67% Class

Oh wow, he is here. Maybe hell be available to play in a couple of weeks?

Nah. He'll play tonight, come on trailing 2-0 in the 65'. Will get a knock in the 70' and be out the rest of the season. 

The extraordinary failure of both Burke and Vanzeir  is remarkable.   

That said, they needed to make moves in the summer window, and instead sat on their hands.    

I was very optimistic before the season, but in retrospect, they needed both Burke and Vanzier to hit. Struber wanted to play a two forward system. They were depending on both Vanzier to acclimate quickly to MLS (more parity, more travel, don't call people apes usually) AND for Burke to move from super-sub to every game starter. Thats a gamble and one they lost.  

The fascination this club has with Barlow is truly amazing.  For me, it all began when Struber played Barlow over White in the first game(playoff match) he took over as head coach. 

 

That was my first major Struber red flag.  It's hard to excuse decisions this dopey.     

I think him coaching that game is the red flag. 

Totally absurd and speaks to both an arrogance and an acceptance of higher ups (RB Global & RBNY Brass) that failure is ok on the field as long as Struber gets some playoff experience. Also, complete arrogance and disregard for the fan base by Struber... he could have said no as well.   

Development of Struber > RBNY on field success. Struber was always pegged for RB Salzburg. That was whats important to RB. Not our dumb team. 

The starting lineup is an effect of Stuber being naive tactically in the offensive third. Barlow is big/strong/fast and has heart. Those are the qualities Struber needs in a forward. 

Promoting and hiring new executive staff is exactly what companies do right before selling. Right? Right???

Ha, I'll bite and play devils adovcate:

(23) Experience | Elisa Padilla, MBA | LinkedIn - She was involved in the Nets re brand and move to Brooklyn, the Islanders move, and the Marlins rebrand.... All of her sports experience seems related to rebranding...

If I was De grandpre, and know clocks ticking, I'd give a couple long time trusted staff of mine promotions ... "Here's a bigger title and a pay bump - Stick with us over the next year to make this smooth, please!!!"  The current head of HR stated she was retiring, maybe this is a plan to head off an exodus of others in leadership...

The only real addition to the group seems to be Elisa Padilla, who as noted above is a rebranding person.... everyone else is just replacing a head of HR who is retiring, or typical internal promotions... 

Devils advocating of course, but you know how I do...

I've been bumped? come on! 

On topic valid point that RB's failures at "building the brand" are all their fault, and not some magical curse of the NY sports area. 

There's a lot of competition for eyes, but there's also a lot of eyes. 

The Jets are the Jets because they 1) spent big and 2) made an identity.  

Red Bull will always be a joke because 1) don't spend and 2) have no unique identity. 

Free my comment from this prison! 

Cool, I hope we get to see him this season, and dont squander his time here with ball that doesnt play to his strengths, or grind his knees into powder.

This is such a sad take. And I don't disagree, which is crazy. 

The rub is MANY of the other teams are good to watch. Most have compelling build up play and vision. I get so downhearted watching our brand of high-octane fracas football. It sucks!

Im a big fan of keep-it-on-the-ground-pass-it-around ball. I love composure, picking out a good pass, putting a well-weighted ball into space for the runner. Maybe Im a dinosaur.

This team doesnt feel like high-octane fracas football to me... it feels slow in transition half the time with foggy brained hangovers from the night before. Maybe Marsch actually had red bull in those water bottles? 

I agree the Marsch era wasnt the possession based "beautiful game", but the Marsch's charging Ogre horde was also fun. There was a skill, and synchronicity with the players that I think was beautiful. This team is all over the place. 

I think Dylan Nealis has shown some promise as a low cost, backup utility player. He shouldnt be our planned starter, but played ok in a few different positions, with improvement game after game until he got injured. Add in that he's domestic, seems like a key bench player for a salary cap team.  Maybe I'm reading him wrong? 

Mario Gomez was there tonight. Left at halftime. Probably because nobody should be put through the misery of this organization for more than 45min.

It's nice he came, but the leaving at 45 mins deal is very lame and insulting. RBNY's success is one of his primary missions. Unless he had something directly club related (i.e. calling austria on a red emergency phone for them to send players) that couldnt be moved, it is a great indicator of how important RBNY is to RB Global as a whole. 

Wages have increased, as you've been shown.    We spent $2M just to get a manager.   We paid a record fee to get Vanzier.   Spending has not tanked. 

I mean that we have not kept pace with the rest of the league. Relative to the growth of the league, RB has tanked spending. 

What are the top 10 most expensive transfers in MLS history? - AS USA Obviously, some of these are not good acquisitions, but you pointed to a record fee for us. The problem is that RBNY does not play RBNY each week. They play the rest of MLS, and the rest of MLS is spending. 

Armas & Marsch were both through Ralf who is gone. Struber had a prior connection to RB. We dont know what the new leaders at RB Global will do. This is a tough job, you can be a good coach and still fail bc of the front office. A good coach would have to think long and hard before he signed up.
 

Interesting comparison:

Comparison of team payrolls between MLS and Championship (worldsoccertalk.com)

Maybe coaches are being graded by other teams on a curve. If you can make a team with this sort of spending solidly midtable, then that's success.  

I'll just keep saying it... this is balancing the books for a sale, and an easier slide out for the soda brand's image. 

The team is here for marketing... why would they reduce their marketing? On signs up and down Rt 1 I saw HBCU college football games being advertised as at RED BULL ARENA. Thats free bonus advertising for the brand.... 

Naming rights? or maybe covering for sales meetings.... 

If I want to separate the Red Bull soda brand from the team, doing the following makes sense:

• Intro crest without red bull logo
• bring out yellow jersey and push an odd blue yellow sweatshirts and tops
• Sell stadium naming rights

In Leipzig, Salzburg, on their F1 ring, they would never sell the naming rights....

Get on the Hurtado train, boys! Choo Choo! 

 

I can't wrap my head around it. Everything about the move screams "oh shit fans are angrier than we thought so we gotta do something before the window closes". But this has never been an org to do much of anything because of what the fans think. There's almost no sporting or business upside here, even if a miracle happens and he shows up and scores 15 goals in 10 games then we find ourselves in a difficult negotiating position to bring him back.

There has to be a handshake agreement or some other piece for it to make sense..... If he looks ok (even if only practice) I bet they have an agreement to bring him in. 

This agent does represent alot of young Columbians: Colombiagol SAS - Player agency - Player Agents | Transfermarkt

Maybe, worse case, we show this agency RBNY might be a good stop over before Europe? 

Side note - as usual, dynamite cover page photo for this guy... well done.