As mentioned on the podcast, the most confounding thing about this hire is the timing. Why not wait to let the season play out w him as interim b4 committing to him fully? He’d have always been available as not-interim after the season. More fundamentally, the rest of the league must be laughing at this organization. What kind of “global search” yields a guy who was an assistant who became head coach bc the previous assistant-turned-coach-by-being-in-the-right-place-when-the-previous-coach-had-a-relationship-with-a-player? They can barely score a goal in open play except for the occasional Soph hero ball. There’s no systemic production of any kind.
I suppose KC's season last year is the reason why. But when you look at KC's season this year, you can also see that it might be preferable to leave Gale as the interim.
My thoughts exactly. Does that say more about how attractive Portland has become as a destination (which I assumed would rebound after the change in ownership) or more about the competence of the FO if our best option is the former assistant's assistant? Maybe Gale will surprise us all and I'll eat my words, but this move really does not seem in step with the most ambitious clubs in the league.
The worrying trend from our GM is that we’ve had three coaches in three years. Every time we are assured they were the best candidate after the “global” search. The global search just seems to be a connection with KK. Whether it’s Canada or gk. Mike was both. This is not good or objective. Like mentioned in the podcast this was an unforced move. Why not just keep the interim tag until the end of the season. It’s all very confusing and that’s not even touching on the floundering form the thorns have been on. I like Rob and I hope it somehow works out but his tactics have to change. The standards of the thorns are to win and to get trophies. I really don’t want it to be the end of the season and be looking for yet another coach.
This isn't true. We have to stop comparing hiring Norris to hiring Gale, because they are entirely different situations..... *which is why the Gale hire is so disappointing.* Norris was appointed with no search essentially as a placeholder when there were no resources available in the last days of Paulson. Gale was hired when we know they had both resources and time ANDD interviewed other candidates.
The first one struck gold then cratered her shiny new career. The others have all been "in the room" when a change was dictated.
This was the owners' first opportunity to put their stamp on the organization and I infer some timidity in the selection.
Hopefully he's on a short leash timewise, guaranteed the balance of this season and nothing beyond. If I squint and tilt my head just so, I could envision interest in a top coach who is presently under contract through the calendar year.
And I said on the earlier thread(s); Mauricio Pochettino is still available.
I'm not advocating for (or against) Pochettino. But to announce that you're 1) doing a "global search" then 2) hiring the local guy without any hint that you're 3) NOT at least interviewing one of the more successful international managers seems...contradictory at best.
Gale's positive seems to be that he's well-liked by the current squad. Not sure how that translates into this, both for the weird timing (why NOT wait until the end of the season..?) and the outcome.
It seems near impossible that he would be even remotely interested in this job tbf. You can't interview someone who doesn't want the job and I don't think he's ever even expressed interest in working in woso again, let alone in Portland.
As I said, I have no idea who they reached out to. But it seems difficult to imagine that they didn't at least give Poc's agent a call, and that got blown off so hard they came right back to Gale. If not Poc there must be SOMEone better out there who they could talk to...
I think it's pretty clear they talked to a lot of people --including some that most of us would have almost certainly preferred over Gale-- interviewed some, and decided on Gale anyways.
As I've said elsewhere, we'll never know how seriously they actually considered the other candidates or if KK was always predisposed to going back to Gale, but I don't doubt that there were plenty of interested candidates. Which, again, is the main reason why the passivity of the hire is so disappointing to me: I DO believe they interviewed some people I would have liked, and then picked Gale anyways.
Okay, but I agree; that makes it worse. Because if you have Gale as one endpoint and someone like POC at the other, and Gale is your “the best we can do”? That makes me question not Gale specifically but the organization’s overall judgement. It seems like an own-goal.
All we know is that when Karina introduced Gale as the new HC, she was the only one in the room who made any positive sounds -- a woop-shriek and *exactly* three claps.
Nice "global search." All Karina did was look up in the stands and hire a Timbers tifo:
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0d8eb13f-d22a-4d0a-b3a6-65330865f826_1440x1800.jpeg
As mentioned on the podcast, the most confounding thing about this hire is the timing. Why not wait to let the season play out w him as interim b4 committing to him fully? He’d have always been available as not-interim after the season. More fundamentally, the rest of the league must be laughing at this organization. What kind of “global search” yields a guy who was an assistant who became head coach bc the previous assistant-turned-coach-by-being-in-the-right-place-when-the-previous-coach-had-a-relationship-with-a-player? They can barely score a goal in open play except for the occasional Soph hero ball. There’s no systemic production of any kind.
I suppose KC's season last year is the reason why. But when you look at KC's season this year, you can also see that it might be preferable to leave Gale as the interim.
My thoughts exactly. Does that say more about how attractive Portland has become as a destination (which I assumed would rebound after the change in ownership) or more about the competence of the FO if our best option is the former assistant's assistant? Maybe Gale will surprise us all and I'll eat my words, but this move really does not seem in step with the most ambitious clubs in the league.
The worrying trend from our GM is that we’ve had three coaches in three years. Every time we are assured they were the best candidate after the “global” search. The global search just seems to be a connection with KK. Whether it’s Canada or gk. Mike was both. This is not good or objective. Like mentioned in the podcast this was an unforced move. Why not just keep the interim tag until the end of the season. It’s all very confusing and that’s not even touching on the floundering form the thorns have been on. I like Rob and I hope it somehow works out but his tactics have to change. The standards of the thorns are to win and to get trophies. I really don’t want it to be the end of the season and be looking for yet another coach.
This isn't true. We have to stop comparing hiring Norris to hiring Gale, because they are entirely different situations..... *which is why the Gale hire is so disappointing.* Norris was appointed with no search essentially as a placeholder when there were no resources available in the last days of Paulson. Gale was hired when we know they had both resources and time ANDD interviewed other candidates.
The first one struck gold then cratered her shiny new career. The others have all been "in the room" when a change was dictated.
This was the owners' first opportunity to put their stamp on the organization and I infer some timidity in the selection.
Hopefully he's on a short leash timewise, guaranteed the balance of this season and nothing beyond. If I squint and tilt my head just so, I could envision interest in a top coach who is presently under contract through the calendar year.
have to wonder if the bhataals were involved
Looking at the table, the quality ahead of us, and the Olympics grind, 2024 might be a race already run.
2025 is the real question.
What we DON'T want to have happen is that Gale needs to be let go during the 2025 season.
We need him either to be good enough to last 2024 and 2025, or bad enough to last 2024 only.
Ideally, it's the former. Also, ideally, we want current players to want to stay here and new players to want to come here to play for him.
And I said on the earlier thread(s); Mauricio Pochettino is still available.
I'm not advocating for (or against) Pochettino. But to announce that you're 1) doing a "global search" then 2) hiring the local guy without any hint that you're 3) NOT at least interviewing one of the more successful international managers seems...contradictory at best.
Gale's positive seems to be that he's well-liked by the current squad. Not sure how that translates into this, both for the weird timing (why NOT wait until the end of the season..?) and the outcome.
It seems near impossible that he would be even remotely interested in this job tbf. You can't interview someone who doesn't want the job and I don't think he's ever even expressed interest in working in woso again, let alone in Portland.
As I said, I have no idea who they reached out to. But it seems difficult to imagine that they didn't at least give Poc's agent a call, and that got blown off so hard they came right back to Gale. If not Poc there must be SOMEone better out there who they could talk to...
I think it's pretty clear they talked to a lot of people --including some that most of us would have almost certainly preferred over Gale-- interviewed some, and decided on Gale anyways.
As I've said elsewhere, we'll never know how seriously they actually considered the other candidates or if KK was always predisposed to going back to Gale, but I don't doubt that there were plenty of interested candidates. Which, again, is the main reason why the passivity of the hire is so disappointing to me: I DO believe they interviewed some people I would have liked, and then picked Gale anyways.
Okay, but I agree; that makes it worse. Because if you have Gale as one endpoint and someone like POC at the other, and Gale is your “the best we can do”? That makes me question not Gale specifically but the organization’s overall judgement. It seems like an own-goal.
All we know is that when Karina introduced Gale as the new HC, she was the only one in the room who made any positive sounds -- a woop-shriek and *exactly* three claps.