Still waiting.
For the record, I think you are setting the bar impossibly high, and then using the fact that no one has vaulted over it to prove your case, which is, in the least, dubious logic.
I don't personally
expect Kassel to turn into a "star", but he could turn into the Mike Magee-level dependable MLS player that other MLS teams routinely win with, and we do not. Is Magee a "star" player? No, he only had 5 goals in the regular season last year. But, he was good enough to knock us out of the playoffs. I'd take him over paying $ 280k to Salou. I do credit Backe & Soler for bringing on Cooper, he should be a good addition this year. That said, we also have a central midfield of Rafa (who could miss 5-8 weeks on INTL duty, if he goes to the Olympics), Teemu who is oft injured, Palsson who is an unknown, and a number of trialists. People keep bringing up Da Luz "not being in the league anymore" as proof that he'll never turn into anything. As this year in NY has shown, Lin & Victor Cruz were both at times "not in the league anymore". Shit happens. Will he turn into them? Likely no, but, aren't the trialists on trial because they are "no longer in the league anymore" of the last league they were playing in? I can't really throw a guy out in one case & hang my hat on another in a similar situation.
It's not that I believe Kassel
will turn into a star, it's that I don't think we kept him long enough, or gave him enough of a shot to know. Something we've done time & time again. The guy is an attacking mid, and got 82 minutes in midfield last year, while Ballouchy got 1500 (playing all over), and now we're okay to cut him because he is the 5th d-mid. Okay, but he's the 2nd A-mid on a team with so few of them that it is playing without one this year in a flat 4 midfield, and the first A-mid off the bench right now is Ballouchy. Call me crazy, but I'd have been okay with Hans giving 500 of those minutes to Kassel this year. I expect that to be less of an issue if/when we sign some trialists (who will count against the cap, and the roster) and may be moot altogether if we sign an A-mid in May (who won't come until July). But if the season rolls around and we see Ballouchy getting 20 minutes a game, color me unimpressed with "the plan".
I'm not calling anyone a cunt, disrespecting anyone, or calling anyone an apologist. But it is fair to ask questions about our direction. We are something like 26-17-22 in the last 2 years of this direction, with about 100 out of 195 points. I think it's fair to at least
ask if we're doing this the right way. God forbid we look back to see the all time record of this team, and the similar direction it followed, we'd all vomit.
And, for the record, I've gotten over Brad Davis, but when his team keeps making the final & winning trophies & ours does not, he gets pointed out as the evidence that the strategy of young (largely American) MLS veterans works time & time again, yet gets routinely ignored. Colorado won a title with some pretty "blah" players (especially compared to ours, on paper), but it's people we don't fancy like Jeff Larentowicz & Kyle Beckerman that keep walking away with cups, while we "re-tool" for next year.
As for Backe & Soler's "plans", they traded for DeRo saying that he was the kind of guy we needed. Quote:
“We had to trade Tony and Danleigh, two very talented, young players who both need more playing time with a first team in MLS to develop their potential. At the end, we think this is a massive step in our quest toward the MLS Cup title.”
Who lasted less than 90 days. Quote (NJ.com Michael Fensom's opinion, then Soler)
It was not that De Rosario — a consumate professional, according to Soler — was not helping the Red Bulls, rather that McCarty could help the team more. Now and in the future.
"When we sat down, (coach) Hans (Backe) and myself, and really went through the situation and what we really needed, for now and for the next year," Soler said, "we added up some financial thoughts and salary cap thoughts, it made sense for us. And we wanted to do it quickly and we did."
So, if you really need someone that they traded away who became a star...does the 2011 MVP winner count?
Many of us scratched our heads but tried to go "silver lining" on the Dax deal by saying "well, DeRo wanted a DP contract in 2012, and Dax is young, American and cheap, so, maybe longterm...."
But, may I just ask....where is Dax McCarty on the depth chart at D-mid nowadays? Behind: Rafa, Palsson, Teemu...? So, even throwing out the American angle for a moment...we traded 2 young players, a first round pick, and the 2011 MVP, for the 4th D-mid on our team?
Again, not calling anyone a piece of this here, but, if those are the results of "the plan", then "the plan" is going to get called into question.