Just as speculative. As noted above, his family are still in Canada. The lockdown was still in there when he took the job, so that doesn't really factor.
It's the Galaxy and he's an alum.
Perhaps, however, all of that was also weighted against the people he was working under.
I mean, if MLSE hadn't fucked the dog, they'd have given Bez the president job when Lieweke left.
Agree, but look at the route they went: guy the boss knows, has corporate experience, who produces 200 page reports. Is clearly very cerebral and calculated. For a stodgy bunch of telco’s this is right up their alley.
Conversely we have the protege of the world’s biggest cowboy.
They had Leiweke PTSD and overcorrected, clearly.
My point was Vanney's & his wife's family are in the US & he is free to go see them. His Mom died a couple of years ago - I think his Dad might still be around.
Its a thing to consider.
And, California was out of lockdown in December with LA freely able to train & kids in school.
We get patios next week.
I know people may not think its important but a lot of people have mentionned the grind players have is being on the road, coming back to a hotel, then touching base with family who can't go to school or do anything. That was going on last year & weighs on the mind when choosing whether to stay somewhere.
Vanney didn't leave because Curtis is here. Vanney left because he saw a better environment to work in, closer to extended family & a project he wants to work on.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 06-03-2021 at 02:02 PM.
Yeah, but we don’t know that, at all.
Curtis hired Armas. Curtis was fired by NY because he couldnt get along with Jesse Marsch... and RB valued a coach whose prior experience was Montreal for one season more than Curtis.
On available evidence I’d say there’s every possibility Vanney had the same view of him as Marsch.
Actually... :-(
Zavaleta staying and playing is symptomatic of the issues with this team under Curtis' choice of coach. Now I ask, does Curtis have what it takes to get rid of Armas?
At some point TFC is going to have to reevaluate Curtis and the whole ex NYRB experiment. It was a failure the first time we tried it (under Mo) and its been a failure so far this time.
A lot of TFC fans felt losing Giovinco's was TFC's biggest loss over the years personnel-wise. I'm starting to wonder if losing Bez was actually a greater loss.
I vote Bez as the greatest loss we have had as a club, after Bez league office experience was probably highly regarded which leads to Curtis.
^Agreed
Unfortunately, I don't see Jozy coming back. I put this here because there is nothing good organizationally about the Jozy issue, and that is an Ali thing and I believe contrived (Jozy has pride).... also agree with MightDM's post in the Armas out thread, but Ultra's Jozy & Armas out is probably right. BUT Ali is culpable as well!!
In essence with the first window closed we cannot do anything until early July. Thats 5 games if you include the July 7th game. This means our strikeforce is Dwyer, Akinola and Mullins. Crickets on Achara. We wouldn't know about Soteldo, if it wasn't for Venezuela.
As above (IMHO), the Jozy situation was calculated and created by Ali and Armas to get Jozy out (or why would you have had Dwyer as a back up in camp). We have Orlando, Nashville, Cincinnati, New England and DC. How many points you think we are going to get from these games. If they don't get more than 6, both should be gone.... 9 will keep their jobs, but there was a time I wouldn't have settled for less than 13.
It is really sad how they are crushing an amazing brand and tearing a legend down in the process.
Last edited by Bushmancan; 06-05-2021 at 10:16 AM.
One plausible explanation of the Jozy situation is that they had an offer for him as rumored (USMNT camp) and didn’t take it - so when he was taken off he said to Armas “if you don’t want to play me why am I here?” Or similar.
Even more, we have been in a lockdown. Haven't seen our team at home in over a year. They should be over communicating with us and not making us have to look everywhere for updates.... shame on you Ali.
Probably, which is why you do it. I was a reporter and editor at dailies for years; much of the time, you know what the person is going to say when you ask a question. It's getting it on the record, and repeated similar comments, that focuses attention on someone's decision.
When reporters ignore the basic questions, no pressure builds. They just jump from angle to angle. But when the headline day after day is someone explaining themselves people eventually decide to act to deal with the issue, before tangential bad press affects more people.
If you watch media in Europe, where it hasn't been financially gutted yet because governments haven't allowed its wholesale theft and redistribution online, and where more protections over the value of ad space have been taken, they still ask this stuff. And it builds pressure. It works.
I know the majority of the attention right now is on Armas but I think Curtis should be taking significant heat as well.
Altidore being unhappy, Gonzalez being too slow, the lack of a secondary goal scoring threat, not ensuring the team had an off season fitness regime… these were are foreseeable problems that weren’t addressed adequately.
He takes too long to act and things just stack up. The sooner he leaves, the better.
Yeah I agree. We have a body of work in his case, and I don't think Curtis is growing into the job.
Last edited by ensco; 06-20-2021 at 09:00 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
This shitshow is pretty much his. Armas is a symptom of it, a guy who does not appear ready for the role he's been given.
People can talk about improvement all we want, but we still lost on three stupid goals that came directly from disorganization and arrogant, dangerous plays, things good coaches tend to drill out of players.
But throughout, the frantic tactical approach has been getting thumbs up from the front office.
His 300-page plan that was so mocked in NY is somewhat telling. Anyone who thinks they have that many answers before they've even started the job is likely to be inflexible and arrogant in approach. What, none of the people you're going to work with have anything to contribute? There's nothing unique about this place that won't fit preconceptions?
It's arrogant. It's the way a Football Manager fan manages. "We're going with the high 4-3-3- press, that's what will work. Fuck the team at my disposal, we need to mold their skills to fit our ideas."
Apparently not.
I don't give Curtis much credit for signings, which have been mixed, as all three of the big ones (Pozuelo, Soteldo, Lawrence) were looking for a new destination, the two latter were likely offered to us on a plate, and we're paying through the nose.
Meanwhile, actual roster shortcomings like our defence and bench depth at other positions is ignored.
I can't even say the offense last night was better coaching; everything we did centered on Pozuelo beating two men and dishing the ball, which has been unavailable up until now. Can't rely on one player and once Osorio left the game, we had no guile, just speed with Shaff.
They should both go, on current evidence, Manning along with them for smiling and waving extensions for all.
“Trophies are not won in the first seven games of the season. They’re won in the middle, they’re won at the end,” he noted. “The focus this week will be on what's in front of us, which is the game against Orlando – have a good week of training, come together and try to get a result, and then we can build on that, go from there.”, Ali Curtis … no Ali but they are lost. training failures and injuries, inexperienced at winning, DP and Legend banished… but give me a 5 year contract #thanksbuddy
Last edited by Bushmancan; 06-20-2021 at 11:04 AM.
I’d go as far as saying he’s the bigger problem.
Armas could still come good, I just doubt it will happen.
But…why is the league’s highest spending club — with a recent record to match —even hiring a question mark? Why didn’t we follow Vanney with a proven coach, who has actually won somewhere?
It’s the ambition to present his ideas as novel and genius that says he does not have the requisite humility to be a successful GM.
If Manning were able to recognize talent he’d have gotten rid of Ali and given Vanney both jobs. Plenty of other managers in football manage both roles. You could even argue there’s more cohesion between the first team and acquisitions whme the guy making the deals knows what we need and doesn’t have to circumvent politics.
This is the MLS, any defensive player you do sign have either major red flags, are a reclamation project, or have a notable flaw. Same with bench depth. It’s an effect of the salary cap, and one of the few ways you can build both is by promoting academy players and sorting out player development (see Philadelphia Union and NYRB).
Ironically, Ali might be more aware of that problem than we think, if he believes promoting academy players and giving them a chance is what it takes to improve.
Replacing Curtis is no guarantee we would solve any of those problems. Or we solve one but create two. Even when we outspend the rest of the league, we still have a team with noticeable flaws.
Just a note Vanney may not have wanted that role - he doesn't have it in LA.
Right from the point Manning introduced him, he was sort of presented as a this deep thinking, very professional GM, whose prior contributions were undervalued and misunderstood, much like the man himself.
The lazy (but I think correct) comment was this guy is too much of an odd ball, has a chip on his shoulder, and just isn’t effective.
I am left with the feeling the MLSE Board is asleep at the wheel here. The investment in the team is really commendable. What are they getting back? And why are we doing the equivalent of handing over the keys to our Ferrari to a couple of bus drivers? High quality management is the cheapest expenditure in this whole project. Find people with a vision that matches the budget, not these guys.
I’m going to challenge this notion. We are past the days in this league where everyone is earning $200k a year and there are so many limitations every signing is a crap shoot.
We pay Omar Gonzalez $1.2 million a year. That is good money for a central defender anywhere in this hemisphere. You have options.
Is it top league in Europe quality? Of course not. But it certainly isn’t a crapshoot either.
Last edited by ag futbol; 06-20-2021 at 07:34 PM.
Maybe because if you had a more proven coach, then he would've wanted a bigger say in the way the club was run, which was something that Manning & Ali didn't want to give up (and also what Vanney would've wanted as well)?
Infact, wasn't this the reason why they didn't proceed with bringing on Blanc or Viera?