"The only thing they wanted is the money," Le Toux said. "Being with this team and being a guy, not to build around, but to help this team, was what I wanted. … They must have wanted to sell me for money because they needed money. We don’t have a nice practice facility and that is something they promised since I am here. It’s terrible.
The Times Herald - SOCCER: Union’s Le Toux sounds off after trade to Vancouver
If you thought Dan Borislav had a bad PR day today, just wait until Petr Nowak wakes up tomorrow.
To quote sidereal "If Sebastien Le Toux is mad at you, you're probably in the wrong."
Le Toux is beloved by every fan group he's played in front of. While he was hurt to be leaving Seattle, he made the most of it. This is different.
4 months ago
Dave Clark
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Seba is a good guy, I hate to see him disrespected this way
I get that pro sports are a business, but like a business there are professional ways to treat employees and an alternative to that is the Petr Nowak way.
I haz a sad
In the past 8 hours I’ve read stories where Seba and Ella Masar unloaded on their old orgs. I’ve also listened to Nos Audieties where you guys informed me of how Sunil Gulati’s connection to the New England Revolution has likely made the issue of “turf’” for the USMNT disappear. During the past 8 hours I also learned of the Timbers yet again acquiring a player through extraordinary means.
All of this, coming on top of Grant Wahl’s constant reporting of FIFA corruption, and the Gal’s reacquisition of Buddle to effectively give them a 4th DP, is starting to make me think that the sport of soccer might not be entirely on the up and up.
Soccer has been "not entirely on the up and up" for a LONG time...
… it’s just that the “restrictive” roster rules for MLS make it a tad more obvious when some of the hinky stuff happens.
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by c_dowley on Jan 31, 2012 9:22 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Every other team passed on Renken except Portland,
so they didn’t have to go through any lottery or allocation ranking (whichever was appropriate). Article by "Soccer by Ives": http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2012/01/timbers-acquire-renken-1.html . Also LA retained Buddle’s rights because there was no transfer fee when he went to Germany, much in the same way that Portland controls Robbie Findley’s mls rights.
As far as Buddle
He’s not effectively a DP, at least not at his old MLS salary. He made about 180k
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by Jeremiah Oshan on Feb 1, 2012 8:56 AM PST up reply actions
How does that work under current rules?
Shouldn’t he get picked up by whoever has the next USMNT player selection?
Galaxy retain his rights since he left on a free transfer
I believe that the Galaxy retain his MLS rights since he left on a free transfer after completing his contract. If LA had sold him to Ingolstadt then he would go through the normal allocation process when he returned to the league.
by Andrew Jennings on Feb 1, 2012 10:39 AM PST up reply actions
correct
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by Jeremiah Oshan on Feb 1, 2012 11:27 AM PST up reply actions
Good luck getting players to come to Philly after this Nowak!
by DaveValleDrinkNight on Jan 31, 2012 8:49 PM PST reply actions
Peter Nowak as always struck me as a "My way or the highway" kind of coach.
That said, he either succeeds and keeps his job by winning games or he looses his job because he didn’t win enough. The unanswered question is if in this day and age his coaching style and philosophy is helpful in keeping his job or a hindrance.
Time will tell.
To equate this to the magicJack experience is totally inappropriate, in my opinion
Le Toux wanted to stay and the Union thought their team would be better off with the allocation money. I don’t know what was said between the parties, but Le Toux also comes off sounding pretty naive here. He didn’t have a no-trade clause and had no reasonable guarantee that he’d stay in Philly. By at least some accounts, the Union wanted the money to secure the services of Roger Torres, who is a promising young talent. It’s only by degrees that this is different from the Sounders leaving Le Toux off the protected list in favor of Fredy Montero (and others.)
It sounds like Nowak was burned about Le Toux leaving the Bolton trial early. It certainly doesn’t look good for Nowak to tell someone else that he’s got a player coming over for a trial only for that player to leave early. Say Sean Okugo really wants to play in the EPL some day and Nowak has the opportunity to recommend him to Bolton, but then they balk after hearing about the Le Toux experience? It seems likely that Le Toux could have handled this better.
At the end of the day, some coaches clash with some players (I doubt Sigi Schmidt is listing Blaise Nkufo on his references these days), and there are thousands of professional athletes playing for a team they don’t want to be with in a city they’d rather not live in. That’s a lot different than an owner refusing to hire trainers and jerking around his players on their medical treatment.
refusing to upgrade practice facilities
is not just like an expansion draft.
Nor is trying to sell a player that doesn’t want to be sold. Nor is losing MVP caliber players the day camp opens. It shows a lack of planning and an indication of serious financial troubles. They’ve cut about 1 Million in salary this offseason.
Nowak’s claim that his job isnt’ to care about feelings, but managing personalities is actually one of the keys to quality coaching. His inability to do this is why he lost his job in DC and it is now reappearing in Philly.
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by Dave Clark on Jan 31, 2012 9:12 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Do we have a source outside of Le Toux that talks about the practice facilities?
It seems way more likely that this has to do with clearing cap space for younger players like Torres. Even if the Union are having trouble finding money for practice facilities, that’s a totally different ballgame than not providing a medical trainer for a professional sports team.
Nowak might be a jackass and that might make him a bad coach, but so what? The differences between a coach who has trouble managing personalities and an owner who, from the sounds of it, has no issue with sexually harassing and emotionally abusing his employees are completely different situations.
And if Le Toux is such a consummate professional, why is he talking about this to the press? Talk about living in a glass house. If he cared so much about the Union fans, perhaps he shouldn’t drag their team name through the mud.
On the subject of Nowak, he also said a lot of other things today, like:
"We wanted to invest in the future," said Nowak, who added the club is attempting to re-work standout defender Sheanon Williams’ contract. "We have a very good foundation with youth pieces here. We want to keep the group intact and we think this [decision] will make them even stronger. With our resources we have, we’ll reinvest in our youth.
What a monster!
“If you want to keep a sustainable, competitive advantage, then you have to create the room,” Nowak added. “We don’t have the NBA’s luxury tax or salary cap, where you can blow the team out of proportion.”
Preposterous!
"There’s no easy trade or [anything easy] in letting players go," Nowak said. "It’s not an easy part for any of us. We wanted to invest and reinvest in the players we believe will be with the team in the future."
Unbelievable!
"[Le Toux] scored three goals in the first game and he was very recognized as an essential player with the franchise," Nowak said. "It was no secret to anybody. The rest of the goals, the All-Star Game, he would represent our club in a very good way. … I think he was a good role model for the club and for others as well."
How could anyone want to play for a coach who says such things?
Not to mention that the Union just secured a move for a veteran to play for his home country in the last year of his career before he retires. I guess there’s probably some way to spin that negatively, too. This whole Le Toux deal seems like mountains out of molehills.
The Cap room they cleared won't be used
There is no indication of that. Even if they make Torres and Williams the highest paid non DP players in MLS they won’t have eaten up all the cap.
Nowak said today that it isn’t his job to pay attention to feelings. Except it is. It is every manager, coach and leaders job to do exactly that. In every business – even sports.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
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by Dave Clark on Jan 31, 2012 10:10 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
They are adding a coke head though
so I guess there’s that.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
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I'm glad
we have sigi as a HC. I would had to see how our team would look if we had Nowak.
They are continuing their teardown too
High churn kills MLS teams’ chances for success.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart | Follow Dave on Twitter @bedirthan
ouch
Makes me have to wonder what in the world are they thinking.
by gstommylee on Jan 31, 2012 10:21 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Didn't the Union have a bunch of churn from '10 to '11?
It doesn’t seem to me that the Union has had a particularly large amount of roster turnover in key players. Mapp was taken in the expansion draft, Mondragon was allowed to go retire where he wanted, and now they’ve traded Le Toux—after he asked for a $400K salary—and Nakazawa. Looking at their full list of transactions, those are the only players I can recognize as major contributors. That’s barely more turnover than Riley, Keller, Friberg, and Wahl.
All of this Le Toux adoration just seems silly after the stunt he pulled. Suppose your boss sent you to England on an assignment. You were supposed to be there for 4-5 weeks, but after a week you decided, on your own, that there wasn’t really much for you to do, so you came home early. Your boss sees you come back and says “WTF? You had weeks left on your assignment, why are you back here?” And your response to your boss is that “I respect myself.” Is that conversation really going to go well after you potentially cost your company a lot of money?
Le Toux didn’t want to move to Bolton, but coming back early from that trial without his club’s permission may as well be insubordination and it’s hard to run a team if you’re going to let the inmates run the asylum. Plus, even if he didn’t want to move to Bolton, it seems like he could have made it into a learning experience, much the way that the Sounders have had players train with teams in England. I don’t think anyone comes out this situation looking good.
A lot of players in MLS want to play overseas
and would have jumped at this chance. Le Toux clearly did not want to play anywhere else and they blindsided him with it. They didn’t really set him up for success IMO.
| Recessionproof since 2009 | Win all the trophies! | You will surely get the Karkand |
I agree that the Union didn't handle this well
But on top of that, I don’t think Seba handled it well, either. Like I said, I don’t think anyone comes out of this situation looking good.
I see what you're saying
but I don’t think many will agree with you here. I think Le Toux got screwed and I would probably do the same as him.
| Recessionproof since 2009 | Win all the trophies! | You will surely get the Karkand |
You're assuming he just up and left with little notice or somehow disrepectfully
It’s possible that is what happened, but LeToux, from everything I know about him the last few years, isn’t really that kind of guy. He was injured and wasn’t going to practice for much of the rest of the time.
I’d be very surprised if LeToux didn’t tell Owen Coyle something like “Thank you very much for the week here, this is not where i want to be and with this injury I would like to leave.” We have no idea how things were left there.
For me I ere on the side of LeToux unless there is some other damning evidence.
He up and left without asking Nowak, who was at the time was his boss, and had asked him to play there
Not saying he didn’t say anything to Coyle, just that he clearly wasn’t on the same page with Nowak, which Seba basically says himself.
If Nowak asks Le Toux to play on the wing, and Le Toux says “no, I’m not going to play there, I’m only going to play at striker,” then Nowak would probably have felt compelled to trade him. In this case, Nowak asked Le Toux to go trial in Bolton, Le Toux left when Nowak wanted him to stay, so Nowak felt compelled to trade him.
Employees are not sent to weeks-long assignments abroad without their consent
Business is business, but employees are not cattle. And neither are soccer players.
by AAAA on Feb 2, 2012 6:49 AM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Who said Borislow and Nowak are similar situations?
Dave just said they both had bad PR days, which is pretty obviously true.
The only person who said ‘monster’ is you. Ease down, soldier.
If you want to know what the locals think of Nowak, check here.
Nos Audietis
by sidereal on Jan 31, 2012 10:42 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Now that I agree with it
MagicJack sounds like it needs it’s own category for hostile work environments.
Its really easy to say nice things to the press
but Le Toux is one of the good guys. I’d trust his word on what goes on behind the scenes over basically anyone.
Plus Novak has a history of not getting along with players if i remember his time with DC correctly.
"The fans are excited. And the stadium, well, it ignites with explosion."
I don't really question Le Toux's version of the events
(Except for the practice facility thing—he got sold for allocation, not for cold hard cash. Saying he was sent down the river for a practice facility doesn’t make sense.) I mainly just question whether airing out dirty laundry through the press is most professional choice he could have made. If it’s easy for Nowak to say nice things in the press, then it’d be easy for Le Toux to say nice things in the press. If this incident really will make it harder for Philly to attract players in the future, then Le Toux is burning his former teammates and Union fans. That’s his call to make, but I question whether it’s really the right call to make.
With Adu the Union either need to get allocation or pay out of pocket
The same is true with Torres transfer fee.
The Union don’t have enough money, which is why they are so far into having a team and don’t have an adequete training facility. Their ownership group made money in real estate and just doesn’t have the money they once did.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart | Follow Dave on Twitter @bedirthan
Le Toux is one of THE most likeable person in the whole league
It’s really depressing that a franchise could treat him so terribly. He’s been nothing but a hard worker, leader, and role model the last few years.
I really hope Nowak gets fired.
we should have got him we need a striker with montero right?
by alexyepz on Jan 31, 2012 11:03 PM PST via mobile reply actions
No
They operate in the same space on the field, and Montero is far better at using that space than LeToux.
Nos audietis in somniis
Nos audietis in altum
Two Words: March 31st!
I hope Seba scores a double hat trick. In each half.
Philadelphia vs. Vancouver @ PPL Park
3/31 1:00PM PDT
I’ve never been more excited for a Caps game… well, except for when they’ve played us, of course.
by bago'juice on Jan 31, 2012 11:17 PM PST reply actions 2 recs
The whole episode just sounds thoroughly ham-handed and inept
They clearly didn’t set up LeToux to succeed at Bolton by not being honest about their desire to trade him. They should have let him know early in the offseason so he was In shape and prepared for trials. Not mention getting a good agent to look out for his interests.
Ultimately the Union FO have only themselves to blame that the Bolton trial ended badly and LeToux aired the dirty laundry publicly.
by Dizzo on Feb 1, 2012 12:17 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
‘Just give me a contract and I will sign it. I wanted to stay in Philly. I didn’t care about the money."
How do you not sign this guy? Really? I understand this notion to build for the future, but young prospects need veteran leadership. You have a guy who wants nothing more than to play for you, who isn’t even on a decline in form and still dangerous on every play, and you trade him? This is some straight up garbage managing. I mean, yeah it’s a sports business, and people moving is just how it is sometimes, but come on, you dont let a guy like Seba, who is loved by the fans, a proven goal scorer, with plenty of good veteran years ahead of him go for just some change. You sealed up Torres. Great, but you’ve got noone around him to help him out, and you’ve just alienated a bunch of your fans. Genius.
Before Mondragon and Le Toux left people had the Union ranked pretty high in the East. They’ll be lucky to even be sniffing for a playoff spot at the end of the season.
At the same time
He was asking for a raise to the $400k. Obviously he was expecting to be paid significantly more, even if it was negotiated lower, and PU clearly (at least now it’s clear) weren’t going to do that. Doesn’t explain or defend their absurdly obtuse handling of the situation with him.
Nos audietis in somniis
Nos audietis in altum
by Seattle Coug on Feb 1, 2012 7:55 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
alrighty seba
time to be a pro and move on. been poorly treated only means that now you should be VERY motivated to bury philly under a pile of goals.
this was a disgrace and all but lets stop the viral PR campaign and show up to vancouver with the right attitude.
by fuzzyforeigner on Feb 1, 2012 10:12 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
it's probably pretty tough for a guy like Seba to keep uprooting himself
but unfortunately this goes with being a professional athlete. Keep being yourself, love the guys that want you, and don’t look back.
It goes with being a professional athlete in North America
Elsewhere players are not traded without their consent, and certainly not without being informed about the trade before it happens. You might end up being on the bench or not even making the 18 if you refuse to a transfer, but even then the way out of there is to agree to a transfer that is the best you can get, not just any transfer that the club can find.
Stories about players being traded like cattle will make it harder to sign foreign players into MLS. At least unless the contract includes a no-trade clause.
by AAAA on Feb 2, 2012 6:48 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
That's one thing when I got into the game that was a major realization for me...
The whole buying and selling of players contracts sounds pretty awful, like buying and selling of people. But it’s so much better for the player than it is in American sports. In the American sports’ trading system, unless you specifically negotiate a no-trade clause into your contract (which is probably rather rare), you could be traded pretty much whenever the organization feels like it, possibly in a way that will kill your career (you piss us off, even if you did nothing wrong? We ship you to the last place team in the smallest media market that has four other guys at your position, and on your way out we’ll start rumors about you). In the entire world of football outside of MLS, the only way you transfer to another club is after you agree to terms. Clubs agree to contract buyout numbers, and player either agrees to a new contract with the new club or stays put. It’s definitely a more just system, and if the American system includes treating foreign players like LeToux’s been treated, it probably won’t be that huge of an issue for guys chasing a check, but some of the better players who have options in other decent leagues may have issues with it.
You do all the work for us, Honey Badger, and we'll just eat whatever you find.
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