Foxborough, MA - New England Revolution general manager Mike Burns touted his years of achievements as the general manager of the franchise as he spoke to the press at length about removal of Brad Friedel as head coach and the criteria for the next hiring.
Remember the olden days of …. squint…. 28 dollar US Soccer tickets?!
“If you look back on the last 8 years from November of 2011 til now, we can be pretty impressed,” stated Burns to The Nutmeg News. “Even if you look at back when I started in 2005, we’ve had unparalleled success. Why, we made the playoffs three times over the last 8 years, and the Revolution very nearly won something in 2014. Not many teams get that close to actually winning something in this league. It’s not like there are multiple opportunities for trophies every season. We’ve been in the top 10 of the Eastern Conference every year since our inception, and the Revolution haven’t finished lower than 9th in their conference, ever. This club is in very good shape, and I hope the fans understand how good they have it. Why, in the past four years we didn’t finish lower than 8th in the East and we finished 5th in the East just four years ago.”
Burns stated that his current priority was starting the search for a new head coach as he indicated the organizations willingness to look towards new horizons.
“I can neither confirm nor deny that we’ve been in touch with Sam Allardyce,” stated Burns. “However, we would be very happy to have him here as he has some very close connections to Robert Kraft. He’s a hands on manager who isn’t afraid to be tough with his players and we like that here. As well, we are looking at ex-Revolution players that might be interested in a spin at coaching. I can confirm that I left a few messages for Jermaine Jones but he hasn’t returned my phone calls yet. It’s only a matter of time.”
Burns indicated that 8 years of rampant success at the General Management position and 15 years of unprecedented success with the organization has shown him the value of people who understand the culture of the Revolution.
“It’s important to find someone who can work within the framework, financial guidance and player scouting that we can provide,” stated Burns to The Nutmeg News. “Our hope will be that we can find a player just retiring who wants to experiment with being a coach or a disgraced former coach who needs redemption.”
The Nutmeg News will have more on this as the Revolution shift the deck chairs around for another season.