The Official Bruce Arena thread

He's actually not, he just plays one on TV.

 

My gut tells me this is not going to work out. I really, really, really hope I'm wrong.

After thinking about it for a bit, in another thread he mentioned something like wanting to bring in at least 3 to 5 players.

Maybe he has the clout to entice some top quality players to come to SJ that would have never considered it before.

So is Ian off to Sacramento?

 

To paraphrase his original quote, "I don't give two shits about Bruce Arena".

After all these years, I'm pretty close to throwing in the towel.

 

I hope he's pretty much out of those early 2000's USMNT relics to resurrect. They'd all be at least 40 by now.

 

Whether you like the Bruce hire or not, the timing is good. They've got a few months to try to identify players and start the wheels turning towards making deals. And of course he'll be able to decide who stays and who goes in terms of options taken or declined. If the coaching decision was going to drag into the offseason then either you've got CL again picking the players (with spotty track record, and possibly getting ones that don't fit for the coach), or you're getting a late start.

 

Arena brought Bobby Wood, Omar Gonzalez, Jozy Altidore, and Sebastian Lletget to the Revs... that's just former USMNTers there are probably others he knows from MLS that I'm forgetting.
Of those four, none were worth it, some were complete disasters and expensive ones.

 

:-( Maybe he's learned his lesson? Who actually played for him on USMNT though? Jozy and Omar?

 

I believe all of the above

 

Oh, that's right, he had a 2nd stint.

Anyway, it's take your pick: FoM (Friends of Matias), CLBS (Chris Leitch Bad Signing), or ACR (Arena Cadaver Dive).

 

hashtag play the kids

All I ask is Bruce to give a chance to the abundance of youth talent at San Jose, like he did in New England.

Niko Tsakiris ('05) needs to be given a prominent role and Oscar Verhoeven ('06) needs to be an occasional starter.

I hope Bruce gives chances to the following players… https://t.co/88ZQn1UlBi pic.twitter.com/3lTSgl53rL

— USMNT Report 🇺🇸🇹🇷 (@USMNTReport) November 7, 2024

"He didn't do all that great with the Revolution."

what? https://t.co/A1c8ulE641 pic.twitter.com/QSkitAEJwk

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) November 7, 2024

 

Well we have to sign KK first. I hope Arena gets on Niko about his right foot.

 

GOAT

 

I think this will be a disaster.

Bruce won't get the level of spending out of Fisher that he needs. He'll get frustrated. This effort will go to crap. Even if we get better in year 1 ('25) we'll get worse in years 2 and 3 ('26 & '27).

With a fragile fanbase, I don't think we can afford to alienate fans, like any more fans. I don't think that hiring Bruce is going to inspire fans to buy more tickets. I'd like to be wrong on that.

I'd like to be wrong on all of this.

Go Quakesfans!!

 

If Arena was impressed with the commitment from Fisher that’s a great sign

 

I can't remember a situation where the new coach announced his hiring before the team did. Arena is setting the tone of who is in charge and confirming his big ego.

Leitch keeps his title even though Fisher demoted him, putting him below Arena on the organizational chart.

We'll see how it goes. It can't be worse than last season, can it?

 

Ha, fool me once, shame on you…The same things were said about commitment from Fish when Luchi was hired and we were something like 3rd from last in roster spend last year. We did spend $7M to acquire Hernán but $4M of that was offset by the Cade transfer.

Bruce may be more forceful in trying to hold Fish to that promise but it seems pretty vague, like doesn’t seem like any specific targets were discussed. This could very well end up in frustration and rancor on Bruce’s part if things go south. We will not have the ultra politeness of coach speak we had with Luchi and Dom. Almeyda did speak out about resources but only to Argentinian press. Maybe we need a little good old-fashioned rancor to get us out of the malaise?

 

That was my first thought when his name came up for the Quakes job. And still is the most likely endpoint, but if we get a few good players we could move up the table some. How much depends on how wise and effective he still is. He is not making any grand pronouncements about how we’ll do, just “it’ll be a challenge, and we’re better than a 21 point team” (how much better he wouldn’t commit to). So his expectations are not high.

 

I met him once, he has all the personality of a sour lemon.

 

I’m good with it. Just about as high profile a coach hire as we could expect. We needed the change obviously , and arena tends to get maximum results out of mls journeymen

 

First act of business is to fire his direct report?

I'm sure Leitch has some relationships that are worth not throwing out the door, but this is a situation where someone new gets his knowledge and unless he really impresses his new boss he'll be pushed aside.

 

"Having worked closely with him in the past, I know firsthand how he can build a culture of winning within a team. I am excited to work with him to build this team back into contention." - Chris Leitch

I wondered where CL had "worked closely with him in the past", and looks like CL was on NYRB when Bruce was coaching there in 2007. He didn't play that many minutes for Bruce that year, either because of injury or because Bruce didn't think that highly of him as a player .