CHICAGO - An excited Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto was irrepressible at the press conference to announce the re-signing of Sporting Director Georg Heitz as he stated, “Any time you get a chance to sign the architect of four straight seasons without the playoffs you gotta take it.”

Citing Heitz’s consistency and his effort Mansueto indicated that he was very intrigued to see how the Fire would fare in the league going forward.

“It’s easy enough these days to make the playoffs,” stated Mansueto to reporters. “However, it takes a true genius to be able to miss the playoffs this much. Just think about it.”

Sources say that Manseuto then pulled up a statistical analysis of the last four years for the Fire as he walked people through all the decisions and moves it would take to manage to miss the playoffs in a league where nearly every half dead team makes it into the postseason somehow in a four year span.

“Here we have bad transfers, poor coaching decisions, ineffective designated players and porous defense,” stated Manseuto. “These aren’t just fly by night decisions but an overall holistic approach to the running of the Chicago Fire. We see here that re-signing Heitz to be the sporting director ensures the commitment to excellence that the Fire stand for in recent years with constantly missing the playoffs in a league where not making them somehow in a four year span nearly takes an act of god.”

The Nutmeg News will have more on this as the Fire announce Nery Castillo as their Designated Player scout.