| | CHICAGO -- New England has finally given up on the player-coach idea, canning Walter Zenga and Giuseppe Galderissi before the end of yet another dismal regular season. But, in almost typical New England fashion, this dismissal wasn't even planned.
Steve Nicol, a former Scotland and Liverpool star, will be named interim coach. Nichol is currently returning from El Salvador where he was scouting players for the A-League Boston Bulldogs.
|  | | Former Italian star Walter Zenga, the New England Revolution's coach and goalkeeper, was dismissed by the MLS team. |
"There's always something going on with New England," said a weary-sounding Brian O'Donovan, general manager of the embattled Revs. "We were not going to do this today."
Zenga was fired Thursday because he had faxed an ultimatum to the New England offices yesterday, asking for a decision on a contract extension; this was something that New England -- at this point anyway -- wasn't willing to give. "He asked us for a decision, and that decision had to be "No," said O'Donovan. "We were genuinely going to sit down with him at the end of the season and discuss things, but I don't think it's any secret that we are having another challenging year," said O'Donovan.
"I think that the business side of things, if I can say so, are going reasonably well, but on field we are clearly struggling. The entire organization needs to be looked at from top to bottom -- and that includes my position -- but in the cool light of the off-season, not in the passion of the season itself."
Zenga declined to comment, referring all calls to his agent, Eric Manasse; at press time, Manasse had yet to return inquires.
This fiasco culminates a bizarre season where the Revolution will once again likely miss the playoffs. It was a mess of their own making: there is no denying that Zenga did little to actually train his charges, and instead sought the spotlight for himself as a solo act. Initially, Zenga's hiring was intended as a way to sell tickets, but even the MLS head office was forcefully opposed to the hiring of yet another person without any coaching experience. And, ironically, it marks the second consecutive season that New England has fired a coach with few games left in the year -- and with little hope.
"Obviously, with four years of bad results, there's major problems here," said Revs star Joe-Max Moore, contacted at his Boston home. "We've got the top attendance and what, in my opinion, this is a pretty good organization, but we've never accomplished anything on the field. The players just haven't gotten it done."
"Sports are transparent -- you've noted our problems yourself," said O'Donovan, "and fairly so. As far as my job goes, building up our game has never been my forte, and it never will be. But I have not made it the right decisions in selecting the people whose forte it is."
Now, the tough questions have to be answered. O'Donovan should have known a year ago of the risk he was taking; during his tenure he has brought in two foreigners with no coaching experience, only to have them flame out. He has tried his hand with one hybrid American coach (Thomas Rongen), and that hasn't worked. Rongen had prospered before in Tampa and continues to prosper now, in D.C., where that team leads the league.
O'Donovan, like many other people in this biz, is a nice guy. But it's time for him to either resign or be fired. Like Charlie Stillitano in New York, the New England GM is a rapidly ballooning credibilty problem for MLS, and it's time to puncture it.
Jamie Trecker, editor of Kick! magazine, writes regularly for ESPN.com. You may e-mail him at jamie_trecker@go.com; while he guarantees he will read all letters, he regrets that he cannot guarantee a reply because of overwhelming volume. | |
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