Too soon for Fire to replace its head coach again
The rumors are heating up: Chicago Fire coach and director of soccer Frank Yallop's job is in jeopardy.
It shouldn't be. Bringing in yet another coach isn't the change the Fire needs.
The Fire has been down this road before. Denis Hamlett's two conference championship game appearances weren't good enough, so Carlos de los Cobos was brought in for the 2010 season. That started the Fire's five-season (going on six seasons) descent into MLS irrelevancy.
Frank Klopas succeeded de los Cobos and led the Fire to its lone playoff appearance since 2009. Yallop followed Klopas and fired president of soccer operations Javier Leon and has gone 10-19-21 in 1½ seasons. His team has fallen to last place in the weak Eastern Conference despite the Fire finally filling its three designated player slots over the winter.
"You can imagine Andrew's frustration, given the off-season acquisitions and promise that accompanied those signings," Fire director of communications Doug Hicks said Monday about team owner Andrew Hauptman. "I can tell you with certainty, though, that this leadership team has his full support."
Yallop said Monday he has not discussed his job security with Hauptman.
Yallop is a good man with a history of intermittent success in MLS. But his frequent roster changes (only four players remain in Chicago from the roster Yallop inherited after the 2013 season) have denied the team stability. His tactics often leave fans frustrated.
Those would be good reasons to dump Yallop, if there were any reasons to believe his successor could do significantly better.
There aren't.
A pattern has developed during the last six seasons, and it suggests more of the same for the foreseeable future. Until there's someone new picking the coach - or picking the people who pick the coach - chances are the Fire won't have significantly more success.
As long as the Fire only will spring for low-level or mid-level designated players - like off-season signings Shaun Maloney, David Accam and Kennedy Igboananike - a championship remains unreachable.
While the defending MLS Cup champion Los Angeles Galaxy stirs excitement by introducing Steven Gerrard and expansion club New York City FC makes waves by signing Andrea Pirlo, the Fire can only hope its little-known trio of DPs exceed their promise.
Why would a young coach (Oklahoma City's Jimmy Nielsen and Minnesota's Manny Lagos reportedly have been contacted by the Fire) think this is the place to start his MLS career? Why would an established MLS coach believe this is the place to rejuvenate his career?
If that coach studies recent club history and sees the spending issues and lack of stability throughout the organization, he's not going to be interested in Chicago.
No, the Fire's best bet is to let Yallop fulfill the remaining year and a half of his contract and for Yallop to start building around a core of players to establish some stability. Maybe then he can work on changing the culture around the club, which clearly needs changing on and off the field.
The Fire could dump Yallop, but that would just start the rebuilding process all over again, with no end in sight.
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