Hernan was fun to watch. Hope to see him back on the squad at the end of the loan. My opinion hasn't changed on the subject.
Oh no, Jazzy used your fantastically funny image to reiterate the Hernan thing again. Jazzy, we comprehend! We hear you! You believe getting rid of a Hernan was a mistake! I personally DGAF because it’s water under the bridge, that ship has sailed, and Elvis has left the building!
I gave my opinion, and since this is a, uh, you know, discussion forum, I posed the question for others to weigh in (and Don G did). If you "don't care", that's fine too! But I don't see the need to try to litigate what others can bring up as discussion points.
There’s a big difference between a discussion and a diatribe / harangue. Look Jazzy, you must post 90% of the content in this forum. Fine. I’m just saying it’s not necessary to repeat the same stuff ad nauseam, we got it, we heard you. really.
How is this a “diatribe / harangue”? I’m mostly just asking questions - if people think it was the right move. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I think shipping Hernan was the wrong move and don’t mind that it is brought up periodically as our season tanks.
The only way that happens is if Bruce is no longer coach and GM. That’s another conversation, but I’m on board with Bruce departing. This assumes a sale of the team of course. If RottenFish retains control of the team, then Bruce stays. I’ll grant that Bruce has done better than our previous three coaches, but he’s still making obvious mistakes. I blame Bruce for several of our losses. And I blamed Luchi for most of his losses. I don’t blame Ian so much because I think he inherited a shellshocked team. Ian did improve our performance. In any case, I doubt that we get Hernán back. At this point, I want more defenders. Go Quakesfans!!
Getting Hernán back may not be our call anyway. He's been doing pretty well with Argentinos. He's now starting and has a couple of goals and an assist in 4 or 5 games. Also we probably have about 0 leverage with Argentinos if they want to bring the price down, since Bruce not rating Hernán is pretty much public knowledge at this point. They could simply decline the option, and then say, "but how about x amount instead". I think the loan goes thru the end of next year so still a lot of water to flow under the bridge. Does Hernán retain his positive form, is Bruce still the coach for 2027, do we even have a team, etc.
Wouldn't be surprised to see us go after Brandon Bye or Henry Kessler from Bruce's shield winning team now that they are free agents.
Good news: maybe the Quakes can actually make some trades now that Leitch is gone? Bad news: Bruce is in charge so every trade will be for a 30 year old from the Revs https://old.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1qd9tsm/san_jose_forgot_to_trigger_espinoza_option/ MLS_Analyst Leitch was notoriously the worst communicator among front-office types in MLS history. I've had agents call me begging me to tweet shit about how he's ruining transfer deals b/c he literally wouldn't answer the phone (this is why Cowell went to Chivas instead of Europe), and had CSOs tell me they tried to make trades with the Quakes but just couldn't reach the guy. Most teams don't screw this up b/c they hire people who actually read contracts and talk to players/agents/front office personnel. The Quakes decided to go in a different direction with that.
I expect that = aside from the big, splashy Timo deal - the rest of the roster will be comprised mostly of MLS retreads and fading/rehabbing USMNT players who have fallen off the radar and can be scraped up off the retread pile...
Here is a Trade and Free Agency idea. What if we went after Chucky Lozano? SDFC has said they want to move on from him, even though Chucky has said he wants to stay. Perhaps he would be willing to move up the coast and SDFC would be willing to eat some of his salary to move him? He would be a decent replacement for Espinoza, I think.
SD would have to eat a huge amount of his salary and transfer $ to even consider it. His salary is $7.6M and his transfer fee was reportedly around $10M. If it's a 4-year contract, that's about a $10M per year outlay between salary and amortized transfer fee. The Quakes have never paid anything remotely close to that for a player. And there are questions about attitude. Why did SD sour on him? Bruce seems to not be concerned about potential problem players (see Chicho, Josef, and Timo) so he may be OK with that part, but the $ is just a real problem.
If the Quakes are committed to winning it seems like they should be able to swing those dollars for a player that would show they are committed to winning. Lozano would probably bring in some more fans and sell some jerseys too. Fisher is not poor. Atlanta, SD (obviously), Miami, Seattle, LAG, LAFC, even Chicago, seem to have the budget for these kinds of signings. Of course, with Fisher as the owner and the team for sale, perhaps the budget doesn't have room for this. The Quakes would like us to accept that the best this team will get with our current money situation is the "fighting to make the playoffs." Plus, no Timo Werner yet... as of 4:25pm 1/16/2026.
Yeah, I don't think Fish is going to spring that kind of money when he's got one foot out the door. I think it's likely that Chucky returns to Liga MX. When the possibility of Chucky came up before I mused that we'd have 3 "alleged" malcontents on our front 3, a real "summer of malcontent". But I think Bruce believes he can handle these guys and doesn't shy away (case in point, Chicho and Josef, and maybe even Timo). And to be fair I don't know that these guys' reputation is warranted. With Chicho it was some kind of inappropriate behavior around an employee I guess, but I don't know if he's really a locker room problem among teammates. I think he's generally a pretty quiet guy and he gives a good effort. If Bruce benched him there could be some issues though. With Josef I think he turned over a food table in the locker room over something - maybe lack of playing time. With Chucky I don't know what happened but they keep saying something like he's not a "fit" for what they're building. I don't know what that means. And yes, Chucky would be a pretty serious boon to ticket sales, for sure.
According to recent posts in the TSS discord, Chucky Lozano is a toxic presence in the locker room. I suppose that Josef Martinez and Chicho might have carried some bad vibes last year, and I was surprised they appeared to be able to work together. But historically, I think the Quakes locker room has leaned towards camaraderie and not toxicity, right?
Yes, the Quakes have always gone for the "nice guys", and of course we know where "nice guys" finish . Offhand I can't think of a single Quakes players since they returned in 2008 that was considered some kind of "toxic" locker room presence, but maybe I'm forgetting some. But I think Bruce doesn't really care. I think he believes he can handle guys and he just cares about what the player can bring to the team on the field.
The Quakes culture is mediocre outcasts who satisfy low expectations. Alan Gordon said the year they won MLS Cup was because they were a bunch of nobodys, which I guess Frank kept reminding them of. Just twice, we got lucky to end up with big performers like DeRo and Wondo. So i think the reason we haven’t had toxic locker rooms is because we haven’t gone for any toxic big names.
Yeah, that's a good callout. And we shipped him out pretty quickly once it seemed to become a bit of a problem.
I thought about him too but I don’t think he was a “flip tables” guy, I think he was kind of quiet and maybe a bit self-absorbed and maybe didn’t bond much with teammates but not really a nuisance.
This made me wonder, what happened to Bobby Convey. I knew he’d had a lot of health issues, but googling finds that in 2024 he was 41 and found that he had 60 polyps, requiring removal of his large intestine and lymph nodes.