We've been holding off on doing this for probably longer than most people expected, but we wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt (foolishly) one last time. That time has now ended with the transfer window closing at 11:59 last night. Its time for Nicol to move on and Burns to be shown the door.
This team is lacking talent and they have been given every chance to fix this... for years. The downfall of this team is not sudden or even shocking, we have been watching it precipitously fall since 2008. We have signed many failures Domi, Dabo, Jankauskus, Assengue, Niouky, Castro, Badillia, Augustine and for no apparent reasonable reason we let go of last years MVP. The team seems to be relying on the Superdraft while other teams are going out and searching for successful players and having good luck in places like South and Central America and landing some major transfers. Whereas we take a trip to Africa every year and usually end up with a player that doesn't even make it a full season.
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| 'Baby come back...' |
Mike Burns is horrible at his job. He has done more to hurt the Revolution than he has ever done to help it... he is public enemy number 2 for Revs fans (#1 being Krafty Bob/Jonathan). There is a history of players not feeling as if they were treated well here, with 3 recent examples in Perovic and Castro and Larentowicz.
"Teams have decisions to make on players and players have decisions to make for themselves they have to feel comfortable with. Over time, [the Revolution] weren’t doing right by their players. I watched a lot of talented players and friends go and a lot seemed unhappy who were still there."-Jeff Larentowicz in the Boston Globe 11/2010
So Burnsie can't keep the good players here, cuts ones that should be here and apparently can't seal the deal. How many times have we heard that "we were close but it fell through" or "we have an offer out". This is almost as good as 'The Krafts are committed to the team and sport' or 'We are seriously looking to build an Soccer Specific Stadium in the urban core of Boston'. Burns always seems to come up with the same excuses and the same bullshit answers whenever anyone questions him and the teams scouting and player acquisition record/strategies.
I like Steve Nicol, no seriously I really do, it pains me to say that he should go but I honestly don't see any other option. Team sources have told us as well as others on multiple occasions that the scouting and signing of players is split between Burnsie and Nicol; Bilello even said this on the now defunct Defend The Fort site (man I wish I had saved some quotes from there). Nicol does the scouting and identifying targets, while Burns does the paperwork and negotiations. Burns' reasons for a pink slip should be obvious by now. Nicol as a selector of talent hasn't done that great a job, we've had far more busts than successes. The downfall of the team and the current record are also unsatisfactory, these things coupled together are our reasons for asking Nicol to leave. Nicol has done great things for this team and is a great coach but his time and methods have run their course in New England. I would truly hope that Nicol stays in MLS and finds success elsewhere but the Revs need an infusion of new blood to turn things around.
In the end hearing that they 'tried' to get players or land some big deals is not enough. If you try and try and do not succeed eventually it is time for you to try something else, somewhere else. Again in a normal job situation it doesn't matter if you try all the time and never get a positive result, or fail more than succeed...you lose your job. Steve, I thank you for all the work and time you have put in here, I hope to see you leave New England of your own free will, but either way we need a change of pace. Burnsie... don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out...
Like you said these two do okay in the Superdraft but that is either luck or it's obvious who to draft and they got really lucky finding a player like Perovic only to let him go. What got me the most was how Burns offers Caraglio (who I kinda like so far keeping in mind his fitness level) a DP contract from watching that same video on youtube of the bicycle kick goal you posted. He probably thinks he'll be the next Twellman because of that one goal.
ReplyDeleteBurns has a habit of getting angry if a fan asks him a question and usually gives a snooty answer.
ReplyDeleteHe has no interest in the fans and I get the feeling that he feels like we should bow down to him. That may not be his intention but it is how he projects himself.
Aside from the Kraft's "ownership", Mike Burns is the one thing in common between the god-awful teams of the late '90's and the god-awful teams of today. A disappointing player, and a horrid FO'er, he's been a serious sore spot on the NE Revs. I don't know what in Kraft's mind made him think that Burns was qualified to negotiate and sign talent, but fuck me, what horrible move that was. It's one thing for a person in Burns' position to actually know the game and be able to properly identify players of need, but it's another thing to be able to actually NEGOTIATE and SELL the club on a prospective player. Granted, this shit-show of a "team" (or at least it's current, long-running dismal status) is going to be a tough sell on any player of decent regard, so you would think that the Krafts would want to employ someone with more capability than that of Burns to handle player negotiations/signings. There's more personality and drive in my fucking belt than in Burns' persona.
ReplyDeleteAs for Nicol....it comes with some regret to say that his time has come, and he and the club need to part ways. As many have said already, he has accomplished great things with this club, but not all managers can be Sir Alex Ferguson. Nicol's +/- 4 years of rebuilding have been nothing short of disasterous. We've progressively gotten worse and worse, year after year, as key player after key player have left this team, and only to be "replaced" by someone who is clearly not up to snuff. Our signings outside of the league under Nicol, from mid-2002 to the present, have been astonishingly poor (save a very select few like Cancela, Avery John, and Perovic, and the jury is still out on Coria and maybe even Lekic). Ibrahim Kante, Jorge Vasquez, Richie Baker, Steve Howey, Cassio, Khano Smith, Connally Edozien, Ricardo Phillips, Jose Abundis, the Gambian kids, Mauricio Castro, Argenis Fernandez, Gabriel Badilla, Emmanuel Osei, Stephane Assengue, Edgaras Jankauskas, Joseph fucking Niouky, Roberto Linck, Ilija Stolica, Didier Domi, Ousmane Dabo, and Michael Augustine, just to name a bunch off the top of my head, have all be abject failures, whether it was due to Nicol not fitting them in or due to plain suck-ness. Burns' lack of signing ability may have put a damper on some of Nicol's plan A, and also likely his plan B, C, D, E, F, and even G signings, but Stevie picks the XI, tactics, and overall gameplan. Recent quotes from players over the past month or so have been more than telling in the regard that there really is no direction. That fault is placed solely on Steve Nicol.
His stubborn approach to building a squad (I'm of the opinion that he's trying to re-create the god-awful "hoofball" of his 1980's Liverpool teams) , combined with Burns' inept ability to lock down actual talent, is a recipe for disaster, especially for a team that is in rebuilding mode.
Bust out the Fleet enemas, because this entire organization is in need of a total cleaning out. The Krafts will likely never sell, so we can only hope that maybe, just maybe, they'll actually take the initiative to save some sort of face for their Patriots' off-season stadium filler of a soccer team, and clean house and start anew for 2012 and beyond.
That also includes shit-canning that complete lying, incompetent jackass of a "COO" Brian Bilello, who is WAY out of his depth at his position. Replace him with someone who is actually capable of overseeing the day-to-day overall operations of the NE Revolution, and not someone who tweets about hanging up pictures of players from Revs past on their office walls. By the way, Bilello, it's just MOORE, not MAX-MOORE, you asshat.
End of rant. (for a more in-a-nutshell description of the New England Disaster, just refer to Jeff Larentowicz's quote in this story).
It also doesn't help that Burns looks like a huge douchey villain
ReplyDeleteTitle on this should be "End of an Error". Good god.
ReplyDelete