"assured of " Petke being inferior to Lalas, or to Fraser?
Party People,
Everything that statement was about Lalas and Petke. I know it is in the Fraser thread, but, that was only because Lalas brought up the Fraser thing during the RBNY game.
I think Lalas was trying to undermine Petke by starting Robin Fraser shit (or, at least airing it) where it doesn't exist. Fraser had a chance to leave and didn't last year. By all accounts he has a pretty significant input in operations here, and he welcomes that. I think he would leave to be a HC, as all former HCs that become assistants to pay the bills would. But, I think Fraser is a reasonably solid dude, and isn't trying to do anything other than look out for number 1. And even then, I don't think he is keeping his options open in any way to mess with Petke; he probably just looks around and sees Orlando, maybe Miami and wants to keep his hat in the proverbial ring.
Lalas thinks Lalas is better than Petke, and I guess you could argue that he had a better playing career. Certainly a lot more USMNT games, and a more heralded player, though I wonder how much of that was really him being famous for being on the '94 team and having crazy hair. Eddie Pope was better than either of them and that dude has basically joined the witness protection program when it comes to the media, despite having a platform and still being involved in Soccer.
Back to Lalas though, Lalas thinks Lalas is the shit, and that Petke having a coaching job is an insult to him somehow. March of Petke's first season, Lalas was already going 'Well, how long is that going to last? I can see him getting fired mid-season'. Dude won a shield, and didn't get fired. So there's that.