http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20161214/sports/161219395/ Doesn't sound like a player that was trying to stay.
Let's put this to bed. Sean Johnson was valued by Fire ownership. Despite being selected 51st by the Fire in 2010, he went on to become one of the two or three highest paid American goal keepers in MLS. He was the consensus No. 1 for years. There was (rightly) no competition for the goalkeeping position. I would argue that he was valued by Fire ownership (at least by Klopas, who signed him to the relatively big deal). So, what happened now? 1) Paunovic was not as enamored of Sean Johnson as the rest of us. 2) Sean Johnson began to slip as the consensus No. 1 (for reasons almost none of us can fathom). 3) Andrew Hauptman, apparently, has decided over the past couple of years that every moderately expensive player ($150,000-DP level) player should be excised (the one current exception is Goossens?). This happened to Rolfe, Magee, Nyarko, Shipp, and a host of other players. 4) The Fire felt they could cash in on him now, so they sold him to Atlanta. Did they try to "do right by Johnson" by sending him home? There is no evidence to support that, but there are rumors and, frankly, that does not matter. What matters is that they cashed in by getting something for him and getting his salary off of the payroll. So, was he valued by Fire ownership?-Absolutely from 2010-2015. Is he valued? Nope, after Rodriguez and Paunovic received their marching orders, he was no longer valued beyond what they could get for him.
you're seeing what you want to see. All I read there is the classic, classy, professional Sean Johnson we've all known for 7 years - excited to be where he is, appreciative of where he was, grateful to the fans. Where are you getting anything else is beyond me. and I'm not saying he wanted to stay, I'm just saying that as always, SJ was pure pro, regardless of the shitshowfailparade he used to work for.
Of course he wanted out. What does that have to do with anything? After the way Paunovic treated him I wanted him gone for his own sake. That doesn't mean I didn't value him or that I didn't think he was a good keeper.
Playing in 1 playoff game over his Fire Career and back to back wooden spoons probably did not help. The fact that he was the longest serving player by 4 years when he had been on the team for 6 years didn't help. Likely being told that he needed to take a pay cut did not help. Even if someone was saying it wasn't Pauno's fault ... there are a few reasons to leave.
This is the way I feel and going back to a post (perhaps in another thread?) the response is what I expect of Sean Johnson. There is still enough there that, to me, implies he was ready to move on. Not enough for angry bears and I guess that's fine. My earlier point was that he was unlikely to explicitly say that he wanted out. He did.
and I'm just saying that if you're reading that into that article, then you have to read everything he's said for the past 12 months as "implying" he wanted to stay. Because all Sean has ever done, even while being benched by a shitty coach in favor of a shitty goalkeeper, is say pretty much the same thing - I love the Fire, I love Chicago. I'm not sure why it's important for you to find some secret code in a generic press response and act like it means something. What, exactly, are you implying?
I got curious into who the longest serving player was for the Fire over time: 1998-2010: CJ Brown & Peter Lowry (any number of players were tied with them for the first few years) 2011-2014: Logan Pause (first season 2003) 2015: Patrick Nyarko (first season 2008) 2016: Sean Johnson (first season 2010) 2017: Collin Fernandez (first season 2014, most senior player based on signing date. Barring any player getting re-signed.) So Fire Originals up to 12 years, to Pause who's title started at 8 years and ended at 11, to Nyarko, who's only season with the title was 7 years, to Sean, who was only 6 years tenured, to Fernandez (if he survives the offseason) at only 1. Brown, Lowry, Pause, and Nyarko were all around as the senior player for Sean's first season. This season's players will have Fernandez, Doody, Polster, and maybe Accam.
As I've had insight into other things related to the Fire, I have sourced knowledge that Sean Johnson didn't want to be here any longer and told the club as much. That's all. For whatever reason, that became a point of contention while other things that have less tea leaves get run with around here all the time. I agree, Sean is class. I'll miss him here and for his sake, I'm glad he's moving somewhere else that will likely value him more than he has been the past year. I'll leave it at that. Good luck Sean and thanks for everything.
I am not quite sure where you received your information, but Peter Lowry was not one of the longest tenured players. He was with the Fire for parts of 2008, 2009 and 2010. In 2010 (the year you seem to begin with in your comments): CJ Pause Thorrington Banner Segares (although he was gone for half of 2010) Pappa Conde McBride and Calen f'n Carr were all with the Fire for as long or longer than Peter Lowry.