http://www.socceramerica.com/article/61077/yallop-encouraged-despite-frustrating-season.html Everyone agree?
well this is all wrong According to Yallop, the league’s decision to assign rights to USA midfielder Jermaine Jones via a coin flip won by New England dealt the team a double blow at a critical point in the season. In anticipation of landing Jones and to reward 2013 MVP Mike Mageewith a new contract, Chicago had already moved salary off its books and acquired allocation money in several deals that included trading defender Jhon Kennedy Hurtado to Chivas USA, and thus didn’t have much leeway or time to find a replacement for Magee when a postponed surgery ended his season prematurely.
...a postponed surgery... So we knew he needed surgery, but were going for a CM anyways? This would make sense if maybe he was blindsided by an injury too late to find a replacement, but doesn't sound like thats what happened. And lets not forget, we were promised we weren't putting all our eggs in the Jones basket. That we had other plans.
Like I said before he doesn't like to make excuses: “But it is what it is and we don’t make excuses and just get on with it. I’m excited about the pieces we’re going to keep and what we’re going to try and do next year.” But this sounds like an excuse to me: “We were trying to get Jones and we thought we had him,” said Yallop of negotiations and discussions regarding perhaps the top USA performer at the 2014 World Cup. “That’s why we were doing Jones instead of getting another forward and then Mike has to have the surgery and we’re kind of caught on both ends, not having a central midfielder and a striker."
So that's the excus... er, I mean, the narrative for this season: blame Magee for being injured and the league for not just giving us Jones. Someone needs to give Yallop one of these:
I think everyone can point to the fifth paragraph there (the one which pena pirata quoted above) and say not only is that an excuse, it's also an indication of (one of) Yallop's major failings this season. Beyond tactics etc., he did not have any real plan for the season. Fill in the blanks to that quote: “We were trying to get Jones and we thought we had him." Fair enough, an excuse, but a legitimate one. “That’s why we were doing Jones instead of getting another forward." But also because the other forward's (who sounded bargain bin anyway) deal had already fallen through (based on reports) and they had to do something. "Mike has to have the surgery and we’re kind of caught on both ends, not having a central midfielder and a striker." Because he traded away/waived/loaned out all the other forwards and by "not having a central mid" he means "not having a decent central mid", because the crap backline required Larentowizc being played out of position (even before trading away the crap cb he acquired earlier the same season to make room for Jones) so he was left with only Alex, Pause, Ritter, Watson, Cocis and Joya to play center mid. What a clustercuss of ineptitude that was.
It's too bad that no other team in the world has to deal with injuries to important players, or transfer targets who don't pan out.
Chicago is unlucky. First the Fort Dearborn massacre, the Great Fire, the Haymarket tragedy, Iroquis Theater fire, S.S. Eastland, Valentines day massacre, Blizzard of 79, Crash of Flight 191, and now Andy as the owner of the Chicago Fire. Chicago is very unlucky. (Feel free to add anything I'm missing)
1919 riots 1909 Water Crib Fire The Green Hornet Streetcar Disaster Our Lady of Angels fire Blizzard of 1967 1968 riots Great Chicago Flood of 1992 1995 heat wave Nery Castillo
First, what the hell else can Frank Yallop say, other than he is "encouraged". However, his bellyaching has to stop. “'I didn’t think maybe he played as well as he can do, and that’s not a slight,' says Yallop of ...Hurtado." No, Frank, that is a slight. That is the very definition of a slight. It also happens to be true, Hurtado was not very good. The question is why did not play well. "Patrick Ianni also came to Chicago with Jalil Anibaba going in the other direction. 'Sometimes a change is hard, he was in Seattle for four years and played very well there. “'I still think Jhon’s a good player, it just didn’t quite suit us and we had the opportunity to move a guaranteed contract –- he was going to be guaranteed for next year –- and I felt we were okay and wanted to make changes in that spot, and this trade gave us the room to do that."” Change is hard.
Uh oh! Yallop is going to be in trouble. No where in the article did he firmly attach his lips to the McMeddler's @$$ cheeks. Didn't mention how great the owner is or all the positives he does for the team. Sure, the attempt to land Jones may allude to it, but he didn't say "Andrew Hauptman is a great owner." I thought that was the first thing listed in the Fire Media Interview Requirements handbook?
The Great Hot Dog Famine Of 2014 or was it 2013? I'm getting old. (It's close enough to Chicago to count )
the word TEAM is what makes a MLS team successful- just look at TFC after all the hype about adding defoe, gilberto and bradley for the season- they added 3 good players but never truly built a TEAM - they look disorganized and do not have a solid foundation after 9 years in the league- 2015 will be a rebuilding year AGAIN!! yallop's thinking that adding 1 DP will change the success of the Fire is pure nonsense-
Uhm...the Superbowl Shuffle! Clearly one of the biggest of all Chicago tragedies. https://archive.org/details/SuperBowlShuffle