 

That's been exactly my position. I gave up my season tickets in 2018 or 19. Not for losing, for not trying. Do I think they could be doing better right now than they are? Yes, but I'm content that there is effort and money being spent. So, I'm a STH again since last season.

 

I'm pretty sure I said this earlier this off-season, but for better or worse it seems like Segal is cutting front office expense. Flip side, though, is I'm pretty sure he's increased football operations spending (scouting, analytics, etc) which is great. I just kind of think you need investment and quality people on the non: football operations side too.

 

PSV wins this october 2022 game 6-1. van der kust is #15 LB in the dark/red playing 90. check out goals 1,2, 4-6.

that's the last time he plays first team league ball for utrecht. after that he sees some B team second division or cup runouts, then dispatched next transfer window. the team goes on a 3 month undefeated streak. hmmm

far as i am concerned dutch second is like USL or reserve ball here, and below ajax and PSV eredivisie is lateral or a step down from here. and they played him 8 first division games this season, benched, sent away. other than that mostly B team second division and youth ball.

just say no, pat.

i get people think i am a jerk for the sake of being one but that took about 12 minutes to figure out. his game logs hinted at something and having seen the pivot poiint, yeah, hmmm, what are we thinking.

to understand my sensibility, imagine you felt like we did some variation of this for whole transfer windows when we need to dig out of a hole already. like a decent player or two, then a fair amount of "nothing but youth ball" or players with bad tape. and bad tape i think means something different to me than others on here. eg quinones i could see from south america where he would fly downfield, which probably had some salivating, then zero delivery. if you can't serve a ball at the end, so what. i have suggested converting him into a back because the speed is the raw goods of a wingback and it'd just be a question could he mark.....

 

i actually like this one but it's hard to tell what level the different games are. (for comparison bassi's games are french second division, and it becomes, ok, first division MLS defenders, not much explosivity, same technique, does he get open still and the creation still happens.)

it's funny that the way things sound this one would be ticketed to reserve duty and the other one will compete for and maybe start as first team LB. that is exactly f*cking backwards. i assume it has something to do with roster rules but most teams try to make them work for them rather than against them.

people wonder why i am critical, it's paradoxes like that. that or flat sucking. send quinones, baird, rios, etc. packing, hand him their slot or reserve contract.

i think the difference in poster mentality is rumors folks say "HD2" deal and they nod their head. i watch the tape and am holy f*ck this kid could play right now. i do my own research, i have my own opinions. but anyhow, the wagons circled folks can paint this as trolling or contrarian, campaign for me to be banned or blocked, or whatever they think will shut me up.

we are starting out bad. we need people who can actually ball, on the first team, up for starting spots. collecting scrubs or players ticketed to HD2 while i see baird and the same spine give or take a player, doesn't help that.

i see some folks pulling punches and like give it years but (a) part of the delay is not letting go of incumbent trash, (b) part of the delay is not being able to tell HD1 from HD2 from rubbish pile, (c) this shouldn't take so long, and (d) stocking HD2 when we need HD1 doesn't move along anything. we are glacially slow to churn the roster in favor of the good ones and at a point i just start wondering do they have that good an eye for talent, as opposed to are doing something on purpose this backwards.

folks will say, but they found a guy or two, but do the math, 11 players that way takes 5-6 years. it's a batting average problem eg i do not understand whatsoever van der kunst quinones etc.

 

think you can turn around a MLS team with veteran signings in 1-2 years with competent personnel work and decent resources. what kills us is signing HH coco etc. then perseverating for years like maybe next season. i half wonder if it is circus show while something else, give the fans some names to cheer for while we suck while we undertake a shift to youth players, but i don't see any pivot like it's happening. you should be starting to integrate the kids you like. it never happens. ergo the proper view is we are trying incompetently to win with veterans, don't know how to do it, and are doing some youth work, but sitting on it generally.

re your theories on projects, the way to deal with a team in our position, heck, in our position years ago, is STRICTLY ENFORCED EXPECTATIONS. objective milestones. i say this for the USMNT berhalter project. i say this for this team. you do not do vague open ended projects. you do not give a basement coach and GM year 2.

you may hire a green GM you have hopes for. a young coach. the way to do it is have TEETH. last year we had x points and finished y spot. i am handing you resources. i am expecting things. next year this will be no worse than 8th and 40-45 points. don't make it, gone. make it, ok, next year i want this to be a playoff team. next year top 4. this of course requires actual resources and the beauty of doing it this way is if some coach gets fired for not making the milestones, maybe someone says in public we aren't resourced right. it's been since kinnear since that conversation has been had in public. not the "hot air" speech version. the "i need more players" version that not even nagamura would say.

this might then also cut some of the fat out of the personnel side where we seem glacial to turn the team over. if you know there are consequences for not making milestones, maybe you get working. we act like a team thinking it has all the time in the world. most of our recent key players don't stay longer than 5 years. you can't take 5 years to fix it then.

if you don't have any milestones or accountability teeth, any idiot coach/GM is going to say this started out bad, it's a project, i'm working on it. subjectivity myopia. so we cut the crap. this is a playoff team this season. next year. some definite time. not "eventually." and this all is indulgent because i think competent people could do it in 1-2 seasons with FCD or austin. i keep getting sh*t but in this league saying a 13th place team on 36 points should be a 7th place team next season on 47 points is really not asking much. we had the same GF as the worst playoff team. we just need 11 fewer GA. we had more road wins. it's basically winning more home games and giving up 15 fewer goals, while hopefully picking up 5-10. not that hard.

that to me is like half competence when a good team would cut HH and sign a guy who could score 10-15 alone. voila, there is the added offense. maybe 2-3 like that. now churn the defense. buy out hadebe. don't extend steres like we did. voila.

people treat me like an @SS but dude this is not that hard. half of it is pulling the plug when plug pulling is appropriate. you have to be decisive. i do not get the indecision about a last or next to last team. that should be clarifying. the ones kvetching with their worry beads should be the ones in 8th place, or 7th. or the ones trying to move up. does this move make me better or worse. 13th place teams shouldn't be afraid of their shadow and should be abundantly aware they do nothing it probably just repeats itself. what is the worst case for you fully churn the team? it finishes 13th again? we've been this bad a few years now. try something different. i do not get the need for security blankets this bad. this bad they aren't security or we'd be winning.

 

Guessing Gonzalez is a D2 signing since he's barely played anywhere. Read up a bit on him from the South American press. Sounds like a high upside, high risk player. Was generally viewed to be the most talented player to come out of Chacarita's youth system in recent years. Did well in their reserves but started to become a head case. Skipped virtual training sessions during COVID, then started skipping face-to-face sessions. There were other issues that the club chose to not make public, and eventually Chacarita got fed up and terminated his contract for conduct.

So then then he went to Union La Calera in Chile where he lasted like 3 months before moving to Argentinos Juniors on a free in Feb 2021. Near as I can tell, he only played a handful of minutes for them.

So, if this is true (and reports out of South America turn out to be false all the time), feels like you have D2 bring him in on loan. If he turns out to be a total head case, then he's isolated away from the senior team and you let him go back to Argentinos Juniors. If he can behave himself, and he turns out to be good because frankly at this point he hasn't played anywhere remotely comparable, then maybe you've found yourself a really talented kid on the cheap.

 

i also do not get at all the obsession with foreign scouting. we routinely end up socking players away on HD2 for lack of slots, or trading for slots. a team from the US should have a combined academy and returning player pipeline of US players who do not consume slots. the stuart holden pipeline.

odd. we seem scared to sign a US U20 but will sign some random kids from colombia or holland. even more raw. some of whom have to play full season HD2 for lack of slots. ok, whatever.

to me the roster rules, 3 DPs and 8 slots and 3 U22s, are set up to encourage a team to spend those on starters and have a domestic conveyor belt running behind that. not all of our DPs and slots are any good. then our conveyor belt, the part that gets to play, is mostly older domestic retreads picked up as FA or trades.

 

you stick the kid out there, see what he has, if it's first team, he plays first team. probably end of your head case problem. i don't know why he supposedly acted that way. don't assume he will. act like a soccer team. why am i borrowing their problems. maybe they are over. he's in america, he's not playing 5 games a season in the second division. that alone may fix things. unless you send him to the reserves ie second division. then, yeah, we'll see if he's mentally strong.

you're like, assume the worst, send him to HD2, make him prove he's not a head case. if he thinks he belongs first team, quickest way to trigger head case is ship him off to HD2 with no way upwards.

if the kid likes to party, tell him he's here to behave himself and play some good soccer, stick him with the family of one of the better players, and have him mentored/"sponsored." then give him a first team shot to behave himself. you room him with the second team kids on a second team deal and we will just test how much character he decides to fix on his own.

also remembering this is a soccer team and not a military unit, am i spending that year watching quinones dribble into the first defender, because he has no negative personality reputation, while the other guy who is the better soccer player serves his prison sentence to teach some lesson?

 

you're not considering whether part of the dash's problem was simply clarkson. you start butting heads, fighting battles, and enduring sessions instead of working on your game, rapport with teammates, and ways to win. you start having retention issues when part of soccer is accumulating roster year on year. you take that limitation off the team and it flowers. people want to stay. staying players accumulate. people start working on their game, playing off each other, thinking about ways to win.

i then agree that having had that release, year 2 you need a good coach and to keep the momentum up with player signings. i dunno on that.

i half worry part of the problem is the team wants to be nice and not ruthless about churn to make it seem a more pleasant place to work. soccer is generally fun but losing constantly is depressing and regardless how nice a losing environment it is, generally unattractive. they had a brief "new owner" window to change that rep. they wasted it. this is going to be more attractive the more it wins. that at first might involve clear cutting the place. that might affect the careers of the mediocrities on the roster harshly, but they are lucky to be in the league at all. if you want to be a good team what you need is the attention and respect of the better players and coaches to come here. does no one see the correlation between the competitiveness and the bounds within which we hire and sign? if this job and TFC are available, why here? we burned the "new owner" card. you now need to buy your way out of the hole. that's scouting eye meets owner resources. you have to act serious to get serious people.

to me this needs some kinnear style slashing by a good coach and GM. a b c x y z are on a list to head out. churn the lineup. do not worry if that sends some message we don't honor deals. we will keep around the good ones and they will be the magnet for the rest. a la boniek. we run the team like we are worried how it would look to dump hadebe or steres or baird or coco. no one cares. HH would be a mild shock but to attentive players might be a sign we have our sh*t together.

i also think re gitau the image this sends of not playing the kids we do have is HGP repellent. you cannot just brag board the guy who makes U17. some of them need to dress and play halfway often. i don't get how kinnear could manage without wrecking the car but it's too frightening for this bad team to manage. you do that and maybe we can get some more "raines" in and "gitau" to stay. if you get first team quality academicians coming in then maybe every foreign signing isn't the world. as it stands the academy is producing junk (at least in terms of the committed, the good ones walk) at which point the adult signings need to work at a high percentage that they do not.

to me there are two primary paths to success. the LAFC route, go buy veterans. cash and carry. or the philly/FCD route. make your own, and to get that working, you have to integrate and play them where they stay. or where they can be sold to fund the business. that involves making the dream seem actually possible. which means some need to play. so which one are we? i kind of feel like, neither. ok, wtf is the plan then? you don't want to spend but you want to play 30 year olds. ok, good luck with that.

and while we're at it some of that is that HH quinones etc. don't get a season 2. you are only confirming the rumors when they are first team and you are second team because they have the slots. we are not ruthless, and it gets hard to tell if we just can't evaluate right or don't want to seem rough. at a point, who cares. it's not going to be the team a foreign stud or U20 or good MLS coach wants to sign for if they sit behind HH and head to HD2 no matter how they play. and to me the need to give HH more time is silly perseveration. if you're losing mid prospects to the appearance they won't get a decent contract or play behind some 30 year old, that's just perpetuating trash. and it's not just playing them, it's signing new veterans too, it's drafting well each year, it's a confluence of well used tools. as i keep asking, what phase of this are we doing well? is our emphasis? is this going to be a good attacking team or a dominant defense? again, lately, neither. i shouldn't be able to ask the same question year after year. things should get fixed.

regardless of my image on this place, i am a nice guy who had opposing HS/texans friends/parents writing college recommendation letters for me, and passing me on to recruiters. i still took their kids on and tackled like heck. playing is all business. cutting players is just business. IMO the way to get a rep is more how you treat players than that you will cut players. worry about that instead. or maybe we are just cheap. i can't tell. all i can tell is we seem to lack urgency or a consistent player eye, and until lately, even resources. and when i look at bench vs reserves vs HD2 i don't quite get why x is here and y is there. the normal idea is rectify that in a way where even a HS or college player would recognize it's sound -- how many years are the mccues and rioses going to have reserve roster status?

 

Segal has a lot of private equity type stuff in him. Don’t think it bothers him to cut folks. Seems to me they still have a pretty lengthy group of FO folks but I did notice some have left and don’t see a direct replacement.

he is investing in two particular areas: (1) soccer ops and analytics and has upped the salary budget and (2) some physical/hard asset improvements. On field and in areas where he can get depreciation/amortization deductions to save on taxes. Seems to have cut back on overhead in FO and having O’Neill go from Dash to being in charge of both teams smells of cost savings from position elimination.

Segal did go or allowed the club to go way too deep into some social issues last year.