There is no doubt in my mind that BB has to be replaced, but even if he is, the team is once again saddled with numerous overpaid players that will be impossible to move. We’re basically back to the Curtis era again, unless a new coach can get a lot more out of the players failing under Bob.
It’s kind of funny that Bob is touted as good at developing youth, because the only good players he has brought in are young, like Mabika. All of the journeymen are being paid way higher than their output, in some cases it almost laughable how overpaid they are.
I don’t think they are “at fault” per se but they’ve definitely been miscast. It’s basically Defoe part II minus mommy’s boy whining and wondering where the fish and chips are. These guys need teammates that play at a certain level and tactics to match to get the most out of them and in MLS that’s a tall ask.
Comparatively, Acosta looks like he could roll out of bed 5 minutes before kickoff and play with a cigarette in his mouth. Honestly the dynamic AM and individualism that comes with it is one of the best parts of watching MLS play. Wish we’d embraced that rather than Bob and Bill’s bullshit.
Bring in Javier Perez if there's literally no one else we can bring in. He would def come at a low budget and we know he can be flexible. The amount of apathy I have for our team is very sad. The fact we don't have 3 DPs for another season and an u22 wasted on Akinola is inexcusable.
Same here. The club is entirely soulless.
Even if we just fired Bob and played out the season preparing for a rebuild, that would at least show the fans a small sliver of respect.
I would take half the budget we have today and less potential for titles, if fans and supporters were just consistently shown better communication, consideration, and respect.
Outside of this forum and our fellow supporters, being a part of the TFC fanbase feels about as personal as lining up to get your drivers license.
Let's give him till the end of Leagues Cup. Thats all anyone cares about anyway.
Srsly
Whenever is fine. The rest of the season I'm just waiting for that Trillium Cup! Let me know how exciting sneaking into the playoffs is.
I need to see players move after he's gone. I need to feel like the room has any possible chemistry.
In summary I did not enjoy last night's match.
If we can't be in a position to do damage in the playoffs I would just rather not make the playoffs to be honest. Just making the playoffs could be spun, as an improvement year over year, in an effort to keep jobs in TFC coaching and management. Just making the playoffs is not good enough. I am worried TFC management will be ok with a marginal improvement if they can get one to try to say they are moving in the right direction. I don't wish for our team to lose at any point but if we got to rip off the bandaid again let's get it over with.
There's better than him for sure. If he were any good then he would be doing something other than updating his fancy website & chatting on social media. Besides he is the wrong type of manager. We don't need another chaulkboard teacher type (even though what Perez would teach would make sense instead of Bob's gibberish). We need a Sigi, Bruce, Petke type (for now) that let's them play and is more about the room, chemistry, and instilling some belief rather than just toss more X's & O's on a board and tweaking formations. We need a guy the players want to play for and would run through a wall for.
I'd throw whatever amount of money Bruce Arena wants.
He wouldn't take it. He's Bob's mentor, his first pro employer.
I think we are stuck with Bob.
I say that because I get the impression from certain people that Manning is under considerable pressure to not fire him. As the board has no historical stake in Bob, I have to think it is pressure from the league, many of whom are Bill's longtime colleagues.
They simply cannot see past their reverence for the man. The fact that he has now failed at more places than succeeded will never get past him taking them to the second round at the World Cup, or winning with the Fire as an expansion Franchise, or ostensibly making LAFC a winner out of the gate.
So ... they just can't see it being him. They just don't get it, and won't.
Bob can only win with particular teams, built to his skill sets. I think they would rather attempt to force us to let him do that again than admit he's not the American Bielsa.
I think American "exceptionalism" is so central to their collective sense of security, they would rather we lose for a year and then change the league rules to a) accomodate the "Messi" era and b) let Bob retool their "Canadian jewel" with a whole new budget structure.
So I think until he fails AGAIN having rebuilt the team AGAIN, we're just going to have to suffer it.
Interesting question; who do you think is worse?
Bob Bradley or Phil Neville
Last edited by JoesphNdo; 06-22-2023 at 02:03 PM.
Here’s the more interesting question, how do you rank Bradley among the group of former TFC coaches?
I think he’s near the bottom. Only the hall of fame ineptness of Johnston and Mariner are below in my opinion. You could say Armas as he’s clearly a weak leader but it’s also unfair to just look at Armas in that light as if he was given the amount of rope Bob was maybe he’d do better.
I think Aron Winter was a better manager for TFC and that’s saying something.
FWIW. For some reason JM felt it necessary to post BB's complete reply to 'the question'...
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/JohnMolinaro/status/1671955290231635987
The path of the last decade just rattles my mind. It takes so much hard work to get a club into the kind of place we were at around the peak. So much work. And the people who do that work, who can lift orgs out of misery, are so few and far between.
2014 Bez/Vanney/Liston lay out a lengthy vision for player development that leads to a list of promising youngsters. This at a time when we missed the playoffs, there was Defoe drama and they were chasing Giovinco. So imagine the level of effort applied to the squad going around the clock.
Now, our vision is literally “we threw a lot of money at players we scouted on Transfermarkt, how does that plan fail?” - I’m not even mad anymore, I’m so tired.
Hmmm… I may have been premature.
His tenure may not be as guaranteed as previously suggested.
My sources say it’s more abundance of caution preventing any immediate change, but that doesn’t mean they’re unaware of the evidence building up. I take that with slight optimism, as it should have happened already, but optimism nonetheless.
There is no point in getting rid of Bradley unless they get rid of Manning first. One should only be able to point the finger at others for so long before it should get pointed at themselves.
He showed more promise with a quarter of the resources and trust Bob is receiving. He's also very communicable and respectful to the fanbase which is one thing seriously lacking and causing disconnect with the fanbase.
Let's not forget Bob literally destroyed the team and results last year in preparation for this year. Last year's bizarre decision making was simply foreshadowing more of the same.
As usual - beware revisionism
I distinctly recall people lamenting about Perez' tactics, subs & ability to coach defence (we had one shutout under him - a draw with Colorado)
5 wins
8 draws
10 losses
(Not counting cup)
And the season went in streaks - chunks of wins/draws followed by chunks of losses
We lost to Miami twice & even Cinci beat use once.
We were shite under him - you don't finish 2nd worst in the conference if the manager is decent.
Oh, and go back and look at the thread for the Montreal cup game - by then Perez was out of ideas.
We can do better.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 06-23-2023 at 06:10 AM.
Let's speculate on the Manning replacement, and the Bob the Sporting Director replacement (in my mind, one and the same). The manager part comes after that. Later.
We forget how this should be done. The long Bez/Vanney era, which was kind of a weird accident, not part of any plan, blinds us. We have never done this right, the last real attempt to do it the right way was Winter, and even that was screwed up, because Mariner was put in competition with Winter. This is what came next:
1) Payne hires an active player, Nelsen. A totally off script move that rarely works, and didn’t
2) Leiweke hires top people for the Leafs and Raptors but decides to be the TFC Sporting Director himself (we will never see the head of MLSE do that again!). He goes with a junior capologist (Bez) as his assistant. Then he announces he is leaving. Two weeks later, Bez wins a power struggle with Nelsen and puts in the relatively unheralded assistant, Vanney, who was not on anyone's list of the top 5 MLS coaching candidates at the time. Nobody here liked any of it, and it only changed gradually. #VanneyOut was a big thing in these parts for several years. In remembering all this, tip of the cap to Leiweke, the only suit who ever understood us.
3) Curtis hires Armas, and the first thing that happens are interviews about how Manning and Bradley Jr knew Armas in the 1990s. Because what matters is whether Manning and Bradley Jr are comfortable.
4) Bradley Sr the Sporting the Director then hires Bradley Sr as Manager and thinks that the fact that sporting director and manager is the father of Bradley Jr the Captain is a feature not a bug.
Lets not go straight to manager. Lets do the speculation in the right order. We need to get a new sporting directing who picks a team around him, and a manager, and build a smart structure around him to succeed
It has been a while since the person running the football operation selected the manager in a way that made sense. Like, maybe never.
Last edited by ensco; 06-23-2023 at 06:42 AM.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
If Manning goes (or gets bumped out of TFC just to the Argos), I hope its going to be LT, using Masai, that are going to be finding that replacement. If the Rogers brat tries to stick his nose in, gawd help us.
In regards to a Manning replacement, we have to remember MLSE overall still has not hired a new president and CEO since that Air Canada bean counter left 18 months ago. Does it really take that long to find someone for what I think would at least be a pretty attractive senior post? Curious what it taking so long, we really have not heard anything on that front either? Would it not be that person who would ultimately decide on Manning's fate, ie you would want it to be the person? Internally could Masai ultimately find his way into it?
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!