A proper plan required a proper amount of patience

I get it.  People are pissed off.  People are pissed at the Colorado Rapids front office, they are pissed at the players, they are pissed at Aramark, hell they are probably pissed at Mother Nature for the wind in Commerce City that makes lighting a BBQ tough.  I get it all.

And I get that someone was pissed off enough to fly a banner over the park calling for the head of Tim Hinchey and KSE in general.

Seriously, I get it.

And I get it that I take crap for my unabashed optimism and hope in what is going on in Commerce City and the plan in place.

I totally get it.

But you know why I am optimistic?  Because I have patience.  I know everyone wants a winner and they want it now, but people seem to act as if the sky is falling in Commerce City because we had a season that sucked.  If you ask Pablo Mastroeni, Paul Bravo or Hinchey they would probably agree with the assessment that the season has been poor.  But everyone needs to chill just a bit and be patient and let the plan take shape and remember this:

In 2012 (year one of the Oscar Pareja era), the Rapids were dreadful.  Pareja did not have the players he wanted and struggled.   They wanted to play a free flowing style of soccer and with the current roster, they just could not do it with the players on the team.  And so in 2012 a number of key veterans (some of them sentimental favorites) were let go.  And you know what?  Supporters were pissed.  But a funny thing happened...the Rapids got better in year two of the Pareja era.

In 2013, the Rapids made major strides with a young team sprinkled with a few key veterans and this allowed the team to make the playoffs.  2014 was priming to be a great year, but Pareja wanted to move back home to Dallas and who could blame the man?  But this really set the plan to rebuild the Rapids into an exciting and dynamic young team back massively.

Now I have never asked Bravo or Hinchey their thoughts on this episode, but it had to be extremely frustrating.  They thought they were building something and they lost a key cog in early 2014.  And I completely understand and support why they took their time in naming Mastroeni as coach as they had to think "we need to take our time and ensure that who we get is going to be here for the long term."  Hell, they have had 8 managers in 19 years.  That is not a statistic that screams stability.  I would have been more pissed if they had rushed to name a manager just to name a manager.

And they made the right choice in Mastroeni.  Despite the record and what supporters have said.

I believe that all managers should get three years before they are in jeopardy of getting sacked.  For me the three years should go like this:

Year One--a manager is evaluating his team, looking at strengths and weaknesses and seeing what guys should be on the team based on the system he is playing.  Playoff odds--slim

Year Two--a manager will presumably bring in his guys in the off-season and start to integrate them into the squad with an eye on the football he wants to play and the realistic constraints of budget, salary cap, etc.  (It is a business after all and making money is important).  Playoff odds--in contention all year and may make or miss the playoffs.

Year Three--by this point the team should be clicking on all cylinders and making serious runs at trophies.  And if not, then the manager should come under some serious scrutiny.   Playoff odds--making the playoffs and be a force to contend with.

I get it.  It is tough right now to be a supporter as we all want this team to be the best that it can be.  But a change at the top is not what is needed.  Patience is needed...no matter how  tough that can be.