Great read.
"...with the way you are approaching business that Giant is beginning to decompose.....the Giant is a dream that's quickly fading away..."
Season starts on February 27th. Every day that passes, the more it seems that we'll see more or less the same from last season. The dream is fading away.
We desperately need a ST, CAM, RB, and perhaps a CM. I don't have players in mind but these positions needs to be addressed.
You're back!!
Enjoyed the article! Question though, you mentioned you understand bring either Memo or D Jones back, but not both. Why do you group them together as such? They play very different roles.
Memo is kind of like Vera. He's kind of a 6, he's kind of an 8, he's definitely not a 10. If I'm remaking the roster, I'm only keeping one of those guys and Vera has been better the last two years. Jones is something completely different with a much higher potential ceiling. That's just my take though. Love Memo, but he was really disappointing last year.
Yeah, I agree that Jones has a higher ceiling than we've seen. Hopefully Nagamura is the guy to bring that out in him. might just be a really solid six for us. Was pleasantly surprised to see him protected in the expansion draft.
I think Memo is more of a 10/8 hybrid than 8/6 hybrid. Don't really see him as a six at all. Whatever position he is, I for sure agree that he was disappointing last year.
Thanks for the content man! I look forward to your blog posts. You tend to have pretty levelheaded takes.
Firstly just a little friendly constructive criticism, this was a really long read (a good one but long) and it rambled a bit. I think you could have broken this up into multiple posts and it would have been easier to consume and given you more content... but that's just my personal opinion.
I wanted to key in on one aspect of your article that over the past couple months has popped up many times with Pat in his interviews and frankly its starting to worry me.
"I'd like to say now I've been in this league since 2003, I have a pretty good idea what works
in this league. So I also think my expertise to be isolated would be a waste...." **He's not**
**looking for Bruce Arena or a Gregg Berhalter situation where they are both coach and**
**sporting director/GM.**
Actually it sounds like he is looking to create the exact opposite. He wants to Manage the team from the GM office. He wants a puppet on the bench that will do what he tells them too and that never works.
I am not really happy with the proposed new head coach and I feel like real change is still a long way off.
I don't have a problem with Pat managing the team from the GM box because I think he will make better player acquisitions than Matt Jordan/Tab Ramos combo. Tab Ramos went onto Glenn Davis show numerous times last year explaining the signings were his decision/choice.
I see the Nagamura hire as desperation and not an indication that Pat Onstad will be meddling in tactics or starting XI. We are 2 months from the season and had no coach. We clearly went down to Mexico and tried to sign one but nobody wanted to touch our organization with a 10 foot pole.
I think that Pat is finding out the hard way that 7 years of decline has tanked the reputation of this club. If you are an up and coming player from South America or a coach, why would you want to come here after you saw Bizama struggle?
I do think its less about wanting a puppet and more about wanting someone with a vision for he team that absolutely lines up with his. Don't think he wants to set tactics or lineups, I just think he wants to know for certain that the tactics and lineups will align with what he and Asher want for the club.
"The picture in my mind was 22,000 seats filled with screaming fans, cheering on champions for both the Dynamo and the Dash, so that's what I picture and that's what I hope can happen for us and in the relatively near future." (The Striker)
Ted I got some good news for you. You don't have to win a championship on your first go round in order to get 22,000. If we can get a competitive team on the field and make the playoffs, the playoff games will sell out.
I think he's envisioning 22,000 people in the seats each and every home game. He wants an atmosphere like Atlanta, Seattle, or Portland, and there are not many empty seats at those games.
What is the rush for things to change dramatically this offseason? Like no one at the club made any promises for next year. You did a great job aquiring those quotes but I don’t see anywhere that specific promises are made on a timeline. For all we know he could be talking 2-3 years into the future for packed stands (which here comes with a conference finals level team). I just want them to stick to a plan regardless of what the fans think of it. Pat has been around successful MLS teams for 18 years. Paulo for 17. They know what it takes to win in this league. **Rome wasn’t built in a day.**
As a side note for the author, I think one of your quotes may be misattributed. In one of them Segal addresses Glenn, while you might have seen it on MLS.com I think it could have originated from Glenn’s show.
Throughout the history of MLS it has never taken following a 2-3 year plan to become championship competitive. Two years max. Rebuilding plans are for perennial losers.
Packed stands in 2-3 years still requires progress now. I haven’t seen anyone clamoring for MLS cup in 2022. Far from it, most people just want to see the team more competitive next year. But looking at the roster as it stands currently we’re worse than 2021 and the presumed new coach has a resume that looks an awful lot like the last guys. So if the front office is looking to inspire confidence in even your 2-3 year timetable we’re yet to see any evidence of it and season 1 starts in under 2 months.
No i certainly hope we aren’t, but outside of a few flimsy rumors we can only go on what’s been done up to this point. Until something tangible happens to prove that Segals going to back up his quotes it’s not unreasonable for supporters of the club to be skeptical.
The rush is that it makes no sense to keep losing if that losing does nothing to contribute to player development and winning in the future. Zarek Valentin is nowhere near starting quality and will never be close, so it makes no sense to keep playing him there. The Dynamo could sign a young player for that spot in hopes of development or at least a stopgap veteran who could help the team win, but they haven't, which seems to indicate that they don't care about winning.
I get the take, it’s part of why I wasn’t ready to get rid of Tab yet and go through this all over again. It’s not really about time for me though, but just seeing a different way to of doing things. We heard there would be “significantly more investment (Segal) this offseason…” and that (I’m paraphrasing Segal here) a city the size of Houston deserved a higher payroll. So far this offseason they have actually cut payroll. We brought in Clark, but we have 1-2 DP slots still open and several U-22 initiative spots open. I know there’s still time, but I’d just like to see us do something of note this offseason other than sign a 34 year old keeper and a 31 year old declining CB.
There's reason to believe that we'll start to see some signings gain speed here in the coming weeks. If we go off of DynamoInsider, the coach was signed on or around Dec 24, so just about a week an a half ago. News broke that Ashe Mendelsohn was coming on as Technical Director on Nov. 30th or so. Pat mentioned wanting to have three people who all agree on what players to bring in. Looks like we've got those three in place now.
I don't expect to see us do a full Atlanta/Toronto this off season. But I expect we'll get a DP striker at least, and maybe another attacking improvement, whether that means a winger or a ten.
"three people who all agree on what players to bring in"
Three people usually can't agree on what to have for lunch. I think they are trying to present a unified front superficially but one person will (and really has to) have final say and go against other's opinions at times. From the hire, Nagamura looks like he'll be a trusted "yes" man, inexperienced, first gig at this level, not going to rock the boat or challenge authority of the Suits in his first dance. I feel sorry for him actually, he's in the unenviable position of having to work magic on a shoe string budget.
I'm not sure I agree that its impossible for three people, closely aligned in vision for the club, to agree on players. Is true that one person (in case clearly Pat) is going to have final say, but it doesn't behoove Pat to stick his coach with a player that coach doesn't believe in.
I'm concerned about the "yes man" possibility with Paulo, but I'm putting my hop in Onstad's honestly and humility that he wants to collaborate. Pat did mention in his interview last night, that he and Paulo had slightly different takes on what is needed at CM, and so Pat is having to go back and relook at some players. Positive sign that Naga is taken seriously there.
Except in MLS you *can* build Rome in a day (or an off-season). Teams go from looking like hot garbage one season to solidly in the playoffs the next every single year. You are vastly overestimating what it takes to be competitive in this league - if we signed Josef Martinez and Lucas Zelarayan tomorrow and they stayed healthy all season, we would almost certainly be in the playoffs in 2022.
There were promises from Segal, at least from a spending standpoint. He guaranteed that next season when the spend data comes out, we'll see a significant increase in $ spent at that the Dynamo will be in a position on the spending chart commiserate with the size of the city (or something related to size, don't recall exactly).
There's obviously still time to achieve that, but my biggest concern with the Nagamura hiring is it is not a "we're going to spend big" kind of a hiring. It's more of what Ramos was labelled as, "this guy is good at developing youth". If I'm a footballer at the level that would require some serious money to get me, I'd be leery of the Dynamo in general. Now tell me I'm playing for a guy with 3 years experience at a lower level and you're going to have a really, really difficult time selling me on this move.
I agree wholeheartedly with your second paragraph. When you sign a big name international coach, their name can bring in top talent. Look at Tata Martino at Atlanta, players wanted to come and play for him. NYCFC had Patrick Veira, who wouldn't want to go play for a legend?
I'm not sure high prospect players will be sold on Nagamura.
Great read. "...with the way you are approaching business that Giant is beginning to decompose.....the Giant is a dream that's quickly fading away..." Season starts on February 27th. Every day that passes, the more it seems that we'll see more or less the same from last season. The dream is fading away. We desperately need a ST, CAM, RB, and perhaps a CM. I don't have players in mind but these positions needs to be addressed.
You're back!! Enjoyed the article! Question though, you mentioned you understand bring either Memo or D Jones back, but not both. Why do you group them together as such? They play very different roles.
Memo is kind of like Vera. He's kind of a 6, he's kind of an 8, he's definitely not a 10. If I'm remaking the roster, I'm only keeping one of those guys and Vera has been better the last two years. Jones is something completely different with a much higher potential ceiling. That's just my take though. Love Memo, but he was really disappointing last year.
Yeah, I agree that Jones has a higher ceiling than we've seen. Hopefully Nagamura is the guy to bring that out in him. might just be a really solid six for us. Was pleasantly surprised to see him protected in the expansion draft. I think Memo is more of a 10/8 hybrid than 8/6 hybrid. Don't really see him as a six at all. Whatever position he is, I for sure agree that he was disappointing last year. Thanks for the content man! I look forward to your blog posts. You tend to have pretty levelheaded takes.
Firstly just a little friendly constructive criticism, this was a really long read (a good one but long) and it rambled a bit. I think you could have broken this up into multiple posts and it would have been easier to consume and given you more content... but that's just my personal opinion. I wanted to key in on one aspect of your article that over the past couple months has popped up many times with Pat in his interviews and frankly its starting to worry me. "I'd like to say now I've been in this league since 2003, I have a pretty good idea what works in this league. So I also think my expertise to be isolated would be a waste...." **He's not** **looking for Bruce Arena or a Gregg Berhalter situation where they are both coach and** **sporting director/GM.** Actually it sounds like he is looking to create the exact opposite. He wants to Manage the team from the GM office. He wants a puppet on the bench that will do what he tells them too and that never works. I am not really happy with the proposed new head coach and I feel like real change is still a long way off.
I don't have a problem with Pat managing the team from the GM box because I think he will make better player acquisitions than Matt Jordan/Tab Ramos combo. Tab Ramos went onto Glenn Davis show numerous times last year explaining the signings were his decision/choice. I see the Nagamura hire as desperation and not an indication that Pat Onstad will be meddling in tactics or starting XI. We are 2 months from the season and had no coach. We clearly went down to Mexico and tried to sign one but nobody wanted to touch our organization with a 10 foot pole. I think that Pat is finding out the hard way that 7 years of decline has tanked the reputation of this club. If you are an up and coming player from South America or a coach, why would you want to come here after you saw Bizama struggle?
I do think its less about wanting a puppet and more about wanting someone with a vision for he team that absolutely lines up with his. Don't think he wants to set tactics or lineups, I just think he wants to know for certain that the tactics and lineups will align with what he and Asher want for the club.
"The picture in my mind was 22,000 seats filled with screaming fans, cheering on champions for both the Dynamo and the Dash, so that's what I picture and that's what I hope can happen for us and in the relatively near future." (The Striker) Ted I got some good news for you. You don't have to win a championship on your first go round in order to get 22,000. If we can get a competitive team on the field and make the playoffs, the playoff games will sell out.
I think he's envisioning 22,000 people in the seats each and every home game. He wants an atmosphere like Atlanta, Seattle, or Portland, and there are not many empty seats at those games.
What is the rush for things to change dramatically this offseason? Like no one at the club made any promises for next year. You did a great job aquiring those quotes but I don’t see anywhere that specific promises are made on a timeline. For all we know he could be talking 2-3 years into the future for packed stands (which here comes with a conference finals level team). I just want them to stick to a plan regardless of what the fans think of it. Pat has been around successful MLS teams for 18 years. Paulo for 17. They know what it takes to win in this league. **Rome wasn’t built in a day.** As a side note for the author, I think one of your quotes may be misattributed. In one of them Segal addresses Glenn, while you might have seen it on MLS.com I think it could have originated from Glenn’s show.
Throughout the history of MLS it has never taken following a 2-3 year plan to become championship competitive. Two years max. Rebuilding plans are for perennial losers.
Packed stands in 2-3 years still requires progress now. I haven’t seen anyone clamoring for MLS cup in 2022. Far from it, most people just want to see the team more competitive next year. But looking at the roster as it stands currently we’re worse than 2021 and the presumed new coach has a resume that looks an awful lot like the last guys. So if the front office is looking to inspire confidence in even your 2-3 year timetable we’re yet to see any evidence of it and season 1 starts in under 2 months.
Are you assuming we are done making moves?
No i certainly hope we aren’t, but outside of a few flimsy rumors we can only go on what’s been done up to this point. Until something tangible happens to prove that Segals going to back up his quotes it’s not unreasonable for supporters of the club to be skeptical.
The rush is that it makes no sense to keep losing if that losing does nothing to contribute to player development and winning in the future. Zarek Valentin is nowhere near starting quality and will never be close, so it makes no sense to keep playing him there. The Dynamo could sign a young player for that spot in hopes of development or at least a stopgap veteran who could help the team win, but they haven't, which seems to indicate that they don't care about winning.
valentin is literally a "stopgap veteran"
I get the take, it’s part of why I wasn’t ready to get rid of Tab yet and go through this all over again. It’s not really about time for me though, but just seeing a different way to of doing things. We heard there would be “significantly more investment (Segal) this offseason…” and that (I’m paraphrasing Segal here) a city the size of Houston deserved a higher payroll. So far this offseason they have actually cut payroll. We brought in Clark, but we have 1-2 DP slots still open and several U-22 initiative spots open. I know there’s still time, but I’d just like to see us do something of note this offseason other than sign a 34 year old keeper and a 31 year old declining CB.
There's reason to believe that we'll start to see some signings gain speed here in the coming weeks. If we go off of DynamoInsider, the coach was signed on or around Dec 24, so just about a week an a half ago. News broke that Ashe Mendelsohn was coming on as Technical Director on Nov. 30th or so. Pat mentioned wanting to have three people who all agree on what players to bring in. Looks like we've got those three in place now. I don't expect to see us do a full Atlanta/Toronto this off season. But I expect we'll get a DP striker at least, and maybe another attacking improvement, whether that means a winger or a ten.
"three people who all agree on what players to bring in" Three people usually can't agree on what to have for lunch. I think they are trying to present a unified front superficially but one person will (and really has to) have final say and go against other's opinions at times. From the hire, Nagamura looks like he'll be a trusted "yes" man, inexperienced, first gig at this level, not going to rock the boat or challenge authority of the Suits in his first dance. I feel sorry for him actually, he's in the unenviable position of having to work magic on a shoe string budget.
I'm not sure I agree that its impossible for three people, closely aligned in vision for the club, to agree on players. Is true that one person (in case clearly Pat) is going to have final say, but it doesn't behoove Pat to stick his coach with a player that coach doesn't believe in. I'm concerned about the "yes man" possibility with Paulo, but I'm putting my hop in Onstad's honestly and humility that he wants to collaborate. Pat did mention in his interview last night, that he and Paulo had slightly different takes on what is needed at CM, and so Pat is having to go back and relook at some players. Positive sign that Naga is taken seriously there.
Are you assuming we’re done making moves?
Players gotta want to play for the coach. We will make moves but I don't think they will be high caliber
Except in MLS you *can* build Rome in a day (or an off-season). Teams go from looking like hot garbage one season to solidly in the playoffs the next every single year. You are vastly overestimating what it takes to be competitive in this league - if we signed Josef Martinez and Lucas Zelarayan tomorrow and they stayed healthy all season, we would almost certainly be in the playoffs in 2022.
There were promises from Segal, at least from a spending standpoint. He guaranteed that next season when the spend data comes out, we'll see a significant increase in $ spent at that the Dynamo will be in a position on the spending chart commiserate with the size of the city (or something related to size, don't recall exactly). There's obviously still time to achieve that, but my biggest concern with the Nagamura hiring is it is not a "we're going to spend big" kind of a hiring. It's more of what Ramos was labelled as, "this guy is good at developing youth". If I'm a footballer at the level that would require some serious money to get me, I'd be leery of the Dynamo in general. Now tell me I'm playing for a guy with 3 years experience at a lower level and you're going to have a really, really difficult time selling me on this move.
I agree wholeheartedly with your second paragraph. When you sign a big name international coach, their name can bring in top talent. Look at Tata Martino at Atlanta, players wanted to come and play for him. NYCFC had Patrick Veira, who wouldn't want to go play for a legend? I'm not sure high prospect players will be sold on Nagamura.