"If we had no Front Office priors I’d normally just sort of shrug this off. Kuikka is a sorta personal favorite just because she’s Finnish, and I have a lot of general affection for the motti-masters. But as noted above, as a player she’s been replaceable and I’d expect to see a signing announcement soon replacing her.
However, we DO have priors, and they make me unable to trust this FO. I’m not sure there IS a plan or, if there is, it’s a workable one. I’m not sure whether the FO foresaw this or has come up with a way to replace her."
Wish they'd announce Sauerbrunn re-signing. Now that it's clear that the "no news" wasn't just the FO being their cryptic selves but no actual signings that silence on "Brunn has me a bit worried...
Meh. I don't see she's a liability...yet. Reyes can start, if need be, with Kling as depth. She's a spark in the squad, too - the other players seem to love her.
That'd be the worst of both worlds. Kling was getting skinned regularly in 2023, Beckie's defending is the soccer equivalent of a matador's cape, and Reyes is an order of magnitude better on the left.
I know in the past they tried to make it a day of their own for each signing. Tomorrow will be Sinclair. Monday Porter. Wednesday McGrady and next Friday Becky, because she’s the one I think we all care about
I wonder if she goes to Wolfsburg. They just lost their fullback Feli Rauch (a German NT player) to NC Courage (who lost their fullback Emily Fox to Arsenal)...
Did we just solve the puzzle, and Janine Beckie will actually be playing RB lol? Right when Beckie got here, Rhian was displacing Natu at RB for Beckie and Natu was being put at LB. It was so bad though, thankfully that eventually ended…
Bold prediction but we get Hubly, Obaze, and Brunn at CB with Janine Beckie and Reyes wingbacks lmao (dear god no.)
I *was* thinking to myself earlier today. Are they going to try to run out 3 in the back with wing backs and just throw Beckie out with and hope that her knee doesn't die? Are they gonna play Hina at LB like Japan and play Reyes on the right?
The current roster is just madness, which is weird because it had pluggable holes and I thought that the Timbers were going to be the train wreck. But no, Ned has made some interesting moves/upgrades and could have himself a nice offseason. KK, though... Oof so far...
Alright I lied about taking a break- Here are my revised thoughts:
The most charitable (and very unrealistic view) of this is that the org have a reasonable replacement lined up, have already been talking with Soph, and are really worried about cap space. That doesn't work as an excuse for me for a few reasons:
1. Even if Soph's contract is as extreme as it could be -- Say 3/$2.4 mil-- That doesn't put us anywhere near the $2.75 mil cap given the state of the roster. Hard to see a world in which the Hina/Weaver/Coffey/Beckie/Becky group make more than a combined $1 mil, and probably not even that. The rest of the roster ain't making more than a combined 350K.
2. I doubt Natu was asking for a cost prohibitive amount, even it it was more than they wanted to pay. She's an in-her-prime upper third NWSL RB even given her struggles last season, so there was no real reason to play hardball with her.
So, that leaves three explanations:
1. KK doesn't rate her as a player and thinks they have a player on the roster (likely Reyes) ready to play RB at an equal level.
2. KK doesn't rate her as a player and thinks they can sign a cheap option either abroad or as a FA.
3. They have a better player lined up.
Problem is, as many have mentioned, we have no context for what comes next because the NWSL doesn't mandate press conferences, the Thorns don't have a beat reporter, and KK has no reason to put herself in front of media. The best information we have had to this point is somehow from commenters on this site who have various degrees of separation from players. That's bad! It's also bad because it really COULD be as stupid as thinking Beckie can play at RB. Or that Reyes can because she's right-footed. Or that the as-of-yet unsigned Kling can be relied on as a starting FB for another year, when all evidence says otherwise.
So, we're really still at the same point we've been all offseason, even with new ownership: We have no trust that the FO has a plan because they haven't shown themselves capable to this point. There's plenty of time for that to change, but until then it's a really shitty waiting game while other teams get better and we have a superstar in a contract year.
Scary thought: right now, LeBlanc, alone, is the adult in charge of PTFC's future, which is ironic because (I would argue) she wasn't even initially hired to be an actual GM- just a public front for Gavin Wilkinson (thinking about it in that light makes it more understandable, in hindsight, how badly she's done).
And worse:
The new owners probably don't know anything about soccer, let alone womens' soccer, so they have no idea how bad LeBlanc (or Norris, for that matter) is. That means LeBlanc is going to stay in charge for as long as it takes for the damage to become obvious enough to a non-soccer-fan owner in Sacramento (who's maybe more initially interested in the real estate development deals to be made) to take action. That will take- what? one poor season? 2?
There's no telling how badly she'll have screwed up the Thorns' future and that once-promising core of young players by that time.
My only hope as a Thorns fan is that Lisa Bhathal is really interested in learning WoSo quickly enough that she (or someone who works for her) can identify the problem, OR that one or more of the players steps up as a leader and speaks up.
Otherwise, PTFC fandom is soon going to stop being as fun as we've become used to.
And again, for those who push back to say some of us here are being unreasonably critical of LeBlanc, I would love nothing more than to be completely wrong about this. But the evidence just isn't there.
Can’t imagine the new owners spent $63 million for the team without checking with knowledgeable folks around the league and WOSO generally about weaknesses with the organization. They know about KK and Norris, but have a ton of administrative and organizational matters to set up before dealing with them. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
The “best case” is that she made it clear that she wanted out. That’s not actually “good” because of what it implies about the locker room. But it wouldn’t make sense to keep a player whose heart wasn’t in the team.
But the alternative is that, yes, the club chose not to meet the Chicago offer.
If there’s a plan to upgrade at RB - because Kuikka has been only okay for the past couple of seasons - then fine.
Apparently Arsenal has been chasing her for 18 months, but her and her partner (who lives here in Portland) wanted to stay in the US, hence why she went to Chicago.
This is where - presuming she has an actual plan for this - a KK presser would be great.
Tell us! What’s the plan? Signing(s)? Reyes? Beckie? Tanking!?!? What?
One of the most basic of all leadership skills is understanding that your people will usually trust you if you keep them informed and show them you have a plan. It’s when you let fear and speculation run wild that you lose the room.
If KK had built up a serious bank of trust? That’d be different. But she hasn’t. So here we are…
I feel bad about Natu leaving. I liked her play a lot. Yeah, she had some bad games, but when she was good I thought she was really good. If she didn't want to go I sure as hell hope that KK has a plan to replace her with someone as good or better.
If the plan is to sign Smith to a block buster deal, and that's probably what we will need to do to keep her, then cutting some high priced vets maybe the first step?
Natu apparently wasn't looking for a huge payday either...The salary cap more than doubled, and we already lost Dunn and a longtime vet in Menges. And Horan last year. We have the money.
Because she was a restricted free agent it means that Chicago made her an offer and we refused to match it. If we had matched it, we would retain her rights unless Chicago came back with something better that we then refused to match.
Well that's mildly embarrassing, but I do think it's clear the Red Stars are starting to get their act together finally. Worth noting that it took them a few months from when their own sale closed.
Maybe I need to take another quick Thorns/STF mental health break until/if we hear some positive news lol
No, but really, Natu wanted to stay in Portland. Natu has been apparently saying for the past year that her first choice is Portland and that she's always wanted to stay in Portland. And the game has never been about money for her but she does want to be valued for the contributions she brings.
Same. And she doesn't have that pull. I legit wouldn't be surprised if she is gonna march out Beckie at RB. Or, maybe they put Obaze back at fullback (she played there until she got to Rosengard), but I think she was purely a LB. SO THEN, maybe they put Reyes on the right side... gawd what a shitshow
Or Nally! Lol :) Even if Brunn re-signs that's a yikes backline (w/ people playing out of their main positions) with depth falling off Mount Everest afterwards.
They needed to improve this backline this offseason, and so far it's managed to get a lot worse lol.
And as I said above; if there’s a plan - an actual concrete plan as in “we’ve got a top-flight RB locked in right now - I’m fine with that. For an international my general opinion is that Kuikka hasn’t been a significant improvement on Westphal, the player she replaced.
BUT, as I also said; if there’s no plan..? Then this is another self-inflicted wound.
Hi y'all. Yes, apparently someone grabbed this comment and blasted it all over reddit (if it's one of you, PLEASE DELETE the post.) Natu is a reddit user and saw it. Gawd, not the drama I wanted!
And please delete any comments or references or whanot, if possible! I didn't mean for this to turn into a shitshow and I assumed the 8 of us here were talking into an echo chamber. I can't share info here if it's gonna blow up elsewhere!
I asked Rifer in Xitter to inquire about the issue and referred to it, but as soon as I saw you'd killed it here I deleted my tweet (xhit, WTF...). Sorry you got hammered for it and hope I didn't contribute.
Still hope that someone like Rifer or Clarke or whoever is covering the Thorns beat asks LeBlanc if that was indeed the case.
What's so infuriating, though, is that the actual legit soccer "journalism" here in the supposed-soccer-city-USA is so fucking lame that no actual journo 1) ran this down, and 2) called LeBlanc to ask about it.
Here's the only pro team in town with multiple titles. The only team with a ring since 2015. And it might as well be playing in fucking Magnitogorsk.
I don’t know what the initial gossip was here and it sounds like I don’t want to, but the fact that we don’t have a reporter and instead things are blowing up on fan sites is so, so poor for a franchise that’s been historically the best in the country.
The thing is that the initial report was something 1) utterly incompetent and yet 2) I could totally see LeBlanc doing because she doesn't seem to have a particularly strong attention to detail.
And that a bunch of regular fans here heard it means that if there was any real journalism here a Thorns beat writer should have been knocking down doors to ask about it.
And the club - Thorns, anyway - has historically been the WORST regarding PR and getting news out, which makes the lack of a news agency even worse. The club WON'T talk, and there's no journos out there to MAKE them talk...
That’s about the dumbest goddamn thing I’ve ever heard.
Say what you want about Gavin - and I’ve said some pretty hard things! - knowing the league financial and contract rules is GM 101 and he was all on top of that stuff.
If LeBlanc really was that ignorant? She should have been fired January 1.
Edited to reiterate how utterly fucking pissed this makes me. If LeBlanc genuinely didn’t see Kuikka as an adequate RB? Okay, we disagree…but it’s her team to GM.
But if she loses that RB because of a rock headed piece of weapons-grade dumbfuckery?
That’s ridiculous. That’s firing-grade incompetence. And that chaps me like nothing else she’s done.
The original had some inside intel. Unfortunately it got splashed around the internet and caught some unwelcome attention to it, so the original poster killed it.
If that’s the case and it wasn’t a conscious decision, then there is an issue. We’ll know soon enough by the actions done. if she missed it because of rules, I’d be on the phone to Parsons today.
If they sign Kiki Pickett or bring in a forward, move Beckie back … there is an argument that they may have just wanted to move on. That said, they did not draft like that was the case
https://rivetingpdx.com/2024/01/17/hyvasti/
"If we had no Front Office priors I’d normally just sort of shrug this off. Kuikka is a sorta personal favorite just because she’s Finnish, and I have a lot of general affection for the motti-masters. But as noted above, as a player she’s been replaceable and I’d expect to see a signing announcement soon replacing her.
However, we DO have priors, and they make me unable to trust this FO. I’m not sure there IS a plan or, if there is, it’s a workable one. I’m not sure whether the FO foresaw this or has come up with a way to replace her."
Kling signs a one year deal. That's something.
Wish they'd announce Sauerbrunn re-signing. Now that it's clear that the "no news" wasn't just the FO being their cryptic selves but no actual signings that silence on "Brunn has me a bit worried...
KK feelin the heat and Caves to Kling?
Meh. I don't see she's a liability...yet. Reyes can start, if need be, with Kling as depth. She's a spark in the squad, too - the other players seem to love her.
I think she’s a starter with Reyes on the right side and no depth. If Beckie does move to right back, she’d be a very good depth piece
That'd be the worst of both worlds. Kling was getting skinned regularly in 2023, Beckie's defending is the soccer equivalent of a matador's cape, and Reyes is an order of magnitude better on the left.
If that's the plan? It's a shit plan.
I know in the past they tried to make it a day of their own for each signing. Tomorrow will be Sinclair. Monday Porter. Wednesday McGrady and next Friday Becky, because she’s the one I think we all care about
Natu was one of my favorites. At times, when she was on, one of the best players on the field. Good luck! I know you’ve earned my household as fans.
Since she was restricted, that means we have a plan. We have a plan. We have a plan. We have a plan. We have a plan........
At this point, I’ll come back when there is news and not just signing Provenzano listed as a midfielder now
Restricted only affects trade within the league. If Paris FC made her an offer, PTFC is not entitled to match it and force her to stay.
I wonder if she goes to Wolfsburg. They just lost their fullback Feli Rauch (a German NT player) to NC Courage (who lost their fullback Emily Fox to Arsenal)...
Does that mean we’ll get a FB from arsenal to complete the cycle?
Only if she is Canadian and has knee problems
Did we just solve the puzzle, and Janine Beckie will actually be playing RB lol? Right when Beckie got here, Rhian was displacing Natu at RB for Beckie and Natu was being put at LB. It was so bad though, thankfully that eventually ended…
Bold prediction but we get Hubly, Obaze, and Brunn at CB with Janine Beckie and Reyes wingbacks lmao (dear god no.)
I *was* thinking to myself earlier today. Are they going to try to run out 3 in the back with wing backs and just throw Beckie out with and hope that her knee doesn't die? Are they gonna play Hina at LB like Japan and play Reyes on the right?
The current roster is just madness, which is weird because it had pluggable holes and I thought that the Timbers were going to be the train wreck. But no, Ned has made some interesting moves/upgrades and could have himself a nice offseason. KK, though... Oof so far...
*goes to look where Arsenal’s FB who Fox replaced went*.
But also no, KK hasn’t shown she has any pull anywhere…
Alright I lied about taking a break- Here are my revised thoughts:
The most charitable (and very unrealistic view) of this is that the org have a reasonable replacement lined up, have already been talking with Soph, and are really worried about cap space. That doesn't work as an excuse for me for a few reasons:
1. Even if Soph's contract is as extreme as it could be -- Say 3/$2.4 mil-- That doesn't put us anywhere near the $2.75 mil cap given the state of the roster. Hard to see a world in which the Hina/Weaver/Coffey/Beckie/Becky group make more than a combined $1 mil, and probably not even that. The rest of the roster ain't making more than a combined 350K.
2. I doubt Natu was asking for a cost prohibitive amount, even it it was more than they wanted to pay. She's an in-her-prime upper third NWSL RB even given her struggles last season, so there was no real reason to play hardball with her.
So, that leaves three explanations:
1. KK doesn't rate her as a player and thinks they have a player on the roster (likely Reyes) ready to play RB at an equal level.
2. KK doesn't rate her as a player and thinks they can sign a cheap option either abroad or as a FA.
3. They have a better player lined up.
Problem is, as many have mentioned, we have no context for what comes next because the NWSL doesn't mandate press conferences, the Thorns don't have a beat reporter, and KK has no reason to put herself in front of media. The best information we have had to this point is somehow from commenters on this site who have various degrees of separation from players. That's bad! It's also bad because it really COULD be as stupid as thinking Beckie can play at RB. Or that Reyes can because she's right-footed. Or that the as-of-yet unsigned Kling can be relied on as a starting FB for another year, when all evidence says otherwise.
So, we're really still at the same point we've been all offseason, even with new ownership: We have no trust that the FO has a plan because they haven't shown themselves capable to this point. There's plenty of time for that to change, but until then it's a really shitty waiting game while other teams get better and we have a superstar in a contract year.
You weren’t the only one though I know I should instead of assuming they are sitting on their hands doing nothing.
Hey Thornado, if you know of any good news on the horizon, it would be a great time to spill it!!!!!
+1
Scary thought: right now, LeBlanc, alone, is the adult in charge of PTFC's future, which is ironic because (I would argue) she wasn't even initially hired to be an actual GM- just a public front for Gavin Wilkinson (thinking about it in that light makes it more understandable, in hindsight, how badly she's done).
And worse:
The new owners probably don't know anything about soccer, let alone womens' soccer, so they have no idea how bad LeBlanc (or Norris, for that matter) is. That means LeBlanc is going to stay in charge for as long as it takes for the damage to become obvious enough to a non-soccer-fan owner in Sacramento (who's maybe more initially interested in the real estate development deals to be made) to take action. That will take- what? one poor season? 2?
There's no telling how badly she'll have screwed up the Thorns' future and that once-promising core of young players by that time.
My only hope as a Thorns fan is that Lisa Bhathal is really interested in learning WoSo quickly enough that she (or someone who works for her) can identify the problem, OR that one or more of the players steps up as a leader and speaks up.
Otherwise, PTFC fandom is soon going to stop being as fun as we've become used to.
And again, for those who push back to say some of us here are being unreasonably critical of LeBlanc, I would love nothing more than to be completely wrong about this. But the evidence just isn't there.
Can’t imagine the new owners spent $63 million for the team without checking with knowledgeable folks around the league and WOSO generally about weaknesses with the organization. They know about KK and Norris, but have a ton of administrative and organizational matters to set up before dealing with them. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
#KKOUT
There are still options out there, but let’s see. The best one I see right now is if Kiki Pickett is now available? She’s a former teammate of Smith?
It kinda says something that my first thought was “she’s kinda old…” and then realized I was thinking of CARSON Pickett.
Okay, since the move was within the NWSL, that means we elected to let her go, right? Or at least we weren't able to meet her salary demands?
All that cash better be going to soph!!!
The “best case” is that she made it clear that she wanted out. That’s not actually “good” because of what it implies about the locker room. But it wouldn’t make sense to keep a player whose heart wasn’t in the team.
But the alternative is that, yes, the club chose not to meet the Chicago offer.
If there’s a plan to upgrade at RB - because Kuikka has been only okay for the past couple of seasons - then fine.
But I’d have to SEE a plan. And, as of now…
See my other comments. Natu wanted to stay in Portland. KK let her walk.
Share now!
I will when I get a sec!
See my reply below.
Apparently Arsenal has been chasing her for 18 months, but her and her partner (who lives here in Portland) wanted to stay in the US, hence why she went to Chicago.
Hmmm…
This is where - presuming she has an actual plan for this - a KK presser would be great.
Tell us! What’s the plan? Signing(s)? Reyes? Beckie? Tanking!?!? What?
One of the most basic of all leadership skills is understanding that your people will usually trust you if you keep them informed and show them you have a plan. It’s when you let fear and speculation run wild that you lose the room.
If KK had built up a serious bank of trust? That’d be different. But she hasn’t. So here we are…
I feel bad about Natu leaving. I liked her play a lot. Yeah, she had some bad games, but when she was good I thought she was really good. If she didn't want to go I sure as hell hope that KK has a plan to replace her with someone as good or better.
If the plan is to sign Smith to a block buster deal, and that's probably what we will need to do to keep her, then cutting some high priced vets maybe the first step?
Step 1: make some cap room
Step 2: sign Smith
Step 3: Fill in the gaps with whatever $ is left.
If the Bhathals are too broke to come up with the scratch to pay big money for Smith without parting out the rest of the squad?
They’re in the wrong fucking business.
Natu apparently wasn't looking for a huge payday either...The salary cap more than doubled, and we already lost Dunn and a longtime vet in Menges. And Horan last year. We have the money.
This isn’t NWSL 1.0. If paying a Finnish RB is too punitive for the new owners? They should get their money back and fuck off back to the NBA.
This reeks of your comments about LeBlanc not valuing Kuikka. Which I’d be fine with…if she has a replacement - no, an upgrade! - right quick smart.
I don't think it was about the money. Sounds like KK didn't value Kuikka and made that clear in negotiations, even before the sale went through.
Good move by the Red Stars after losing Arin Wright.
And Casey Krueger!
Because she was a restricted free agent it means that Chicago made her an offer and we refused to match it. If we had matched it, we would retain her rights unless Chicago came back with something better that we then refused to match.
https://x.com/chicagoredstars/status/1748027472271036684?s=20
Well that's mildly embarrassing, but I do think it's clear the Red Stars are starting to get their act together finally. Worth noting that it took them a few months from when their own sale closed.
Maybe I need to take another quick Thorns/STF mental health break until/if we hear some positive news lol
It’s not Chicago.
It’s that she went to ANY NWSL team. This means LeBlanc could have matched the offer and chose not to.
So either she wanted out and LeBlanc let her (which isn’t unreasonable, no point in trying to force someone to play for you) or…
Leblanc chose not to match Chicago’s offer.
Either way, it looks like LeBlanc has/had no plan to deal w losing her RB.
Janine Beckie to RB incoming....
No, but really, Natu wanted to stay in Portland. Natu has been apparently saying for the past year that her first choice is Portland and that she's always wanted to stay in Portland. And the game has never been about money for her but she does want to be valued for the contributions she brings.
That's wild. Like, KK would need to be bringing Ellie back or something for me to be less mad...
Same. And she doesn't have that pull. I legit wouldn't be surprised if she is gonna march out Beckie at RB. Or, maybe they put Obaze back at fullback (she played there until she got to Rosengard), but I think she was purely a LB. SO THEN, maybe they put Reyes on the right side... gawd what a shitshow
I worried about this fucking brain trust thinking they’d solve this with Reyes at RB since Norris put her there several times.
But while she can do that, it’s her weakest position. That reeks of Rhian Wilkinson “players have no positions” galaxy brain thinking.
Maybe they go full idiot and put Hina at LB since she plays LWB for Japan lol.
Yikes... Then we have a starting center back pairing of Hubbly and a Provenzano/a rookie?
Or Nally! Lol :) Even if Brunn re-signs that's a yikes backline (w/ people playing out of their main positions) with depth falling off Mount Everest afterwards.
They needed to improve this backline this offseason, and so far it's managed to get a lot worse lol.
And as I said above; if there’s a plan - an actual concrete plan as in “we’ve got a top-flight RB locked in right now - I’m fine with that. For an international my general opinion is that Kuikka hasn’t been a significant improvement on Westphal, the player she replaced.
BUT, as I also said; if there’s no plan..? Then this is another self-inflicted wound.
ABell4 - I'm guessing you got some flak re: your earlier comment which is why you deleted it. Yes?
Hi y'all. Yes, apparently someone grabbed this comment and blasted it all over reddit (if it's one of you, PLEASE DELETE the post.) Natu is a reddit user and saw it. Gawd, not the drama I wanted!
Sorry, it seemed to good not to share. I deleted the post as soon as I saw the request.
And please delete any comments or references or whanot, if possible! I didn't mean for this to turn into a shitshow and I assumed the 8 of us here were talking into an echo chamber. I can't share info here if it's gonna blow up elsewhere!
I asked Rifer in Xitter to inquire about the issue and referred to it, but as soon as I saw you'd killed it here I deleted my tweet (xhit, WTF...). Sorry you got hammered for it and hope I didn't contribute.
Still hope that someone like Rifer or Clarke or whoever is covering the Thorns beat asks LeBlanc if that was indeed the case.
Lol, I appreciate you being smart and getting it right away. I thought STF feed was safe! Woof.
What's so infuriating, though, is that the actual legit soccer "journalism" here in the supposed-soccer-city-USA is so fucking lame that no actual journo 1) ran this down, and 2) called LeBlanc to ask about it.
Here's the only pro team in town with multiple titles. The only team with a ring since 2015. And it might as well be playing in fucking Magnitogorsk.
This, exactly.
I don’t know what the initial gossip was here and it sounds like I don’t want to, but the fact that we don’t have a reporter and instead things are blowing up on fan sites is so, so poor for a franchise that’s been historically the best in the country.
Real reporting is important.
The thing is that the initial report was something 1) utterly incompetent and yet 2) I could totally see LeBlanc doing because she doesn't seem to have a particularly strong attention to detail.
And that a bunch of regular fans here heard it means that if there was any real journalism here a Thorns beat writer should have been knocking down doors to ask about it.
And the club - Thorns, anyway - has historically been the WORST regarding PR and getting news out, which makes the lack of a news agency even worse. The club WON'T talk, and there's no journos out there to MAKE them talk...
I will ask if it is okay to share on other places first.
Appreciated, thank you!
Natu was solid on the wing also great as a utility player in midfield when we needed her.
The back line is looking thin, I wish we were hearing even rumors of a plan.
The plan, apparently, is to tank for daft picks. Shout out to the Blazers.
That's a great way to keep Soph in a contract year!
Now we have Taylor Vincent running the team down
https://twitter.com/tayvincent6/status/1748382364370112888
Clarification on #NWSL Restricted Free Agents (RFA):
If their contract expires on December 31st without receiving a new offer from their current club, then they become an Unrestricted Free Agent.
There were 20 RFAs when the FA list came out in Sept, 11 are unsigned right now
That’s about the dumbest goddamn thing I’ve ever heard.
Say what you want about Gavin - and I’ve said some pretty hard things! - knowing the league financial and contract rules is GM 101 and he was all on top of that stuff.
If LeBlanc really was that ignorant? She should have been fired January 1.
Edited to reiterate how utterly fucking pissed this makes me. If LeBlanc genuinely didn’t see Kuikka as an adequate RB? Okay, we disagree…but it’s her team to GM.
But if she loses that RB because of a rock headed piece of weapons-grade dumbfuckery?
That’s ridiculous. That’s firing-grade incompetence. And that chaps me like nothing else she’s done.
Wait what was the initial comment lmao
The original had some inside intel. Unfortunately it got splashed around the internet and caught some unwelcome attention to it, so the original poster killed it.
If that’s the case and it wasn’t a conscious decision, then there is an issue. We’ll know soon enough by the actions done. if she missed it because of rules, I’d be on the phone to Parsons today.
If they sign Kiki Pickett or bring in a forward, move Beckie back … there is an argument that they may have just wanted to move on. That said, they did not draft like that was the case