Where do we go from here?

He's obviously some 13 year old kid that doesn't know anything about the sport. This forum is for serious discussion, people! Now here is a real insightful idea - Conway... as forward! Talk about a target man! This move alone will bring the MLS Cup back to San Jose, I guarantee it.

Well, we had Graziani a few years back, and he wasn't that bad for the team even though he gave opponents as much pressure as a walk out a space station airlock.

 

Clint Mathis???

It seems like the Quakes are getting rid of or willing to trade away the guys who have had alot of injuries/illnesses (Chris Brown, Chris Roner, Ekelund) or who don't seem to click as well at teamwork (DeRo, Corrales). Given that, Clint Mathis seems an unlikely choice on both counts. Since Dom doesn't use substitutes, I think he will focus on a strong and young first 11.

 

I agree that we have to be concerned with Clint’s personality and indeed to some degree his track record but sometimes a guy just needs a good kick up the ass. Put him in a good team centered set up with Coaches and leader type teammates he has to respect. Teammates who have been there done that. Guys that have won things he has not won and let’s see what happens. You have to remember that he is running out of options and he might have learned in Germany that MLS is pretty cool after all.

He has raw talent that he has not been able to harness consistently and it is the type of talent that most guys dream about having. He has scored at the highest levels; remember the two goals against Germany that opened all the European eyes?

He has the wrong personality for Germany but I think he could fit in and improve the Earthquakes with a Coach like Dom and players like Jeff, Troy, and Richard pushing him in the right direction? If he goes the wrong way then he becomes a big bunch of trade bait.

I would expect him score a minimum of 10 goals for us next year and he would compliment Chingy so well up front. If he had to play alongside Richard at any point it would be the strongest central midfield in MLS.

I would rather gamble on a player that we know rather than have the League try to force a player “that they want to see play in our league” upon us. We only need to add four top guys and a bunch of salary cap has just opened up. The first guy we get helps dictate who the next guys need to be.

 

I wish I had more faith in AEG and the front office but I am afraid we may avoid signing expensive veterans and go with younger players.

I now have a new reason to wonder about the Quakes FO - as of today I still haven't recieved anything about season tickets for next year. I have been a season ticket holder for two years. Are there any other season ticket holder's who haven't received applications yet?

 

Must agree. I think everyone got their mailing about two weeks ago; I've already made my down payment. Call 'em and find out what's going on.

If the Quakes took Mathis and he couldn't work out under Dom, I doubt that many other teams would want the guy; he'd be regarded as goods too damaged.

 

That is, if he doesn't go to another German club first during the transfer period.

It had been originally thought that Steve Cherundolo, as a teammate on the USMNT, was going to provide that calming influence at Hannover 96, but as it's been said before, Clint marches to the beat of his own drummer.

The picture you paint of the need for strong leaders around him certainly rings true for him at Hannover, and if he were to join the Quakes, or any other MLS club for that matter, he'd gain an improvement in that area.

Whether he responds to that, however, is merely hypothetical at this point. I'd like to see him get a change of scenery where his stocks as a player with the USMNT will rise again (like the phoenix from the ashes) as a result, but his track record of his own behavior and wearing out his welcome after an impressive beginning period still has me a bit concerned.

Remember them quite well, Johnny.

But what we also need to remember about Clint-- and this is something I think tends to get eclipsed by the thoughts of his Jekyll-and-Hyde play-- is that he also has a couple of buggered knees. Or at least one knee that has been operated on twice. Either way, that makes him a bit of a calculated risk as well.

Perhaps so, but if he flames out with us and the nucleus of players he'd have around him, I'm afraid a lot of other oppostion GM's and coaches might think twice about taking him on, even in a trade.

I was thinking about this yesterday at some greater length while driving around Melbourne, and here's what I think should happen, provided Clint is the allocation: Get him to a one-year contract, with a mid-range MLS salary (say around $150-200K) and load the contract with incentives. I think that would give him a perfect mindset in which to perform.

 

Great. Take the bait.

 

I'm sure that would make Jason Kreis very happy...the all-time leading scorer in MLS on a team where the top midfielder won't give him the ball because the AM is looking to score himself.

 

Enjoy. Best to watch out what we wish for.

 

...and so much attitude from a fan of a team that has yet to play a game!!

Granted, they might finish ahead of us this year since they will be given every opportunity to become "instant contenders" with extra SI spots, the highest draft picks, etcetera while we are rebuilding in the midst of losing our biggest star and chaos rumors still circling about our future residence/ownership.

Enjoy being fed from the silver spoon for now GeT ReAL SL because the honeymoon will be over in a couple of years and then you'll get to enjoy "flying coach" along with the rest of us while watching all the "first class" perks go to the LA franchises.

 

i haven't 'written off' mathis as a player, but i don't think he would be best for sj. if he was successful in 'resurrecting' his career, would that mean an increased demand from the Nats? such as donovan? donovan is a player you build around, but if he's only available for half of your games, your gameplan is shot for half of your games.

 

Mathis is a hot and cold player. Sometimes he's great, sometimes he's really cold. And those cold stretches can last a while. I could put up with some hot headedness (see Dayak, Troy) if the player is consistent. But when it's a player who is inconsistent, I much less interested.

Let's see who else is available.

I found The Wee Man's comment about players that MLS "would like to see in the league" revealing. (And how cool is it that Johnny Moore actually posts here?!) Still, I'd wait a bit to see who's out there before jumping at the first bait. RSL can have Clint. I wanted him some years back, when the filth had to let him go to NYJ for our allocation.

Hey! There's an idea! We should tell the Commish that we are still owed compensation for the Hermosillo/Hernandez fiasco! "Yo Don! Lay us on another allocation. We got screwed by your predescesors!"

I'd love to see the look on his face just before he told me to F$%^# myself.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

Yup, it's true. If Lothar Osiander had had his way, we would have traded our outstanding allocation to the Galaxy for Mathis and Franchino. (Instead, the league manufactured an allocation out of thin air but forced LA to give up Mathis and Franchino in a "Dispersal Draft.")

Of course, it all worked out just fine in the end. We ended up getting Landon Donovan for that allocation.

 

Jay, I had always heard, from good sources, that the filth refused to part with Mathis and Franchino or really any one. They were offering us a bench warmer or two. The league more or less forced them to take Hernandez and then shipped Mathis, Franchino, and Reyes? a midfielder in any case else where.

Whatever.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

LA didn't think they'd have to give up anybody, true, but they eventually figured out that MLS wasn't kidding about having to give up those players. In any case, it worked out for the best eventually.

Oh, and I had forgotten about the third player -- I think it was Martín Machón.

 

Jay, it wasn't Machon, it was Roy Meyers.

When the evil filth acquired Square-Head, they sent Wellington Sanchez to Mexico and Machon to Guatemala. Then when they got Luisa Hernandez as a replacement for Square-Head, they refused to strike a deal with either the Quakes or the CounterRevs, the only teams with open allocations. MLS in it's infinite wisdom, forced the "dispersal" draft on the filth, sending two players - Mathis and Meyers - to NYJ who had nothing to do with the deal and one player - Franchino - to the CounterRevs, who at least could argue that the filthed needed to strike a deal with them or us.

In any case, San Jose got screwed coming and going on that deal. We should either have gotten Hermosillo to begin with, or we should have gotten big compensation from the filth - as Sunil "Prince of Darkness" Gulati promised us. Either of those would have improved our club and our attendance. Then when the evil filth got Hernandez, they should have had to strike a deal with us. Sure I'm elated that we got Landon in the long run, but the Hermosillo deal went down in 1998. So we suffered through terrible seasons in '98, '99, and '00 before getting a lucky bounce in 2001. I'm not saying that those deals would have lifted our team, but if we had gotten Sanchez and Machon for Hermosillo back in '98, it would have done a fair bit for our side. (PB was demanding two starting midfielders from the filth. He asked for Sanchez and Machon and got zip.) Sure our front office and coaches could have done a better job, but MLS weren't willing to give us good players either.

This is all water under the bridge now, except that I expect MLS to treat us with the same callous disregard for their own rules as they did before we got Landon. I sure hope that I'm wrong.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

Mark's post really highlights just how powerless the Clash/Quakes mgmt was at that time. League or Kraft-run team had zero leverage.

Thank you Tom Neale and Frank Yallop.

question about the national team captain on the Quakes (Alvarez); are there any U-20 tournament(s) next summer that will call him away? Or is he going to get a chance to show that he deserves that #11 jersey.

Tony

 

I just read in the Yanks Abroad forum that Luchi Gonzalez has been contacted by "a few teams in the USA" about playing here in '05. Do you think we could be one of those teams? He seem to fit in here before (just wanted more playing time). As a matter of fact, one of his stipulations for employment is playing time. The Swedish team he played for previously has offered him a contract to return. With new teams and roster expansion, he could easily return to MLS.


If it's with us, then Kinnear would have to promise him a good shot at a starting position. Could he play the attacking midfielder role we need? Perhaps the Wee Man could tell us his impression of Luchi's strengths and weaknesses....

 

Strength: Looks like one of Laibach's guitarists during their most recent tour.

 

As we've been babbling on in the Lalas interview thread, what the heck are Lalas, Dom, and JD doing to scout new players?! This off-season maybe our worst patch since the 2000 off-season. We need a gaggle of new players and I don't see or hear that anyone in the Quakes Front Office is making any effort to scout anyone other than some local college players. WTF?!

Maybe I should tell them that the local jr. college here in Vancouver has one really kick butt quality player?

I need a beer.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

I was impressed with Luchi from the first time I saw him. Good player and a good guy.

Strengths: Excellent ball skills, good vision, good quickness, good shot and he possesses the ability to take a man on in tight quarters.

Weeknesses: To make a bigger impact in MLS he had to become phisically stronger, mentally hungrier and he has to get a “wee bit of nasty” into his overall game.

I haven’t seen him since he left MLS but I hope he has made these improvements. MLS is a tough league to play in. Most of the players are tough, hard, honest players with the exception of a couple of divers and out and out cheats (LA and NY come to mind). A harder, bigger Luchi would have a chance, otherwise he is better off where he is.

Oh BTW he dressed well, great throwback gear. He is a really nice kid