And you end up with everything there and so uh yeah, because John's an idiot and he didn't send the link out in time, I am. I'm gonna do a bit of a crash course with Abe this morning, because yeah, I'm adult. It's a Monday. Oh oh oh, I gotta find out what he's wearing. All right, So here we go. He's all settled in sou What are you wear, an Abe?
Uh, I'm just wearing a Puma T shirt. I guess, just.
Maybe soccer oriented with a little crest, but it's not anything country specific. I apologize for my my cell phone situation. I have like multiple contingencies to remind myself to bring my computer.
And it's fitting.
It's fitting at home right by the doorway. Uh so we're on the phone today.
That's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Well, you know, if I had sent you the link at nine oh five, it would have been you know, we'd be all there. Since last time we talked, Garth lockerwly had his press conference and discuss the future, and Rob Valentino is not a part of that future with Atlanta United as the head coach coming up in the twenty twenty five season. Now we've had that we're trying to figure out. Okay, is it a technical director, then coach? Is it coach
then technical director? Does everybody sit across the table? Do they break bread? Do they go to an Italian restaurant have a five course meal? Is it speed dating? Is it two minutes with this guy? You hear a ding, Garth hits a bell, and you go to the next guy at the next table. That's where we are right now.
Yeah, I mean, look, let's start with Rob Valentino. I don't think we were overly surprised that he's not going to be the choice. I think certainly the timeline and a lack of announcement sort of led towards that direction.
But I do think there are a lot of people who.
Are disappointed and certainly liked the late season movement of the squad.
But but Garth Logerway made it very clear they're.
Looking for someone with a little bit more experience and look as the essentially running the team. That's that's certainly up to him if that's what he wants. I'm not in love with the timeline he presented. I mean, he talked about hoping to have this stuff in place by Christmas. I'm I'm sitting here, like Christmas, we haven't even gotten a Thanksgiving yet at the time he made these comments, that's five weeks away, Like, like, what's the timeline?
Why is it taking so long?
Maybe it has something to do with teams that are still involved in MLS Cup playoffs. Certainly we're down to two now, so unless it's one of those two teams. But I wasn't in love with the timeline, especially when training camp is going to be right around the corner by the time you get things set in place.
But I'm interested.
I'm interested to see who they settle on in kind of what the arguments for that person over Rob Valentino ultimately is going to be. I'm hoping it's more than just experience. I think we've seen across sports. Just because you have experience doesn't mean you're the right guy for the job. Just because you don't have experience doesn't mean you're the wrong guy for the job. So I think
you're coming in and there's gonna be expectations. That's the other aspect of this, whether you want to believe it or not, whether you feel like there's a rebuilding phase and a lot of movement is going on. We said goodbye to I talked with you about the future. I was like, everyone up top is up for grabs, and we've seen departures.
Already up top.
I mean, based on how this season ended, based on the eliminating Miami and an unfortunate end to Orlando City, there's gonna be expectations coming in. This is not gonna be viewed as a rebuild, at least not by the fan base.
Whether whether the team views it that way is one thing.
The fan base is not going to and so it's got to be a situation where this coach can get up and running immediately and see some results. I mean, I know it's a long time ago, but the expectations coming into this past season were top four in the East, one of the most potent all fans is in the
entire MLS. I'm not saying you're necessarily going to have those expectations, but battling for a home playoff game is going to be among them, especially the way you ended the season with I think six of your last eight or five of your last seven being wins.
That's going to be the expectations. So they need to get a guy in quick.
If they're going to make severe changes and adjustments to the formations and what they're asking players to do and the roles of each guy.
Stuff like that.
Get it in quicker, and so I'd be quite frankly disappointed if we're still sitting here, you know, mid December, late December without a name yet.
So hopefully this gets done quick and we can start to move forward.
What kind of an individual are you looking for in a head coach?
Me specifically, I'm not going to get into the tactics and trying to bring in a head coach that maybe fits the personnel or doesn't fit the personnel. I think there's enough change over over the course of the given year. I think you also have a team that's quite young, based on who is gonna stay and who's gonna go that that you can probably mold and shape some sorts
of playing styles. And I also think you're gonna have a team that that is full of player leadership, especially with Gooz coming back and congratulations to him.
I know there was a little bit of question on.
That, but but I think I do think you're gonna have some player leadership that's gonna help out the coach to player messaging.
So I'm looking for a winner, and I know.
That's that's easy to say, but I need someone that's gonna look like he makes a difference. And I don't really know how you do that necessarily. I don't think
it's about motivation. Like, like one of my biggest concerns about the Rob Valentino higher if he would have been here, is you can't play the way you played like the last third of the season, or really the last eight games, Like you can't play with that mindset and mentality and desperation the whole season, like like you're just gonna burn yourself out. So you need to be able to find wins without feeling like your back is against the wall. You gotta get a coach who can get this team
off to better starts. Again, they solved that issue for the most part in the last seven, eight, nine, ten games.
But it was it was a serious issue early on. And so yeah, I'm.
Just looking for someone that that you can look at the team and he makes changes over the course of a game, over the course of the season that you say it feels like he had an impact on the results.
I don't know how you get that.
Maybe it's just his general mindset, mantra and playing style to begin games. Maybe it's in game adjustments, substitution patterns. Maybe it's just maximizing the talent that you have, finding something we didn't know was available to us. But I just want to coach that I feel like is going to essentially make a difference in results. And that's a very tough ask in the sort of sport you're not exactly diagramming play calls and scripting your first fifteen plays
or stuff like that. But I just want to feel like the managers makes a difference and hopefully we can.
Find that guy.
All right, another couple of minutes with a before he actually goes to work for, you know, like getting paid to do things. On a reaction Monday, player announcements were made also that we're attached to this roster. Looks like it's pretty much gonna be the same. Eighteen players under
contract exercised options on four in discussions with three. Brad Effort, Jay Santi had their contract options exercised with Santi Sosa, it's because there is a team that is interested in South America and picking him up, and so what you do is you pick up the option to make sure you get paid. So that one's where that is six players contract options to client Centino Formino, Ronald Hernandez, Franco, we Borro, jam and Tyler. Club remains negotiations with Ronald,
Jamal and Tyler. All players eligible for the re entry draft except for Tyler Wolf, who goes on waivers. Loan for Daniel Rios expires at the end of the calendar year, Dax and Q and Quentin Westburg retire. Any surprises out of that for you, no.
I really don't think.
So. We'll see who they end up bringing back. I think that could lean into my surprise or not surprised. But but you know, the obvious is the obvious with respector Rios and Wolf and Tira, you need someone more potent up top, someone that you can really just have a little bit more faith in. So so if those guys are back, I don't really expect it to be with the same expectations and necessarily the same.
Role as we saw them in this year.
Uh, at least not for Tierray And I know he's getting up there at age I don't know, you know, you know, levels of fitness at that age in this sport, you know, you know, when they're prime is probably the youngest prime that you're gonna have across any major sport. It might be in soccer unless you're a running back in the NFL, but.
But outside of that, So no, I don't think any surprises. I really was.
I wouldn't say nervous is not the right word, but but full of wonder. If they were gonna bring Guzan back, I think certainly there would be an understanding of the timeline for him, and more specifically a timeline for Josh Cohen. I think Gouz, to his credit, made that an incredibly difficult decision and maybe a decision that was easy in the other direction, to bring him back and give him one more year. I don't think they necessarily planned on it. I think they saw the form last year they bring
in Cohen, they set this timeline. We're gonna let Gooz right out into the sun, and he's got a complete throwback season, and so I think they had an original plan.
And this is just me. I have no idea what the team's mindset is, but I think the original.
Plan was a line of secession and this was gonna be Goose's last year and Josh comb was gonna come in and take over the starting role and we move forward. I think Gooz played so well he made it an easy decision the other direction to say.
Hey, we're gonna scrap that plan. This guy still got it. We're gonna go with him one more year.
I think he's important to a team that that's full of young guys that are still trying to build together. Probably also again if if it were a different situation with your manager. But I think Gooz's experience can go bey on the field and be very important integral in communication between the manager and the rest of the team. I think that's an important aspect that I don't want to overlook as well. So the biggest surprise, which really isn't that big of a surprise based on how he performed,
especially down the stretch, would be Gooz coming back. Yeah, if you had told me at mid season, I was like, yeah, they're they're probably gonna let him right off sunset and and it's it's coinctern. But that's not the case. I'm very happy to see that be the case. But of all the ones that were kind of minor surprises, maybe that one and then Ronald Hernandez I think it's been so incredibly valuable for this team because of the variety
of roles he can play. He's so flexible as a player that obviously, contract wise, they had to do what they had to do. But I would be a little surprised if they don't find a way to get him back in the organization.
All Right, the fourth held up the light board and they added some minutes here we went past that fourth. What the fourth was doing? What's your week like? So you can get out of here and go get paid to work.
Yeah, relatively normal this week, to be honest. We got through the post Thanksgiving nonsense and so and so we're just driving forward. Really enjoyed I know it was a day full of college football Saturday, but really did enjoy the MLS Cup playoffs, the conference semi finals here, so looking forward two MLS Cup when when we get there. But it was actually a pretty good week of competitive soccer there in the MLS.
So so, I know a lot of people missed it. I I was.
I was on the computer with the four TVs turned up to college football, but I was tuned in ready to roll, and it paid off with some quality soccer.
All Right, My friend get out of here. We'll see you next Monday.
You got it, appreciate it. There we go.
That's Abe, and Abe's gonna go and work at ninety two in the game and actually get paid for a living. And he's done talking with us, all right, So there you go.
Abby.
Abby's asking about Liam Welch and all the assistants. They are much like rob under contract. I want to say, till the end of the calendar year. Then we may have some answers as to what their futures are. But I do not know about the futures of the assistant coaches.