Nowak Goes All In... And The Consequences That Come With It
by Ascalz on Feb 7, 2012 1:46 PM EST
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I don't think I exaggerate when I say that people were surprised by the Le Toux trade to Vancouver.
People understood why Le Toux might want to move to EPL club Bolton and many supported the decision even if they were sad about the possibility of losing our favorite Frenchman (I will post more thoughts on it in my second part of evaluating the Union off-season when the dust finally settles).
I won't go into all the sordid details that have emerged about the trade the circumstances surrounding it, I may never really address what Le Toux said to the press and what the Union said. It turns the entire thing into a "he said/they said" argument and frankly, I'm not a lawyer.
No, this article is not about that, more this article is about Piotr Nowak and the upcoming year.
I get why Nowak and Company moved Le Toux, I understand the business side of the game. However, what I cannot and will not do is ignore Piotr Nowak's role in this, his vision for the team, and the possible consequences of that vision.
First of all, I'm totally in support of the Union's vision of building up a team of young talent that will dominate MLS for years. Nowak himself said "To build a club, it’s all about the future."
Fair enough.
However, if I may I want to step aside for a moment and tell you all a bit of a story.
Near where I live is a relatively new casino called the Parx. I'm not normally a gambler, but when I have some extra cash and feel up to it, I, my girlfriend and maybe a friend or two, travel to the Parx to play some games and hopefully win some money. Normally I walk in there with 40 bucks and the only thing I play is electronic blackjack.
Why?
Well, for one, I have no real clue of how to play poker and, two, I feel uncomfortable playing blackjack with a real person and three, blackjack is probably the only game that I feel isn't always stacked in the house's favor.
One particular time I was playing, I was down to my last 10 dollars. I'd lost it all on various hands before then and once I finish out my 40 dollars, I'm done. So I'm sitting there at the machine, and I see that I have my last 10 bucks there and I say to myself, "Screw it, I'm going all in."
Ironic using a poker reference, I know.
So I bet my last 10 bucks and after a very tense moment where I was waiting for the cards to flip over on the machine, I won and was able to keep playing (I actually came out with 70 bucks which means I came out with more money then I walked in with which is always a win-win for me).
Now, in case you're wondering what the hell the purpose of my story was, it was this.
I just as easily could've lost my last 10 bucks and came away with nothing.
Nowak has made no secret of the fact that he wants to build up a young squad that he can hold together for years at a time and do well with. The Union's dedication to the the draft and their youth academy is proof of this. However, there comes a time when you must question whether or not it is a sound strategy to rely solely on youth.
The average age of the team is 22.54, rounded up the average age is but 23-years-old.
According to Climbing the Ladder, the average age of the Union last season ranked sixth in MLS. This upcoming season, barring any further signings that push the age of the team up higher, we will most likely be the youngest team in MLS history come opening day.
Is this a good thing?
Well... let's see.
Going from the above site, the five youngest teams were (from youngest up) D.C. United, Toronto FC, Portland Timbers, Chicago Fire, & the Vancouver Whitecaps. You know what they all had in common?
None of them made the playoffs last season.
Now, just above them is the Houston Dynamo, who made it to the MLS Cup final. A further breakdown needs to be done.
Dividing the league from the past season in half by "oldest" and "youngest", out of the top nine "oldest" teams (the Union included) only two of those teams didn't make the playoffs (San Jose & Chivas USA). Of the bottom nine "younger" teams only three made the playoffs (Houston, Colombus, Kansas City).
What do we infer from that?
Just because you're a young team doesn't mean that you're going to do well.
Now some of you may say, "there isn't that much separating the average age of most of the teams on that list" and it's a fair point. However, you cannot ignore that the five youngest teams last season did not even get the chance to get hot in the playoffs (as Houston did).
If you want to go back to 2010 then you'll see the MLS Champions, the Colorado Rapids had an average age of 27.54, which put them at eighth in MLS in terms of overall age. In fact, of the bottom five teams from the 2010 season, only one made the playoffs at that was the LA Galaxy (no. 12), who ended up getting trounced 3-0 by an "older" FC Dallas team (no. 5).
Basically, Nowak is taking a gamble and betting the farm that this young team will be able to put it together.
I want Nowak to prove me wrong, I want to eventually write you guys after the Union lift the 2012 MLS Cup and say, "I was totally wrong and Piotr was fully right to trust the young guys." You must forgive me if I'm a bit wary of the strategy.
Good teams and coaches find a way to make winners out of mixing older and younger guys. Very rarely is there a reliance solely on either. If the team is too old, they "lose steam" near the end of the season, if they're "too young" they "don't have the experience" needed to go far in the playoffs.
I'm willing to give Nowak a chance for this season. I want to see how this strategy pays off. However, this is where we get to the consequence part of the article.
If the Union make it into the playoffs, I will fully accept that Nowak was right to entrust the team to a bunch of young guys and say that he deserves another year to take this more "experienced" group of young guys through the 2013 season. However, if the Union fail to make the playoffs, if we miss them then it's simple. I want Nowak to go.
I'll pause so you can recover your socks that I have no doubt blown off.
This isn't because I "dislike" Nowak, I actually like him a lot. I like his fire and his obvious passion for the game and the fact that he seems to have laid the foundations for what will no doubt be a formidable youth structure in the coming years. I like the fact that he helped give the Union a solid identity by introducing Scooter's "Maria" (Doop Song) to the Sons of Ben.
All of that does not exonerate him from criticism.
Nowak himself expressed his disdain for people like me when he said on his twitter, "Pay no attention to what the critics say... Remember, a statue never has been set up in a honor of a critic."
Very true Pitor, but they also don't set up statues of coaches that fail to get anywhere in the playoffs. Just ask Buddy Ryan, Ray Rhodes, Gene Mauch and a whole list of Philadelphia managers who don't have statues in the city.
Piotr Nowak's gamble is huge if it pays off it could literally turn MLS on it's head. It would force many teams to suddenly take long, hard looks at their own academies and youth players as well as their ability to evaluate the draft. It would place an emphasis on the development of players that conform to a system that they have years of experience with rather than getting them from college and trying to get them to fit in over the course of their first off-season.
Hell I hope this happens, I would love to see more and more young Americans learning the game at a young age at MLS team sanctioned academies and see the game grow as a result.
Still, it could all backfire.
Piotr has bet his last 10 dollars on one final hand of blackjack and this season we'll be dealing and flipping over the cards. One of three things will happen
1) He gets blackjack (MLS Champions)
2) He wins the hand and gets to play another deal of the deck (Team makes the playoffs)
3) He busts or the dealer beats him (The Union fail to make the playoffs)
I really hope that #1 happens. I'd even take #2. If #3 happens then Nowak needs to be thanked for his service to the team and it's fans and politely but firmly shown the door and bring in someone who can make our young talent work with the older veterans.
As many have said MLS about the Le Toux trade, MLS is a business and sometimes you have to make the hard decisions without factoring in loyalty when it comes to players.
The same can be said of coaches. Nowak has done a lot for the Union, but he also needs to realize that whats good for the goose is good for the gander. Any player on the Union, even our best players are trade bait or available to be sold if the price is right.
Piotr should realize, very quickly that he can be fired at any moment if the ownership doesn't feel like the team is performing at the level it should. Management shouldn't care about what he's done for the Union, they should care about what he's doing for us and what he will do. That's the thing about gambling, when you go all in, you sometimes lose.
I refuse to let the losses of Mondragon and Le Toux change my perception of the team. I will cheer loudly from my seats this upcoming season, Adu, Martinez, Hoffman, some random guy from the street that they put a jersey on and throw out onto the field, I. DON'T. CARE. I will cheer for them as long as they're in the blue and gold. I love the team and any player on it is "my guy" despite any criticism I may have for them about their play won't change that.
So sit down everyone, sit down with me at the blackjack machine and let's get ready to watch Piotr Nowak do what could be his final bet. Let's see what cards get flipped over and see what happens.
Let's hope for blackjack.
Matt "Ascalz" Reppert out.
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With making the playoffs last year, I don’t see why we needed to go into a full on rebuild of the team from nearly the ground up. I think that if the team wins more than loses and makes the playoffs, all will be forgiven. If they come out of the gate losing and fail to make the playoffs, then the lynch mob will be looking or Nowak. I will be a member of that mob. Time will tell if this “grand experiment” was worth it or not. Here’s to a hopefully exciting season.
I don’t see in what way we went into “full on rebuild of the team from nearly the ground up”. Most of the starters/regulars from our 2011 playoff team are returning. Our top notch backline remains intact except we actually got an established left back. Keeper is a switch, but MacMath got some decent experience last season (and I don’t think that position was an intentional rebuild anyway; the teams seemed to want to keep Mondragon for 2012).
Midfield is returning most of the regulars, except for Mapp and Migs who are not big losses IMHO — most people wanted to see the latter gone and few were sad to see Mapp go. Garfan returns to the rotation there and hopefully we’ll have Daniel available all season there. Plus, we supplemented by Gomez who seems like a solid pickup.
Forward is really the only position where you can say they are “rebuilding” given the loss of LeToux and Ruiz/Paunovic, but they have returning regulars there and they were obviously very high on Martinez since they pursued him for months (he was a target last summer). I agree that giving up LeToux and going with younger players for a team that made the playoffs is questionable. But that’s really the one position where they look like they are totally changing their lineup/player usage. It’s certainly not wholesale changes.
Is it possible to call anything done with a two year old franchise a “full rebuild?”
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From our CEO's own words regarding *why* the moves were made
"We feel that in the best interest of our club these decisions need to be made for our short and long-term benefit. Although we achieved great success making it to the semifinals of the playoffs last year we are not in any way content with that. We operate in a highly competitive and demanding marketplace and believe the moves we have made and continue to make improve our roster and give us a better chance to advance past the semifinals."
This indicates to me that they are looking for a deeper playoff run and that this is the intention. The ultimate goal of a team is to go all the way, or as far as possible, right? Accountability is neccessary for decisions.
Or it could be that they see developing young stars to sell off in order to fund purchases of old Euros as the real route to success in MLS.
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So, do you go young when Nowak is canned?
I’m not the biggest Nowak fan in the world, but I recognize he is one of the better ‘re-tread’ coaches in MLS (just under Sigi Schmid and Bruce Arena). He has his faults, but so do most coaches. Sacking him means upturning the current roster in favor of either a worse MLS retread coach or an unknown quantity.
Where do you go for coaching talent after you sack Nowak? Bring in a foreign import (like NYRBs)? Go to the USL for young talent (like the Whitecaps)? Promote an old vet of MLS (like the Revolution)?
There is no good answer if Nowak’s big bet goes bust this year.
Good question
John Hackworth, John Hackworth, John Hackworth.
what does "promising youth" mean?
Transfer fees, plain and simple.
The Union have reshaped their team by going “all in” on a youth movement. One could argue that they plan on dominating MLS for years, or that they could plan on cashing in for years.
Mwanga makes 300K this year, Letoux made 180K and wanted an increase. Letoux has been more productive, so why not keep him? Simple, Mwanga’s potential transfer fee would be signifigantly higher due to his age and potential. He’s allready been sent out on a “training spell” to Villa and has had alot of exposure on the Generation Adidas tours.
Adu, Williams, Okugo, MacMath, and McInerney are all about to get alot of exposure in the Olympics (assuming the US and these guys make it). Adu, Macmath, and Okugo have all had overseas training sessions this summer. With a good Olympics on a European stage, the interest in them could be signifigant.
Pheiffer has allready had trainign stints in Germany and his status on the U18s could also lead to a sizeable transfer fee.
The valuation of Josue Martinez dropped from around 1.5m or 1m and the U scooped him up for 500k (thanks i’m sure to their friends at Bimbo). He has a bounce back year and all of a sudden he could fetch a much larger sum as well.
If the Union had used the designated player tag on ADU and the young designated player tag on Martinez, they could have afforded to increase LeToux’s salary and all would have been happy. But they fail to spend their OWN OUT OF POCKET MONEY! Instead, the U’s front office would rather set up the club as a potential money maker…..
Anything less then the playoffs is unacceptable this year in my opinion! They made the decisions and going backwards is not acceptable. Unfortunately, we ALL have to live with the consequences.
Soccer is a different sport...
..than many American sports. In the MLS you simply don’t keep teams together for years on end. There is always movement with major players and positions. I could understand this move if we could keep the group together for many years—but I just don’t see how that is possible. So what will end up happening? The only thing I could see is constant re-building every couple of seasons. I don’t see how that is good for the Union’s future Cup winnings and ability to dominate.
Very, very true
and all of the armchair GMs congratulating themselves for approving of the move don’t realize this. We will not have a “young core” that stays together and dominates for years. We will have young players who — if’ we’re lucky — do well and depart. And what do we buy with the money obtained from transfers? Well — again, if we’re lucky — we buy a player like Le Toux, who is of all-star quality and not simply looking at the Union as a stepping stone to the Danish league.
That’s a little unfair, because I think the “Academy” model is more of a shark tooth model: when one player is sold, another replaces him, rinse and repeat. Presumably, you eventually get to the point where you’re a “destination” and not a launching pad.
by tmu on Feb 7, 2012 5:17 PM EST up reply actions
What is the blueprint?
Did I miss the team which set down the blueprint for how to win in MLS? Because the last two champs could not have built their teams more differently.
The league is so young and so different than it was even 5-6 years ago… I don’t know that there is a blueprint for success just yet. So I don’t know that you can say at this point that we know what is good for the future and for winning cups.
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much in common
while the last two champions were built differently and the money spent on those two rosters were signifigantly different, they did have one thing in common…. EXPERIENCE… which is the crux of these arguments and the article….
cynical
Seems like your ignoring the fact that these players and the team benefit from exposure in the olympics and training stints abroad.
Also, these players have to contribute to the team in order to net the U high transfer fees.
How long do you think the U would last if they didn’t make $? Isn’t it a business?
by Jason Rodriguez on Feb 7, 2012 3:36 PM EST up reply actions
not cynical
do players benefit from training abroad? Bruce Arena questioned it numerous times this offseason both before AND after Gonzalez got hurt. I’m not arguing that they don’t but some people do.
And you are correct that the players have to contribute to get the transfer fees but if they don’t the U don’t lose anything since the MLS pays the contracts and the U regfuses to spend their OWN money by utilizing any of the numerous designated player tags.
Have you been to a game? The U is making plenty…. and out of respect for the fanbase they should have kept this team in a position to fight it out for the conference.
I hope i’m wrong and they win the whole damn thing, I’d rather be wrong and win then right….
The team may be making plenty, but you ignore that in the last two years they built a stadium and bought a team. They’re still far in the red overall in this deal.
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You can’t forget that their “OWN OUT OF POCKET MONEY” was just spent on buying a team and building a stadium two years ago.
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not my problem...
If you can’t pay for the parts, don’t buy a Porshe
They didn’t buy a porsche, they bought an MLS team.
And really, this is just reality. It’s the same reality for most businesses.
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Instead, the U’s front office would rather set up the club as a potential money maker…..
I don’t see how that follows. Any transfer fees that Union gets will come to them in the form of allocation money which can only be used in terms of player acquisition. It isn’t like they can sell players and just pocket the money.
Now, I guess you can argue — and have done so a little — that by getting allocation money, they can make player moves without spending team money (via the DP rule) and are pocketing other revenues. Maybe, but that would assume the team is otherwise profitable — and I have my doubts. The owners have significant debt service on the stadium to pay off, for example, in addition to regular operating costs. I’m extremely skeptical that they are making so much revenues that the ownership is pocketing significant dough; heck, they might very well be operating in the red on a year to year basis.
heck, they might very well be operating in the red on a year to year basis.
That’s not even a question and will be the case for years to come.
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????
Do you really think that intelligent buisness people will spend 50M on a team that is going to lose money?
They revenue share, which includes all of the money paid by expansion teams since they’ve joined.
They are a part of S.U.M. which just had a huge cash injection from an outside source (i believe an equity firm).
They did not pay for the stadium or the infrastructure.
And teams do get a portion of transfer fees that is NOT in the form of allocation money.
Noone put a team here to bless us with Soccer, they put a team here because the area showed potential as a profitable market and by all accounts has exceeded that expecation. I don’t begrudge them making money, I hope they do. But i would like it to go hand in hand with putting the best product on the field and in this championship starved region, best means winning championships.
The personnel moves last week (some may not their fault) and their refusal to utilize the mechanisms available to them (cap management through designated player tags) has limited their ability to win said championship.
The same could be said of last year when they failed to utilize open roster slots so they could obtain even more allocation money. That backline looked awful frigging thin all year, yet they failed to address it. It was so thin that when Nowak decided to run out a
3-5-2 for the first time, he had Migz as the center back.
Their personnel moves lack that last bit of grit to get us to the top and as a season ticket holder it irks me. The same way it did when the Eagles did the same thing over and over and got nothing to show for it. That’s why I don’t have season tickets to them anymore and unfortunately i’ll proabably be saying the same about the U soon as well
Not lose money for eternity, but sure, many many business lose money for the first few years. After spending $50m for the team and millions more to build the stadium, they’ll be in the red for a while. That’s just reality.
It doesn’t mean they can’t win in the meantime… but it is what it is.
And again, I’d just like to remind you that you are considering giving up on a team that has only existed for two seasons. An expansion team makes the playoffs in its second year of existence and you’re so upset with their progress that you want to cancel your season tickets?
I know this is MLS and being an expansion team isn’t as bad as in the major sports leagues…. but still. I think you need to adjust your expectations a bit.
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True. It’s worth noting that Toronto still hasn’t made the playoffs. Ever. And they’ve been around for 5 seasons (and 8 out of 13 teams made the playoffs when they started).
Of the recent expansion teams, here is the first time they made the playoffs:
Salt Lake: 4th season
Chivas USA: 2nd season
Toronto: not yet (5 seasons)
San Jose: 3rd season
Seattle: 1st season
Portland: not yet (1 season)
Vancouver: not yet (1 season)
Making it in the 2nd season seems pretty darn good by comparison. We’ll see if Portland or Vancouver can match it.
The reluctance to continue to spend money on season tickets is not due to the fact that they may not win a championship but due to the fact that they are not willing to do what is neccesary to win a championship. It is the journey, not the destination. But why should I as a season ticket holder spend that journey in coach on Amtrak? I don’t expect them to win a championship the 3rd year out of the gate, but I expect them to spend the neccesary money in order to put themselves in contention and I feel they have not done this. Seattle hasn’t won an MLS cup, but I don’t think you would see their fan base angry because of a lack of spending. Everything they do is first class, so far the U is not first class. It goes beyond the trading of LeToux. As I said before, I hope I’m wrong, but I refuse to follow blindly because they are the local team. I waited years for an MLS team to come to our area (I’m 36) and I just don’t want to see my and every other fan’s money wasted on a club that will follow the Eagles mentality of being happy to fill the seats and settle for good teams, but never a great one.
But again, you are making a ton of assumptions about a team that has existed for two seasons. I just think it’s far too early to assume that we know how they do their business
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That they’re “happy to fill the seats and settle for good teams, but never a great one.”
That they’re “not first class”
I don’t know how we can assume these things about a club that has existed for two years.
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In what way exactly is Union not “first class”? That’s such a nebulous complaint. I see no indication that Union is “settling for good” and not aiming for a championship — if anything, trading a fan favorite in LeToux suggests to me a willingness to make tough choices to make the team better (at least better in their minds) rather than just focusing on PR/appeasing fans.
I’ve listed my gripes before and I’ll do so again:
1. Failure to use the designated player tags.
By not using tags on players that should be tagged, they continually put themselves in a bind regarding the salary cap. That is why the roster was so short last year and why it will proabably be so again this year. Remember, every dollar over 400k for a designated player is paid for by the team and not the league. I believe the # for a young DP is around 200k but I could be wrong. Therefore, Martinez and Adu could count signifigantly less against the cap then they do now and add alot of roster flexibility, I don’t know, maybe for some defensive depth?
2. Pave the parking lot allready! lol
3. Practice and training facilities are subpar, and I’m quoting LeToux.
4. Youth System setup is a freebie. The Union let PDA, Delco, Classics ( I may be missing some of the other big clubs) and anyone else who pays the U 1K and submits proper documentation become a youth feeder. Union claim this is so they can be club neutral and cast a wide net. The reality is that they signifigantly cut costs and the high price of playing for these feeder clubs could leave alot of stones unturned for local talent. They should have a proper youth system in place in PA and southern NJ and it is my bet that eventually this setup will be negated by the league.
Those are 4 examples. I understand that franchise fees were expensive and that their are a ton of costs in running a club. I just want to see the best team possible on the field. All of the above mentioned gripes affect the team on the field (save the parking lot). Don’t mistake me for a hater, I’m a passionate fan, have season tix, nver miss a game, have the kids decked out in 2012 kits and so on. But I feel as a passionate fan I’m allowed to point out the flaws that i see ;-)
I don’t see how any of those things (except maybe #1) deals with “settling for good” and not trying to win a championship. And it’s not like teams with DPs have been winning all the MLS Cups. I think better scouting/talent acquisition is more important that just spending more money, especially if you are talking about only a few 100K here or there (which would be the case with having Adu as a DP or making Martinez one due to transfer fees) — I could see that point more if it were about Union going out and signing some $3M salaried game changer, but very few MLS clubs are doing stuff like that, so I don’t think it is a competitive disadvantage.
Interesting reading between-the-lines
Wholly plausible.
Amen
I am very concerned that the Union will go the route that Arsenal has gone ever since David Dein left the team—the whole backline retires seemingly at the same time, Vieira is let go, Henry is let go, and suddenly the team is one of the youngest in the league. Nobody makes a peep early on when the team goes trophyless, but soon the young’ns aren’t so young anymore, and the team continues to go trophyless. Keep in mind, when the Arsenal organization decided to adopt this strategy, their academy was years—decades, in fact—ahead of the Union’s in terms of development.
Deadwood has had to be let go as the realization seeps in that the bright stars of yesterday haven’t panned out to be the players we had expected, and the criticism is always this: were they really deadwood, or were they rushed into the limelight too quickly, with too few experienced models to learn from and take away some of the pressure?
As good as Jack McInerney, Zach MacMath, Danny Mwanga and Roger Torres may be, is it really best for them, for the team, and for the fans, if they—two still being teenagers—become the main men, the ones who we fans count on most to perform, the ones who will have ever-higher expectations as the season wears on, the ones who will receive the harshest criticism?
For some of these players, is anyone fully faithful in the idea that they are ready to start games consistently?
How old will local hero Zach Pfeffer, aged 16 presently, when he starts games consistently?
This is a long, frustrating road to move along should the team underperform. The team may overperform, but as this writer here brilliantly points out, at the end of the day, that is a 50-50 gamble at best. One season will not be enough either way. If this is a good season, yes, but for people to buy into this strategy, there will have to be several good seasons. If the season is poor, management and fans will be too reluctant to pull the plug on the strategy, but than the following season we will have a young team starting with less confidence that will come under more pressure if things continue in this vein.
The road is long, and the road is frustrating.
Therefore, I wholeheartedly agree with the notion that Nowak should go if the team doesn’t make the playoffs. Everyone wants to trust their players and their managers, but we shouldn’t be expected to support a manager who fields a team that proves too inexperienced to win. It is not an attack on the players when you speak up and say that these kids are not ready yet, and one full season will be more than enough proof of this.
Unfortunately, for these youngest players who will start most games this season, it will be too late for them to go back to the bench (“regress”) and take the time to develop come 2013.
Le Toux is ONE player
I know people are upset that Le Toux is gone, but try to look on the bright side.
1) The U signed Torres! He’s arguably the only player on the squad who can play in tight spaces and freeze the defense with his crafty dribbling. They also signed a very talented and exciting young striker from Costa Rica. And remember, most of the U’s international signings have been strong (Paunovic, Valdes, Torres, Daniel, Ruiz).
2) The defense is organized and looking great! Williams joined the team from Harrisburg (that’s right, Harrisburg) and now he’s one of the best RB in the league. The top three players on the Castrol Index for the U are Valdes, Williams, and Califf (in order).
3) We all miss Le Toux. But let’s remember: he only had 7 goals from the run of play. For perspective, Carlos Ruiz had 6. Also, Le Toux was lucky and had no serious injuries during the last 2 years, which meant that he played a lot of minutes to get those goals. As far as G/90 min, he was comparable to Caleb Folan (dropped from the Rapids) and Kenny Cooper (traded to NY) at 0.32 (including PK goals). Furthermore, the U had poor offensive production overall. They were second to last in Shots on Goal and average on Goals.
4) And finally, the season starts soon!
Thank you
I just want to say thank you for pointing this out. I know that Le Toux was a fan favorite and rightly so, but I have to agree with some of the other things that I have seen written. Le Toux was our first love in Philly, and with our first love we see only the good, and we ignore the bad. For most of the season last year Le Toux did not perform, he did not score goals, and when he finally did start to score, many of them were PK’s. Is he a good player yes, but he is also a replaceable one. With the big personnel decisions so far, Nowak has only missed on Ruiz and I would say he was awfully close on that (Ruiz was finally starting to perform at the end of his tenure in Philly). While there does need to be accountability, we also need to have faith in a coach that aside from his game day management has done a good job so far as manager. But I will conclude that if this project does fail, then he needs to be held accountable and the organization should respond accordingly.
All in, but whose
You keep saying “Nowak” “Nowak”, why not “Sakiewicz”? This was done for the future, but not the future of the on-field product. Dangeroo is spot on above. Le Toux was a dividend. This team may make the playoffs, but I seriously doubt Nowak’s job is on the line. The move for the future was for the future of the ownership group. Yes, attendance is strong and the revenues from a match day are probably ok. Let’s say the average fan spends $30 on ticket & concessions. Over the course of a season that roughs to around $10M. Add in Bimbo/ new TV contract cut, stadium sponsorships, maybe they’re around $15M annually. Minus the $2.4M cap and you’re looking at $12.5 gross. Now their actual overhead and operating costs are hidden, plus any debt they may be servicing from buying into the league, their share of any stadium costs, improvements,whatever and since MLS is single entity, some of those revenues are shared with the league. So if they could get $1M from Bolton for 1 player, sold. If instead the consolation was $1M in allocation to pay down Adu and transfer Torres, sold. That $1M rumored # would be a significant percentage of their operating income. If it was cash they could take off the table (your poker allusion), they would’ve pocketed that for the investor group. So yeah, Nowak is the face the public sees in the traditional coach/GM model, but I would have my socks knocked off if he wasn’t doing anything than carrying out company policy.
On field product
This could be an important point. Objectively, wouldn’t you say that from an entertainment standpoint, the Union have actually been a pretty poor on field product? They got results last year, but overall were pretty boring.
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Grammar Nazi Alert.
I apologize in advance for this having nothing to do with the article.
I love this site and most of the posts and authors but if you’re going to publish articles in a relatively professional forum, please, please, please learn to use the proper forms of you’re/your.
Ok...
There was only one instance of you’re/your being misused in the article. He used “your” when he should have used “you’re.” Sometimes when I’m typing, I use the inapropriate one and then realize my mistake later. It’s a mistake. Chill.
The only thing that can be said is a lack of proofreading before posting.
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