Except Ned doesn’t have his “own thing.” He’s on the latest iteration of a new position. IDK why so many folks think that Ned can solve these problems. Player quality has dropped across his entire tenure in the FO. He’s been the guy for what, five or six years now. And 2023 Timbers are what he has to show for it.
Except Ned doesn’t have his “own thing.” He’s on the latest iteration of a new position. IDK why so many folks think that Ned can solve these problems. Player quality has dropped across his entire tenure in the FO. He’s been the guy for what, five or six years now. And 2023 Timbers are what he has to show for it.
I don't think it's fair to say that Ned has been "the guy" for five or six years. GW was "the guy" since pre-MLS, and it didn't really seem, to my untrained outside eye, that GW welcomed a lot of assistance.
I don't think Ned's a miracle worker. I do think that now that the job is solely his, and now that he is getting out from under the mess GW made of both the salary budget and the playing roster, I am willing to give him a window or two to do things solely his way.
Nobody's bulletproof, and I will criticize Ned plenty where and when it's warranted, but I honestly don't think we've seen Ned do things on his own as GM for enough time to assume he can't do the job.
I'm just saying he doesn't have "a thing". He may be able to figure out a successful "thing." But it's not like he has a proven track record and FO is preventing him from doing this proven "thing." He's learning what the "thing" is in the first place.
I've laid it out before, Ned has been in critical leadership roles in the FO for what, five or six years now. Sure, most of that overlapped with Worm Tongue's tenure, and Ned is certainly having to deal with that blast radius. Maybe once the smoke clears, Ned will start hitting home runs and turn the coaching staff and roster into a legitimate force. But as of today, he's never proven he can do that, because he's never been in this position (or any of the positions he's held at PTFC). All we have is a fucking dumpster fire of a team -- a fire which has grown hotter during his tenure in the FO. Causation or correlation? Not sure if we can tell that right now.
Trust me, I want Ned to be successful. I really, really do. But I can't be confident he will because he has no proven track record. I double dog dare him to prove my pessimism wrong.
Right, and I'm not blindly asserting he'll be Lagerwey-level good. He might suck! He might just be mediocre-to-fine! But we don't really know at this point, so I'm reserving judgment and being optimistic. Optimism is in short supply right now so I'm taking that path. We'll see.
I tend to go with EyeDee's school of thought here.
Ned has been in several roles in the FO ... essentially learning how a FO works, since 2017. I have no doubt GW dominated everything in a very top down FO prior to his promotion to the position 9 months ago. He walked into some deals already done and probalby spent his first 6 months trying to reassure other possible deals that they were still being considered, had to sell Tuiloma and is now dealing with a coach who has lost the locker room and probably an owner who doesn't GAF and backs the coach. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if Ned is looking for an escape hatch if the dysfunction continues like this.
But assuming he can right the ship, find younger and better players who want to play for the club and an owner willing to give him the tools to do so, this is going to take 2-3 years to build out of what feels like a dumpster fire right now.
Except Ned doesn’t have his “own thing.” He’s on the latest iteration of a new position. IDK why so many folks think that Ned can solve these problems. Player quality has dropped across his entire tenure in the FO. He’s been the guy for what, five or six years now. And 2023 Timbers are what he has to show for it.
I don't think it's fair to say that Ned has been "the guy" for five or six years. GW was "the guy" since pre-MLS, and it didn't really seem, to my untrained outside eye, that GW welcomed a lot of assistance.
I don't think Ned's a miracle worker. I do think that now that the job is solely his, and now that he is getting out from under the mess GW made of both the salary budget and the playing roster, I am willing to give him a window or two to do things solely his way.
Nobody's bulletproof, and I will criticize Ned plenty where and when it's warranted, but I honestly don't think we've seen Ned do things on his own as GM for enough time to assume he can't do the job.
I'm just saying he doesn't have "a thing". He may be able to figure out a successful "thing." But it's not like he has a proven track record and FO is preventing him from doing this proven "thing." He's learning what the "thing" is in the first place.
I've laid it out before, Ned has been in critical leadership roles in the FO for what, five or six years now. Sure, most of that overlapped with Worm Tongue's tenure, and Ned is certainly having to deal with that blast radius. Maybe once the smoke clears, Ned will start hitting home runs and turn the coaching staff and roster into a legitimate force. But as of today, he's never proven he can do that, because he's never been in this position (or any of the positions he's held at PTFC). All we have is a fucking dumpster fire of a team -- a fire which has grown hotter during his tenure in the FO. Causation or correlation? Not sure if we can tell that right now.
Trust me, I want Ned to be successful. I really, really do. But I can't be confident he will because he has no proven track record. I double dog dare him to prove my pessimism wrong.
Right, and I'm not blindly asserting he'll be Lagerwey-level good. He might suck! He might just be mediocre-to-fine! But we don't really know at this point, so I'm reserving judgment and being optimistic. Optimism is in short supply right now so I'm taking that path. We'll see.
I tend to go with EyeDee's school of thought here.
Ned has been in several roles in the FO ... essentially learning how a FO works, since 2017. I have no doubt GW dominated everything in a very top down FO prior to his promotion to the position 9 months ago. He walked into some deals already done and probalby spent his first 6 months trying to reassure other possible deals that they were still being considered, had to sell Tuiloma and is now dealing with a coach who has lost the locker room and probably an owner who doesn't GAF and backs the coach. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if Ned is looking for an escape hatch if the dysfunction continues like this.
But assuming he can right the ship, find younger and better players who want to play for the club and an owner willing to give him the tools to do so, this is going to take 2-3 years to build out of what feels like a dumpster fire right now.
Touché. I'm enjoying staring into the abyss lmao.