Episode 195: What Went Wrong for CF Montreal, NYCFC, and Chicago Fire

Scarf of the Week what's going on everybody and welcome back to another episode of the designated players podcast we are out here picking back up with a series we started and then kind of got away from as we started doing predictions and then we ran out of upload time uh so this is episode 195 and we are back with some what went wrongs so today we are going to look at Chicago we're going to look at New York City and we're going to look at CF Montreal and we're going to figure out why did these teams not make it to the playoffs I've got three things for each team I'm sure Connor does too but we are going to break it down and analyze very very quickly very very briefly not super in depth what are some things this team needs to look at to fix next year Conor how you doing I'm doing great yeah how you doing it's awesome I'm doing okay I'm here just okay yeah just all right how could you not be doing better with all your proton electron Neutron facts that you were dropping before the episode started because I was basically teaching a six-year-old what they do because you clearly don't have any idea what's going on that was last night that you were teaching six-year-old oh yeah took me a second took a second yeah um I am excited to get back into this because I love kind of breaking down the the issues of of teams and we're going to go through the Western Conference next uh next episode and then we're going to hit some of the teams that have just been knocked out of the playoffs soon uh but for this episode specifically what uh what's scarfy Rock and I think I can guess because you're very un all right what's the guess then Montreal it is not Montreal poor oh wait just kidding for some reason I thought I had Chicago on oh my goodness that is actually I actually I have a scarf for every team in this episode that I busted out the Montreal one honestly I kind of like it it's got like a marble look to it ow and it was a a scarf I feel like I hadn't brought out in a while so that's a guy who's been uh looking at too many houses on Zillow it's got a marble look and it's a it's a nice finish shut up what's your scarf loser I did I did what I thought you weren't going I was try read the game here because I also have scars for almost everyone in this in this group you have the current Chicago Fire I have the old Chicago Fire no this isn't the current this is uh mid oh yeah you're right Chicago Fire this is the one and done or like two and d That's funny too because I have the mid Montreal one as well rebrands on rebrands on rebrands on rebrands yeah we really jumped on the uh the Rebrand logo Trend I guess uh um all right so are you ready to dive into it of course I am good because I want to CF Montreal start with the team that I think we're probably gonna have the most in common and that's CF Montreal so a little bit about Montreal uh a 2-1 crushing defeat on the last day of the Season saw them finish out of the playoffs on 41 points two points out of a playoff spot just one year after being two points away from the top of the league the supporter Shield they were one win away from winning the supporter Shield last year and now they are out of the playoffs what went wrong and I want to start this off because for me it all happened before the first ball was ever kicked starting with the loss of their head coach which actually followed my second point so maybe I'll mix that up it started with losing your best players and not replacing um so they went they ripped apart their team they were they were ruined by the European market and all of their best players were gone from it then they decided the best way to replace that is with mid MLS guys and Academy kids so a list of players that are gone Jordi mahalovich Ismael K Alistair Johnston uh Hain Torres Kai Kamar and Kamal Miller all left and then halfway through the season they sent Rudy kamacho packing as well this club that was one win away from the supporter Shield were then blown to bits and replaced with Aaron Herrera George Campell AR AER and Bryce D now on their own those four players are not bad players like they're they're all good in their own way but the biggest part for me is you lost a guy who carried your attack and replaced him with nobody really there was no real like for- like replacement for him um there was not a single attacking designated player on the roster and that is a big deal considering that your only attacking designated player the year before carried you you they set themselves up with a recipe for disaster uh and they only scored 36 goals this year second worst in the entire conference uh only in front of that team Toronto I think they've forgotten that this is an MLs 1.0 you can't just blow your team up and think that you're just going to compete the next year and maybe sneak in because everybody else is spending big you can't go you can't go cheap um I think they're going to need some significant investment next year to fix that and it's gonna start in in the front right I think the back they can figure it out but it needs to start in front I think you took the words right out of my mouth naturally mainly because we talked about this at the start of the Season yep where we said that they blew up the team and then they did a really poor job in the winter window of not replacing them they made roughly 15 million uh in the winter sorry across both transfer Windows SE uh during this season and no sorry they made 15 million I am reading comprehension is not on my list of talents had a boy they made 15 million euros in the winter and then across both transfer Windows this season they spent less than five million of it to replace the team and as you said a lot of The Replacements were I feel like players that they wanted to just kind of like get at a cheaper price and hope they kind of hit their potential with the team which is just not a recipe for Success um as you said as well you can no longer get away with selling your super important players and trying to replace them with bargain deals of the academy um it seems like they saw what they were able to do with Jord movich and then thought they can consistently do that which is not the case movich was the exception not the rule in terms of just getting a player at a bargain price and then building them up into a star and selling them on that was definitely an exception case you're not going to be able to do that consistently uh and one other thing I wanted to note was you know even the best youth systems teams like Dallas and Philly they buy key players to add to a team of Academy and bargain players but they're not there to replace the key players that the part so like for example Aaron Austin trusty moves on from Philly they break in Jacob gley Brandon arenson moves on to Arby salsburg they bring in pwog pepy moves on to alburg they bring in alen Blasco so there seems to be like a good understanding with these Academy teams it's like okay we have good bargain players we have good Academy kids but they're not going to be able to carry the team themselves they need to like be able to replace their key players that move on um and then I guess keeping with the theme that I've done for all of these I try to like make name a solution um this one's very simple spend the money um yeah that I'm I'm gonna hit on that a little bit as we get to my third point but I do want to go back to my second point which was my first point originally uh in where they lost their coach so after they let go of mahovich K Johnston nzi packed up and left and went over to Columbus and with nansi they had a coach with a clear game plan a clear identity a clear idea of what he wanted for the future and a group of guys who he thought could implement it and then as soon as he left it all got blown up they replac him with hernon Lada who was one of the youngest managers in the league and when he was with DC he struggled to find consistency um he was either inside of a four to five game winning streak or four to five game losing streak at any time you looked at um so for example when he was at DC his time in DC ended with a five-game win run he lost five in a row and then was fired before that five games he had a four- game winning streak where he was people thought he was on top of the so they take a guy in Street he can't really find consistency and they give him the broken pieces of a club torn to bits and they expect him to work a mirror and he nearly was able to do so nearly slid them in there um but in the end it all fell short and uh it comes from a minus 16 goal differential where he wasn't able to defend properly he didn't have pieces to defend properly um again that gold differential second worst in the East and is only I'll say bested which isn't really the right word but it's only beaten by uh once again Toronto FC who was likeus 33 or something um he couldn't make something out of nothing which isn't a knock on Lada because not many people can but not not Noni could nansi came in and took a team in two years from bottom of the East to nearly the supporter Shield um Lada was given one year to do it and it cost him his job so that and and you could see also what happened with Columbus right Caleb Porter missed the playoffs in 22 nzi comes in takes over from him and puts him in in a spot where they can make a run for a cup rate you know so having the right guy in charge matters and I don't think they had the right guy in charge and now they're back in the market for it so we'll see you know there's I don't know if there's rumors but I think uh savare aay might be a good a good shout for them guy in you know in the west who understands the league uh they might go they might go overseas and pull somebody from you know their their sister clubs or whatever but um yeah definitely need the right guy in charge I don't think that I mean in in defense of Lada he was so so close to getting them in the playoffs oh yeah a team that had no business being in the playoff hunt so I I feel it was a little harsh to to sack him no dis no disagreements there sorry I don't mean to cut you off but I guess I should I should clarify like I'm not saying that Lada was the reason that they missed the playoffs I'm just saying when you're going to do this whole thing where you blow it up and you hope somebody can put it together I just don't think he was the right guy for that job like if you put him in charge of the Montreal team that they that nzi had are they as good as nzi maybe not but is he as bad as he was now no you know I hope that's kind of the message that I can get across yeah no I I didn't think you were putting the blame on Lada okay I was just adding that I think that Lada actually did a pretty good job with what he was given considering he was given literally nothing and then uh nearly got them in the playoffs granted it's an expanded playoffs but still had them in the playoff hunt the entire year when I mean I personally ahead of the Season thought they were going to be complete garbage so yeah some credit there definitely um my second point is I think you briefly touched on it as well but just no goal scorer in this team so when you get rid of the man that's giving Father Time a run for his money that man being Kai Kamara you better bring in a proven goal scorer to replace him the problem is that their idea of a replacement for him was choso four who was anything but peruven in the league at that point and what that ultimately led to was pardon my awful French uh matu sha who played mostly As A Center mid this season being the club's top scorer with five goals that is on par with with both Toronto's top scorer who was bernades and DeAndre Kerr and worse than Colorado's top scorer Cole Basset the strikers on the team combined for 14 goals and that's across five different Strikers on the team I honestly I don't have the stats to show this but I feel like Denny banga had 14 goals by the Midway point in the season by himself I know there's a question of like maybe was situation where they were just not getting any chances and honestly that was probably a pretty big part in it um however all but one of their Strikers and shout out to Adam because the one Striker that did not fall into this category was Mason toy had a negative and I'm gonna make up this this is probably an actual stat but I just made up a name because I didn't want to look up what it would actually be gxg plus minus so they were not finishing even small amount of chances that they got um and I guess solution for this it's going to be consistent with the first solution you have two designated player spots open you should have tons of money from the sales last winter do I need to do the math for you there I'd love you to okay open designated player spots plus money equals sign big name designated player at striker nice uh shaer is one of the one of the earlier um Montreal homegrown players actually so um he's been around the club for a little bit him and his brother his brother was there too um but you're you're your third point lock or your second Point locks on to my third Point um lack of Firepower lack of star power right um as I mentioned Montreal only has one designated player on the roster and he plays center back and he barely broke 1500 minutes this year they don't have a single player who scored over five goals like you mentioned and they are rivaling Red Bull for the play your kids champion title they only have one player on the Ross right now over the age of 30 and that's Victor wanyama the lack of attacking power in this group plus the inability to stop shipping goals all over the place was always going to be a disaster um but Montreal fans deserve their owners to start looking in the market and for me it's a designated player number nine designate a player number 10 and if you can get the wanyama off of DP whether it be selling him or moving whatever um it's a designated player 68 to run the show I think there was a stat out there I was just reading that of the eight teams that are left in the playoffs seven of them have a designated player in the 68 they're not all just attackers except for Seattle so to have that stability through the spine of your team is super super important I don't think they have that right now they were so so close to the promised land in 2022 they blew it up and now they're taking the kid movement it just feels like it's not the right way to do things personally so um that's my last point on Montreal I think they need to go in and they need to invest like you mentioned um and they need to find somebody who's going to be open in in creating goals and and playing in the MLS 4.0 system because your lack of goals is going to decide whether you're good or not I mean I think there was a teos looking up before in the standings that yeah Atlanta shipped 53 goals this year which is nearly eight or nine more than any other team in the playoff but they scored 66 so they they finish six right like that's the league the league isn't looking to be defensively Stout like the Philly was last year you know they're looking to be big goal scorers and if you're not going to step up to that well you're in trouble I I do want to add on to that that I feel like even if Seattle doesn't technically have a 68 designated player they have players of that quality at the 68 absolutely yep no dis had good business and got them on lower than designated player deals yep yep yep y yep um that's a great point I think mine last Point pretty much goes hand inand with that uh I as you said before I'm sure ahead of time we already knew that we were going to have like the same points on this one but uh my last one was just that there's no stars on this team um I feel like I've said this about multiple teams now but you just cannot get away with not bringing in Star Game Changers anymore in defense of some teams they at least try to bring them in however they may struggle to hit on them that's one thing but Montreal is not one of those teams they're offseason consistent of trying to bling bring in under the radar signings from within the league that could maybe hit their potential and take the Step Up with the team similar to the path that Jordy movich took if you look at every team left in the playoffs there is a star or even multiple stars on every team you know banga at LFC kundo Torres at Orlando cooo at Columbus Luchi a Costa at FCC if Montreal stuck into the playoffs like they nearly did who would you say is their star Kyoto opoku I mean they're good players don't get me wrong but they're not Stars uh and I mean solution it's nothing new it's spend the money bring in a star try to find that magic you found when you brought in druma I will say that you can get away with not having Stars if your goal is to just make the playoffs and be happy yeah they nearly did but they wouldn't they wouldn't have like gotten I I don't think they would have gotten far in the playoffs no and I don't think that is anybody's goal of just oh let's just make the playoffs and you know nobody walks out saying that's going to be their goal so yeah that's the benefit of not having a pro rail system yeah yeah but you don't have to just shoot for not getting relegated exactly exactly but again just getting in nobody's happy with that like there are people who are just happy with staying up nobody's happy just getting into the playoffs like Red Bull just made the playoffs and was I happy yes but when we lost was I upset because we should have done more yes like there's no oh man we get to go for it another another time right we're getting down a bad path here um let's move on then NYCFC to uh let's go out to the ball game oh yeah yeah so take me out ball game that's the question Take Me Out to the Ball Game has a different meaning now for NYC because they have a lot more free time on their hands to watch these ball games well there are no more ball games it's the offseason I didn't say which ball game okay um they finished they finished an 11th this season with 41 points missing the playoffs for the first time since their inaugural season to my understanding so we ask what went wrong in the first one I think we're going to share uh it took forever in a day to get a number nine to the when the season started we mentioned it and it was very quite clear where there was a massive hole for New York City it was roughly the size of tati castanos and it stood right at the top of their formation they had no number nine Gabe Seagal came in with like 400 Pro minutes in like a Bundesliga development league and they're like heck yeah him and tyus Magno in in an in a false nine inverted oh man we're we're set um and then they only scored 40 uh 26 goals before the leagues cup break uh and then once it got out of League's cup break they got even colder and they only scored nine more times all season and three of them came against Toronto I think they're okay when they got bakar through the door he looks capable of doing good things but you need to put better players around him um and you needed to get him in sooner because he didn't have time to gel and he was able to do things individually but you could tell the linkup wasn't there and I know I know you actually probably watched him play I'm sure he played in the in the last game so um it looks like they've got they're in a better spot but for this season why they missed this season is because they didn't get one anybody in on time um you know if they make that bakar move during preseason I I mean they're probably pushing for a home playoff game but instead they waited until League's cup or a little bit before League's cup and he wasn't able to get his feet wet and he I mean he scored a little bit but not nearly enough to put them where they needed to be yeah I will be getting to that point shortly oh it's not your number one I mean I don't have it in a particular order but oh gotcha it it is it is in there so uh my first point for them is the exact same point that I made with Montreal lack of Replacements across the season they lost tati officially Sean Johnson cayen Morales for half the season and Gabby Pereira just to name a few uh while some of these were free transfers they still were able to get 25 million EUR across the sales of tati and Pereira in the winter when most of the players left they spent a whopping 1.3 million euros they tried the exact same method as Montreal by looking for bargains after they lost all of their key players except there is one difference this is even worse because you are backed by arguably the largest football organization in the world and you only managed to spend 1.3 million of the 25 million that you made to make your Replacements I understand that there are some restrictions in this league and that their hands were kind of tied when it came to designated players because they already had three but it was proven Midway through the the season in the summer transfer window that they coulding bring in players they just didn't do it at the start of the season and I don't know why I don't understand how they couldn't just use some of the connections from this massive football organization to add in the players that they needed uh and exactly like I said they were able to bring in bring in bakar and Fernandez in the summer transfer window and actually helped bolster the team a little bit in the attack problem is exactly as you said it was just too late in the season at that point and there just wasn't enough time for them to get comfortable in the system in the league and make a push for NYC I I completely agree with you had they done this at the start of the season I think we're looking at a playoff team but they didn't um and I guess you know a solution you started to resolve the problem in the summer transfer window go finish the job in this winter transfer window and let the team mesh for a whole season I uh I can't say too much on the you're backed by a big group and you don't get anything from it because I mean that's been Red Bull for the last five years so um but not this year we'll see yeah I've heard I've heard forsberg's all but done I think golaski is not not coming um the other another point for me was um they had they had a second hole to fill it was about the size of Shawn Johnson and it stood at the other end of the field they didn't have a goalkeeper I can't count the number of times Shawn Johnson came up unbelievably massive for City over the past couple of years keeping them in games winning them games earning them points getting them higher up the table just because of the way that he would come up big in in clutch moments when he left to join Toronto they kept hold of Lu barza who they traded up to get a few years back in the first round uh and Matt free who is an under tested number two uh from Philly barza got most of the rest for C this year and finished with a minus 3.1 pssg plus minus which is bottom five for all like consistent starting goalkeepers a couple of them came in and had like one or two two games and got destroyed but for the consistent ones it's barza Jonathan Bond guzan and ilic so not a great look there and then when I was watching because I watch him uh you know as well he just made some silly silly decisions and mistakes like trying to play possession in a full in a full press and then having it you know taken off him and nearly going in the goal or uh you know trying to play sweeper keeper missing the ball like just little things like that that looked kind of silly uh freeze came in and and looked to step up into that role pretty well uh and I would expect that he comes in as gk1 next year in pre season but the Johnson de barza drop cost them a lot this year I think I just think that they felt so safe with him back there that when barza came in he wasn't bad by the way but he just wasn't as good as Shawn Johnson I mean I think you I think what was he number six all time in uh in psxgunman number six number seven when we did our game yesterday um and you replace a guy who's got you know double digit psxgunman but uh when this team lost tati and AAR there was no backup plan other than to try their hand at Magno at striker and that plan very much did not work out it took them until the halfway point of the season to finally bring in a proven Striker to add to the mix and he did a good I think he did a good job when he was brought in but imagine if they had brought him in at the start of the Season as we talked about um you're probably looking at a playoff team I mean this team missed the playoffs by two points I would find it hard to believe that bakar doesn't get them that extra win that they need um instead the top scorer for the team was a player that they sold in the summer transfer window that being Gabby Pereira who had six goals um and by the way I completely agree with them selling him because they got like 10 million euros for it it was probably a worthwhile deal but the the solution is pretty simple you just let bakar cook next year give him a full he's now got a full off season under his belt he's got a half a season to kind of learn the league a little bit he's got good attacking players around him I think he just needs the time now to get a full season under his belt and uh if he continues to play at the level of production he showed in the little time he was here I think they'll be just fine a striker yeah did he play when you were there yeah he started was he good did you like what he saw he was a little non-existent uh granted the team just didn't look great attacking that day it took Fernandez Banger to uh win the game for them interesting okay yeah uh I want to I want to get into like next year I don't know if I want to do as much 360 as I do just picking a game and watching it so I can get a little bit more like knowledge about the the teams maybe have like 360 on on my laptop and then watch the game but um the last one for me is head coach and lacking new ideas right so Patrick Vieira do torrent Ronnie D they've always had somebody who could make it work and deliver results I mean Ronnie dla came out and was like y'all didn't give me enough money or players to do anything this year we're gonna get killed and then he won the cup like people have had not great teams before and made it work Cushing took over full-time this season put up a 1.16 points per game uh and he had 1.4 in his caretaker after dla left last season um he didn't motivate the team at all even in Derby matches I mean they were just boring and whenever you talk about coaches on the hot seat I know we've lost 11 of them already but people keep thinking he's supposed to be next I think it's harsh to kick him to the curb without giving him half a season with the better signings you know the I don't know if he controls who comes in who comes out uh but like we mentioned the the team had a bunch of holes that weren't really filled well and if you can fill them and then give him another another you know half a season to see what he can do that's probably the right way to do it but Montreal didn't wait so we'll see what city football group does because at the end of the day it seemed like the team kind of quit on him and I know people want him gone for that exact reason and it'll be interesting to see if if he sticks around and how long he sticks around in the next year if that's so my last point and I think this will be a fun one for you because you love this no home stadium nice so I know this is a running joke in the league at this point but I I truly must imagine that having at least three different home stadiums this year had to have some effect on the team somehow it felt like their lack of home stadium this season was even worse than it was in Prior years they finished with an 83 and six record at home which don't get me wrong it's not too bad but it was worse than all teams that made the playoffs out right I went as you kind of mentioned just before I went to the last home game of the season and honestly the crowd was pretty dead some of that I mean they were still technically in the playoff chase at that point it wasn't like they were eliminated the supporter section at the game was Tiny and it was shoved into the corner of the stadium compared with the Seattle supporters section which was very obvious where they were it was a large crowd and they were loud the whole game I think it's hard to develop a consistent fan base when you're constantly moving around and for those outside of the metro area while all stadiums are relatively close to New York City they all will bring in different crowds Red Bull Arena brings New Jersey Yankee Stadium brings New York City and City Field will bring Long Island the solution it it's already in progress um hopefully New York City will fin get a proper home stadium the only thing they need to do now is just please see it out I'll tell you that's the only thing that I you know we we like joking and and you know poking fun at oh you don't have a stadium a stadium for the sake of the league we got to get these guys into a real home like this is terrible I agree yeah it's just and and I think it's a really valid point right like when your home games are spread between three different fields and they're all different sizes and different you know turfs and different things like that you your your consistency goes out the door so um yeah don't get me wrong for now love it let him let them continue to struggle don't care but it should eventually get better yep alrighty then we'll move on and Chicago Fire finish with Chicago for today's episode who for the 11th time in the last 13 seasons have missed the playoffs they are watching the playoffs from their couch I would struggle for you to find a team that's had a worse run not just in MLS but in football in general of being in a position of success for you know however you define success right um and the reward for the people who are in charge of this team is a shiny new contract up in the front office they finished on 40 points after losing to New York City on the final day and both posted a minus 12 goal differential behind the play of u22 players like Chris Brady and Brian Gutierrez the team felt short yet again what went wrong and I am going to start with the awful contracts to Awful players and this isn't a secret the fire have had boatloads of money tied up in very underperforming players uh first and foremost jaran shakiri always listed in this conversation as one of the highest earners in the league near1 million do a year usually top five especially with Messi now coming in and things like that uh and the reward for all the money you have given him is five goals four assists in just over 2,000 minutes this year it's just not good enough for somebody like you know I think that those numbers are like what omir Fernandez gave us this year so if you want to compare and contrast right DP number two hyro Torres the Mexican international joining on a $6 million move from Atlas in 22 uh May 22 his return on investment has been zero goals and zero assists in 41 games and in those 41 games he has not even hit 1,700 minutes you paid six million for dollars for a guy who has not given you more than a thousand minutes a year for the last two years zero goals zero assist it is brutally unacceptable their third DP is probably the best pick of the lot Newman dbia and he's just been average he'll be bought down this offseason to open up a space but in a league like MLS where you have to get DP signings right because you don't have other ways to bring in top talent yet they have swung and missed badly and they've left themselves open for massive massive issues it is unbelievable that this office has gotten a new a new contract but I'll get to that in a little bit I didn't didn't even realize they got a new contract it was yesterday they got it or like two days ago that is pretty poor yeah I'll find the I'll find the Tweet so you basically took my exact first point like literally like word for word my first point because uh my first reason why was because they needed to get more out of their designated player spots and I said that you know I think shakiri was a great get for them when they brought him in it was a player who had proven it as some of the biggest clubs in Europe coming over only 31 it was the right move to make but since he's been here has been entirely underwhelming and I'm sure some of it is probably on the club and some of it is on shakiri himself but whatever the reason is he has not hit the levels we expected of him and then harod Torres I mean where do you even start there I you covered I think pretty much all of it it's a the only thing I will add on top of what you added besides the massive price no goals or assists from an attacking player across all the minutes he's played so far which hasn't been too many but still is that he was also taking up a designated player spot for two seasons you could have had somebody else in that spot who could have produced I mean like literally someone could have fell down and accidentally produced more than he did and then as you mentioned I maybe you can give me if there's more contacts or not on on dbia but it looked like it was just a loan from the summer transfer window so I it I was seeing that the loan was done so I don't know if he's necessarily coming back unless you saw something I didn't I didn't I thought it was a I knew it was a loan but there was a mention of it becoming permanent and then buying him down so that's what I was assuming that may happen like I'm just I'm just spitball here either way he won't be a DP year that's kind of yeah I mean I think bringing him in as a DP for that half of the Season it made sense you bring him use the spot bring him in make that push for the playoffs but I think it's safe to assume that that's not gonna he's not gonna occupy another designated player spot next year and nor do I think he should I don't think that um in MLS 4.0 you should be using a designated player spot on a 31 year old who's been playing in the Swiss League his whole career not that that's like a bad thing but I think MLS 4.0 we're looking for Jon shakiri esque players with a background like that in Europe or you know young South American players the only thing I will give credit for to Chicago is that at least it seems like they try to occupy their design designated player spots and they try to make the Right Moves as opposed to a team like Montreal or Colorado who just doesn't try at all so I I think the solution is that you know I I while I appreciate that they are making an attempt to get good designated players for their team I I honestly I feel like the only thing they can do is just to keep trying it eventually you will hit on some of them um I think they're building a good Youth System to accompany the stars now if you could find the right stars to put in place I think you're looking at a strong team yeah there there are a lot of things got to fix I just found the Tweet uh they extended their sporting director in uh George Heights and the technical director Sebastian peler so I'm going to get to that in a second but the first thing I want to talk about is the culture of this group which I think is a massive issue it feels like it's got the culture of people walking around around being like it's Chicago we're always going to miss the playoffs it feels like the Jets for the last decade like oh we won a couple games that doesn't mean anything because the Patriots are here or the the bills are now here it's like it's why it's never us so why do we care and that's unacceptable for first of all a PR group but a group that has had so much success in the past right it feels like you have some players who are showing up because they get paid money and they like to play the game and they leave without knowing what it means to to the club to the community uh what the shirt means right you're talking about a group that on the end of Match Day 36 with two games to go sat in eighth place and needed one win or two ties pretty much to lock it up I mean there were some scenarios where that might not have been enough but regardless in their last two games with the playoffs on the line they didn't score a single goal and they lost to two teams that were fighting for the same exact spot that they were fighting for they couldn't get off the couch to play a team that was fighting to knock them out of the playoffs it's like that stuff is just unacceptable to me as a as a player as a coach as as a former Captain right is that stuff doesn't doesn't sit well with me if my guys don't show up in a game where we know it's it's win or go home it just feels it feels brutal um I think they need a leadership change in the locker room whether it be to knock some players out to do a full reset I don't know but there is something going on in that locker room where the people aren't motivated to play for the badge and that's not acceptable my next point for them is on home support so I think this is somewhat similar to to the situation with NYC however the difference is that this team actually has a home stadium the problem is that they don't get any home support you know Chicago the city itself has 2.7 million people and yet the attendance is constantly some of the lowest in the league and it I think it shows in their home form as well I mean they finished the season with a 64 and seven record at home which is just not good enough to make the playoffs the top seven teams in the East won at least nine games at home so if they want to be one of those teams they need to improve their home record uh Solutions a little tough on this one I'm not too sure how to get more out of the fans coming to the stadium and backing the team I think some of it will just come naturally with the progression of the league and the sport in the country plus the messy effect however I think the rest likely comes from either better results on the field or bringing in more notable names to join the club for me the it comes you mentioned the notable names it's massive right it's it's bringing in people that people want to watch and then getting the results on the field like when shakiri came it was a big deal everybody wanted to watch shakiri then when they realized shakiri didn't give a damn and the team sucked anyway they stopped again right there's rumors of Robert levendowski coming to a massive polish uh polish heavy area that's massive you're going to get massive crowds for that but if they still suck you're not going to keep them when he leaves and that's the problem right it's the same thing with the with the Messi deal right if if you're going to watch Messi and you know that your local team is playing them and you spend x amount of hundreds of dollars to go watch him and you realize your team still sucks like once Messi leaves what's the point of going back if you know they're not good yeah and and you could bring in the big names and that will definitely help draw a crowd but you don't even necessarily have to do that I mean look at look at Atlanta you know before when they first started and they were signing guys like Yosef Martinez and Miguel [ __ ] no I I guarantee you maybe one maybe and this is probably being generous one% of Atlanta fans knew who they were but because the team was so successful and fun to watch they became household names in the league and everybody in Atlanta knew who they were that's also fair I think you have then have to compare you know new expansion it's knew it's shiny I want to be around it versus team that's had a decade worth of failure so I think those also come into it but um no I don't disagree with your point there but for me now I'm gon to dive into this disgustingly loam front office work so I just mentioned that they haven't made the playoffs in 11 of the last 13 years they haven't made it since 2017 there hasn't been a group on that field that has resembled anything of a winning Club since you know any of these guys took over and on on the 14th of November sporting director George Heights uh and technical director Sebastian peler both signed contract extensions um just to give you a feeling for how the response went when they announced Gregor uh uh George Heights excuse me the contract extension on Twitter 64 likes 161 quote tweets and 179 comments not a single one of them positive it is shambolic and a lot of the quote quote tweets are spot on this is MLS 1.0 mediocrity manifesting in 2023 it is unbelievable that in a league where we are bringing in some of the best players in the world some of the the most fun attacking football in the world where the only thing that people will ever try and hang their hat on is there's no consequen there's no consequence without Pro there's no consequences no consequences to turn around and be like hey man we haven't made the playoffs in 13 years why don't you come back for another three maybe maybe we'll get it right this time it doesn't look good on the league it doesn't look good on the club and it must suck to be a supporter of Chicago right now because when you hop on Twitter and see a club like Red Bull who have their owners coming out and being like yeah we made the playoffs for the last 14 years still not good enough we're going to come out and we've we've been bad about it for the last four years we haven't spent the money we were supposed to do we haven't given you a reason to show up to the stadium it's our fault we're GNA fix it and then they start getting linked to players granted are coming from a connection that we have that you know Chicago might not necessarily benefit from directly I'm not going to try and hide that but the fact that you're over there and you're seeing clubs like us who have been successful in the terms of making the playoffs for 14 years and then saying it's not good enough we're going to do better then you turn around and look at your Club who hasn't made it more than two times in the last 14 years and they're going to be like yeah we we weren't great but we're moving in the right direction and and we're going to get there eventually I think that was a phrase that they used was we'll get there eventually I would throw a chair if I was in a room when I heard somebody said yeah don't worry about it 13 years we'll get there eventually how much longer do we have to wait for this club to go back to what it used to be we're going through MLS history on our Series right now and Chicago was the pillar Chicago was the club they were nearly the first team to win a Tribble they were nearly one of the best dynasties in the league and now they're 13 years without a playoff and it's will get there eventually it's a slap in the face of The Originals who supported them through the expansion it's a slap in the face for the people who have been there for the double winning season who have then stuck around through the Heartbreak the agony all of the pain that they've gone through just for you to tell him OB patient will get there soon I don't support Chicago in the slightest and this is infuriating for me they better be looking to make some big changes soon in that front office to reward whoever just gave him a new contract because if they're just going to sit there on their hands be like oh we tried and nothing's going to come out of it there's gonna be there's going to be a revolt on Chicago you know um they need to start by getting a designated player number nine Robert baric nean nicolich type of type of build uh and then whenever shakiri can hit the road and move on that they'll be better off but it's it's it's disgusting it's embarrassing it is loathsome that's the word I've got for it even Colorado's owners have come out and said that they're G to spend more money yeah and that's saying something no I agree with you I I mean that's that is I hate to take the side of the pro rers but that's a product of not having any pressure to get sent down a league is you can have you could sit there and say it'll take some time just give us some time and we'll figure it out well and and if I can if I can build on this just one more time is the problem with this is not oh all the you know all the pro rers were right it's that now that they think they're right because they have their one thing they're going to hang their hat on because you know that's how the arguments always work it's the we don't watch the league but here's one thing that happened that I'm going to hang on till the day I die to prove my point and that's what Chicago just did is give everybody who says there's no you know we just fired 12 managers in one year right for not being good enough nobody's gonna look at that when they look over and say oh look at look at Chicago look what they do right it's it's Shifting the direction of what we're trying to do and the the direction we're trying to go and the focus we're trying to put on our our Improvement and it's taking it back 20 years it's it's awful yeah I mean it's definitely the exception but uh it's it's not a good look as you said my I mean I don't even want to say my last point up to that one I think that was a really good one to end off on but uh my last point that I I noted down here was to to back the coach um and I'm not I want to start this off by saying that I'm not saying Ezra Hendrickson was the right man for the job or that the club was wrong for sacking him but doing it 10 games into the season was a big risk and It ultimately did not pay off for them now an interim Ren new manager has to come in with a team he had no say in and try to make things work if you had given him at least the offseason to build the team in their method there may have been better results and it wasn't like Chicago was far from the playoffs this could have been the difference between them being a playoff team and not being a playoff team I think Chicago improved after Hendrickson was gone but they never really hit the levels that they needed to uh fully turn around the season and make the expanded playoffs I think the solution now is to build that head coach void hopefully earlier in this offseason and then let him bring in the players that he wants in the offseason then give him some time to learn the league a bit and make things work I think patience is key not to the level of patience that the Chicago front office is looking for but like some level of patience here and and yeah at the end of the day nothing nothing we say or do is going to change Chicago they made their decision they're going to stick by it however if they don't make the right changes and bring Chicago where they belong in a in a league that is very difficult to do that nowadays because of what we just talked about with the the DP uh fails and the the roster restrictions that make it difficult to be successful like that I mean you you might lose you might lose whatever fading support you have left if I just really quick before we go here um home attendance in MLS for 2023 it was not good they were they were worse than Red Bull yeah now granted they had a they had an average of 18,000 um if you look at them if I look at them really quickly here um this is a pretty neat website I might need to spend more time on here um yeah can't find it anyways um I guess one thing on oh yeah there that's what I was looking for they were bolstered a little bit by um one game against uh an inter Miami side where they had 62,000 people show up so that that bumped them a little bit higher than uh than expected but again you're looking at a team realistically right take that away balance it out you're looking probably closer to 26 27th in the league it's just not it's just not a good look for a team that's looking to hold on to to relevance right now um so definitely going to be interested to see what moves are made it's a team I'm going to keep an eye on for the next couple of of months here because they've got to get this right they've got all this ha you know heat on them right now they have to get this right if they don't get it right they're in trouble anything else you want to add NOP nothing to add all right well thanks everybody for listening one episode 195 of the designated players podcast uh we hope you enjoyed it and we want to hear your thoughts what do you think are some other reasons that we might have missed for this these teams not being um playoff teams this year make sure you are following us wherever you get your podcast you know in our next episodes of what went wrong went live uh we are next going to dive into the Western Conference teams who are Minnesota Portland uh and San Jose will be the the first playoff team that we we cover into why they just weren't as good as they should have been uh make sure you're following us wherever you get your uh social media Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Tik Tok and interact with us there play games with us there it's a lot of good fun um but yeah thanks so much again for for for sticking around and and listening and we hope to see you next time on the next episode of the designated players podcast see you