I have even less reason to believe "MoistRam" than I do Matt Doyle. What are his sources? Whatever kind of analysis it is, he tends to jump to conclusions, and he is sometimes quite off. I responded to his "blame Chris Leitch for 2016-2025" thing. It's nonsense to blame Leitch for our failures in the earlier years of that time span when he was "Technical Director" or whatever. Should we be blaming John Wolyniec for the last few years? He's Technical Director! It was either Doyle and Kinnear or Jesse and Almeyda calling the shots in those years prior to 2021-2022. Leitch didn't become permanent GM until 2022. He was interim for half of 2021. And the only time Leitch had a direct role (coaching) in that earlier period, he wound up with the best winning % of any Quakes coach since the relocation. Just another example of how Doyle can be "off".
Those are not particularly good points. My response: Oh come on, Espinoza's been with the team for 7 years or whatever and re-upped twice, as recently as 2023. He's not gonna want to leave because someone made an administrative error one time. We've already gone over the "state income tax" thing. The Quakes offer would have made that more or less a wash. And he's stated in the past multiple times about how he feels connected to the SJ community. If you put 2 and 2 together, what's changed. It's Bruce Arena has become the coach, and I've listed all of the things he may not be happy about with Bruce. As for the "wanted to go to Nashville for a chance to win", remember, Bruce Arena is the most successful coach in US history and has 5 MLS Cups. B.J. Callaghan has never won anything other than the US Open Cup which is basically the "Losers Cup" now - only teams that were bad enough to not qualify for Leagues Cup play in it.
Nashville actually made the final of the Leagues Cup and lost to Messi a couple years ago. The thing about trophies is that in order to win them you have to be competing for them. The Quakes can't even make the playoffs. They've had Chris Leitch "notoriously the worst communicator among front-office types in MLS history" in the front office for years, someone whose record you're now defending by essentially saying "well there were plenty of other incompetent people running the Quakes, some of whom were in positions above Leitch at various points where their incompetence was even more damaging than his." Gee why would Espinoza want to go elsewhere now... Your other point is that maybe Espinoza wanted out because of Arena's decisions? Sure why not! And it could also be both, they're not mutually exclusive! As we've learned, there's plenty of incompetence to go around when it comes to the Earthquakes!!
Again, Bruce Arena is the most successful coach in US history, and doubled our points from the year before. Who's to say he can't be successful again? That seems like a stretch. I can only speak for myself but if my buddy / countryman was unceremoniously dumped and I saw some rough treatment of some other Latin American veteran players like Rodrigues and Daniel, and I was dragged all over the pitch positionally, that would have a lot more impact than one administrative error which the club presumably was apologetic about and wanted to make right.
You're literally posting in the Reddit thread where Matt Doyle is talking about this. Why are you posting ON HERE that you don't believe him? Why don't you tell him directly that you don't believe him and see what he says? Maybe he'll provide you with more details, or convince you in some other way? Here I'll even link the two relevant comments to the Cade Cowell story for you, to make it easier: https://old.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1qd9tsm/san_jose_forgot_to_trigger_espinoza_option/nzoebdg/ https://old.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1qd9tsm/san_jose_forgot_to_trigger_espinoza_option/nzols8w/ Maybe this is why you sympathize with Leitch's inability to talk to the relevant person directly over the phone...
It's not hard to double points from almost zero. Bruce nearly doubled their points from one of the worst teams in MLS history (the worst defense in MLS history)... and still missed the playoffs. Ben Olsen took DC United from 16 points the worst in MLS history to 59, that's a 3.7 fold increase, and they finished first in their conference. Bruce got ownership to open up the checkbook and brought in Arango and Josef. Olsen added Bobby Boswell. Is Ben Olsen even considered a good coach? What is even the point here? I don't know. Who the hell even cares. No one cares about crap teams that don't make the playoffs in a league where over half the teams make the playoffs. Half a dozen mediocre teams make the playoffs only to get slapped around by decent teams (see the Quakes in play in games). Beyond that Bruce's trophies from long ago are as relevant as Frank Yallop's and Dom Kinnear's... something tells me Espinoza who is 30 and grew up in Argentina where almost no one gave a **** about MLS pre-Messi does not remember his prior achievements quite as fondly as you do!
I know what he's saying. What I'm saying is 1) Sure it could be true, but I'm not gonna take what Doyle says as fact, given his history of being off on so many things. Remember this is the guy that just said we don't need U22 players because we're gonna incorporate so much HG talent. 2) The idea that the Quakes could have had 5.5M for Cowell if Leitch just answered the phone doesn't pass the smell test to me. Maybe he wasn't responsive to their calls, but if he wanted to do the deal it would have been done. Maybe he wasn't interested and wanted to keep Cade at that time. Maybe Cade didn't want to play for Bologna? There is just so much jumping to conclusions and stories w/o any sources.
Bruce won a Supporter's Shield with New England a few years ago. That's a much stronger accomplishment, given the talent in that division, than the Loser's Cup. Does he still have it? I don't know. We'll get a better sense of it this year.
Why don't you tell him that, here: https://old.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1qd9tsm/san_jose_forgot_to_trigger_espinoza_option/nzoebdg/ https://old.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1qd9tsm/san_jose_forgot_to_trigger_espinoza_option/nzols8w/
Early last season, we were competitive. From July on we blew chunks. I think Bruce has lost it. Nashville are competitive now. Sure, they need to be better, but they are a playoff team. We are not. There are plenty of reasons for Cristian to want to bail on us. And while Nashville offer was lower, he’ll get a bonus if they make the playoffs, more if they advance. Pretty much a guarantee that he won’t get those bonuses with the Quakes. We in for an epically bad season in ‘26. We’re going to suck like a Dyson. I don’t want to blame CL for this cluster, but it sure looks like there’s a big pile on his plate. Not to say that others aren’t to blame. I think that we need to lay waste to the FO and coaching staff and start over. Go Quakesfans!!
I don’t take everything I read on social media as the gospel truth, especially when no primary sources are given. For me to have some confidence in the story I’d like to see it published outside of a buried social media commentary and with primary sources and a chance for the accused to comment on the story. Here are things that occur in social media: 1) Untruths or half truths that get taken at face value and amplified and accepted as “truth”. 2) Truths that morph into partial untruths as the information morphs over time as in the game “telephone”. 3) “Piling on” - When someone is criticized and the criticisms just start escalating with wilder and wilder claims and anyone with a contrarian view is shut down. Case in point on the “shut down” part. I refuted Doyle’s “blame 2016-2025 on Leitch” post and got downvoted off the island. Yet no one really refuted anything I wrote. Honestly based on the totality of his work I consider Doyle to be a somewhat non-reliable narrator, and I take what he says with a grain of salt. That’s why I don’t care to “just ask him”. If he publishes the story, with primary sources and a chance for Leitch to comment, then I’ll gladly read it.
I have no facts, only speculation like everyone else. Most people aren't this bad at their job and I have no reason to think Leitch is either. I also assume he has staff that keeps him up to date on such things. It seems really unlikely to me is all. I could see Christian asking to leave though. And I could see why the org would fire Leitch for allowing it to happen (either if he forgot or if he granted a request).
That was the opinion of some Quakes fan who is entitled to his opinions as bad as they may be in this case, the more important part would be the $5.5 million deal to a Serie A club being blown by Leitch.
Just because YOU are speculating doesn't mean Tom Bogert, Matt Doyle, Ben Wright, etc. are. Landon Donovan, maybe. Some people ARE in fact bad at their jobs. Do you think it was just bad luck that the Quakes were one of the worst teams in MLS history, and the worst defense in MLS history, in 2024? Do you think it's just bad luck that the Quakes haven't had a winning season since 2013, the longest streak of any North American pro sports team?
For the record, someone DID refute at least one thing you wrote. And your response was not the greatest counterpoint to their refutation: JazzyJ (-9) GM under Sporting Director Bruce Arena, you're basically coffee boy. grnrngr (+8) This is such a ridiculous take. You pay an executive to do nothing? Come on, now. JazzyJ (-1) It was a non-literal intended to be a little humorous exaggeration to make the point Maybe humorous exaggeration wasn't the best way to go here if you wanted to be taken seriously?
In any case I'm sure the Quakes can hire a much cheaper "coffee boy"... perhaps even one with a working phone that they know how to answer
I didn't mention that "refutation" because it wasn't substantial. Remember, I'm responding to a post where Doyle tries to blame Chris Leitch for all the Quakes' failures from 2016-2025. Nothing in that response addressed anything I wrote about years 2016-2024, and this person didn't get the context of my comment about 2025, which I explained in my response (the part you left out). Here it is: "It was a non-literal intended to be a little humorous exaggeration to make the point that Bruce is a strong personality who as “Sporting Director” is going to make roster decisions that affect the success or failure of the club. Option exercising mistake that affects the next season aside, the roster decisions and coaching that led to a 10th place finish and another playoff miss for the Quakes in 2025 are 100% on Bruce Arena. Everything else I wrote in my post is true, and if you think it isn’t I’d like to see the evidence." This person hasn't taken up on my offer to refute that or anything else in my post, nor has anyone else. If you think that Chris Leitch made decisions in 2025 that materially affected the 2025 season, and it wasn't Bruce as Sporting Director and coach who made the material decisions, let me know. As for the downvotes, it's a prime example of what I described earlier as the social media phenomenon known as "piling on". The sharks see blood in the water and pile on, with ever increasing vigor and more virulent claims, and anyone who offers a counterargument is downvoted. It's a kind of Lord Of The Flies thing. You really see it on reddit. Not a big fan of downvotes because it encourages the Lord Of The Flies behavior.
His role seems to be so critical that they've left the spot open for a couple of months and have shown no outward sign of looking for a replacement. Perhaps Wolyneic is making the coffee.
Indeed. Oddly enough I was speculating in a Quakes fan forum. Might as well call the firing squad (or just call ICE). I attribute the fact that we suck more to Fish than anything else. He seems to control shitty teams and there isn't much cross over between the As and the Quakes; he is hiring the execs for the Quakes so if they suck, it's his fault. Also, some people are bad at their job (re: current white house). But most people are average thus the thought that Leitch probably wouldn't forget. I suppose I'm personalizing the situation a bit; I encourage my reports, as well as the people I mentor, to interview at least every year and I celebrate with them if they leave for something they love.
I think it’s time to talk about something more interesting — like “Heated Rivalry” - - - edit - - - - Writes Michaela Makusha in the Nerve: “The show … began streaming in the UK last Saturday, finally allowing the British public to become as obsessed as everyone else on the planet. I immediately tried to get my mum to watch it, but as a former hockey player and athlete, she was unimpressed. She was hoping for sport, while I was there for the cute gay men making me cry.“