Dang, looks like Philly just dumped Jim Curtin. I would have taken him over Bruce. Great track record in Philly not just in results but also in developing young players.
Because they didn't finish in the top 4 for the 1st time in 6 years (oh no!)? Doesn't seem like a smart decision to me, on the surface.
Wow yeah curtin thing is quite the surprise absolutely would have preferred him. That said, we need Bruce, and Bruce needs us. Mutually beneficial relationship
Philadelphia Union part ways with head coach Jim Curtin after 10 years at MLS club Not sure who I would take, Arena or Curtin... both have been successful in MLS. Curtin is younger and has done a good job playing homegrowns and developing them for sale to Europe. Philly has a good academy but doesn't as spend much as other clubs, sounds familiar. The big difference between the Union and the Quakes is the level of ambition, which explains why Curtin was fired after one down year. Of course this was after their best player Julian Carranza left for Europe, and Curtin still did a great job developing some of their latest batch of homegrowns (Jack McGlynn, Quinn Sullivan) and even gave Cavan Sullivan his MLS debut at 14. He won't stay unemployed for long. Not sure the Quakes have any regrets given Bruce is the winningest coach in MLS history, but San Diego FC went with Mikey Varas and Austin FC just hired Nico Estevez a few days ago lol
I've asked before but no one ever answered, Does anyone know exactly what Bruce Arena said or did to be let go by the Revs?
not sure we will ever know but people deserve second chances so long as it’s nothing absolutely outrageous. You’d think SJ did their homework there.
I don't think anyone who has ever heard Bruce speak can be too surprised that he would make an inappropriate joke in private with "his boys"... let's just hope he's learned his lesson, pro sports teams are big business now and it's no longer the 70s, there are certain professional standards for a workplace environment that should be applied to everyone even coaches with full trophy cabinets.
As I recall in HS College and pro dressing rooms from the 70's through the 2000's, coaches said a lot of things to ridicule their players. I remember our HS football coach would grab us by the facemasks and curse us out fiercely in front of the team. No one ever seemed to say a word the school administrators usually took the coach’s side. Soccer coaches were just as bad in both high school and college. The pros were even worse. If you listened to Laurie Calloway in 1996-97, he had that old English school tongue where he would be chewing out players constantly. I think that lead to his demise. What was appropriate then though, may not be by 2020+ standards.
First time the Quakes have ever been accused of "moving too quickly"... their coaching search has been going on for months and Curtin literally just got fired smh 1854553695603790214 is not a valid tweet id
yeah I can’t really fault any process here the timing played out naturally. Would have been nice but you really can’t say to Bruce arena unless he physically assaulted , raped, or murdered someone
I agree with Jamon that Curtin would have been really good, but there's no guarantee he'd take the job and there's the opportunity cost of waiting. They started their job search a few months ago and this is the result. You don't normally have a process - OK here are our candidates, let's interview, compare, and pick one, and then just throw it all away at the end when someone else suddenly becomes available. You could but it would be pretty dysfunctional.
Precisely. It absolutely could have been worse. We did good here. Could it have been better? Sure, but given the timing, we did good
When some guy like Matt Doyle who is very good at his job analyzes the Quakes, he misses a bunch of little things that those of us who follow the Quakes more closely than any other team have seen... similarly Philly fans have complaints about Curtin that most of us know nothing about, as is the case with most sports fans and their team's coach.
yeah it was... basically just time to go. Union were ready to blow up the core after last year, Curtain begged them to run it back, they brought everybody back and... things imploded. Curtain wasn't main problem, and Union legit do need to invest more, but team and coach had different ideas on what was best course of action was
He may have gotten sort of trapped into playing vets in order to get thru a rough time in order to try to make the playoffs this year, but at least from a distance, seems like Curtin did a good job developing young players. Can't find the article but IIRC there was a piece years ago about how Curtin was playing a very young core of defenders, and he said he knew that it may take some time but that he had confidence in them to develop into a good group, and a few years after that the team started to rise in the standings.
“Former USMNT coach Bruce Arena returns to management with San Jose Earthquakes” (TheAthletic.com - Thursday, 11/7/24) GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
Couple of interesting things in here. "What is open for questioning, as has been the case with the Earthquakes for a decade running, is whether owner John Fisher is willing to foot the bill to get this team in shape to contend. Arena already pulled this feat off once, getting New England owner Robert Kraft to invest more in the Revs’ first-team and academy as a condition of his signing. It paid off with that 2021 Supporters Shield campaign and an annual return to contention,..." 1) So for the Revs, Bruce got Kraft to commit to upping investment in the 1st team and academy. We know these are usually empty promises with Fish, but maybe Bruce will hold him to it. "When Arena set the points record in 2021, New England ranked 20th of 27 teams in salary expenditure, although they were still within $1 million of the 12th ranked side as the league reckoned with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, San Jose ranked 26th of 29 MLS teams in total salary outlay, with a total well below the league’s growing middle class of spenders." 2) Despite a supposed increase in spending, the Revs were still only 20th in salary in 2021 when they set an MLS points record in 2021.
Or possibly just a sign that Fisher has again hoodwinked a coach into believing that he will get the support and spending levels he needs. Not going to happen. Sorry. Go Quakesfans!!
He got lucky with Donovan and Beasley. Leading up to the 2002WC, they were getting playing time, but weren't locks to start. However, injuries forced Bruce to play them and the rest was history. Bruce has historically not played a lot of young players, but he is not completely against playing them.