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Nelson Rodriguez has a plan, and his team has some promise. His Fire may be in last place, but they just need a little new blood, a little belief and – here comes the rub, Chicago fans – a little more time.
If only Fire supporters hadn’t already been waiting so long.
Hired as the Fire’s GM last fall, Rodriguez and first-year head coach Veljko Paunovic were dealt a nasty hand in Chicago. Once one of the proudest clubs in MLS, the Fire had their worst-ever season in 2015, hitting a new low in a six-year slow burn that’s seen them slide from the league’s elite into irrelevancy.
They finished dead last in MLS in 2015, recording the most losses in club history and missing the playoffs for the fifth time in six years. Last year’s team didn’t have much talent, and they were old and expensive in too many of the few areas they did.
Rodriguez and Paunovic were tabbed to turn it around. So far, they haven’t. Chicago have four fewer points through 21 games this year than they did in 2015. They still have a shot at the Open Cup (they'll play at New England in the semifinals on Tuesday night), but barring a shocking turnaround, they’ll miss the playoffs for the sixth time in seven years this season.
The supporters are, quite understandably, restless. They’re tired of not having games matter in September and October. They’re tired of their team’s two-year road winless streak.
So when Rodriguez asks for patience, as he’s done repeatedly since taking the job, it can be a little hard for Fire fans to swallow. They’ve heard that line before from a few different regimes.
Why should they believe in Rodriguez and Paunovic when so many before them have failed?
“This will surprise many people I think, but I can’t, I can’t make people believe,” Rodriguez told MLSsoccer.com over the phone recently. “I’m aware that what I say and how I say it will either be exactly like or very similar to what they’ve heard over the last five or six years, so it’ll ring hollow.”
“For a fan base that has suffered, the only balm is winning,” he continued. “There’s no amount of words or charm – I’m not Harry Potter, I can’t spin a spell and make people believe something that they don’t. I can only say to the fans: You love the club, you’ll always the love the club, you love the team, the colors, continue to love it and we will repay you with love of our own.”
The results don’t show it, but Rodriguez and Paunovic have already begun that process. They’ve completely overhauled the ill-fitting, dysfunctional team they inherited last year, with only eight of the players from the Fire’s final 2015 roster still with the club. The new squad is younger and has shown the beginnings of forming a decent defensive identity, even if they’ve struggled mightily in front of goal.
More importantly, Chicago now have some pieces they can potentially build around. They’ve acquired them incrementally, focusing on nabbing as many assets as possible, even if it meant losing out on a big name or two in the process.
The Fire first put that strategy into action at the SuperDraft in January. They traded the first overall pick to New York City FC in exchange for the fourth and 12th selections in the first round, as well as General Allocation Money (GAM) and Targeted Allocation Money (TAM). NYCFC landed the splashier player in No. 1 overall pick Jack Harrison, but Chicago got three starters out of the deal, using the picks on defenders Brandon Vincent and Jonathan Campbell and cashing in the allocation money to sign talented Dutch defender Johan Kappelhof.
They made another big move in February, trading popular Homegrown midfielder Harry Shipp to Montreal for more TAM and GAM. The move caused plenty of consternation among Fire fans, but the club again turned the money into a starter, using it to sign Dutch forwardMichael de Leeuw, a real talent, in May.
For a club with so many needs, it was smart to continually opt for assets over flash.
Of course, it’s easy to stick to that strategy in preseason. It’s harder to stay true when you’re in last place in July and have the chance to make a major signing. But Rodriguez and the Fire held firm, choosing last week to trade the No. 1 spot in the allocation order to Philadelphia instead of signing US national team midfielder Alejandro Bedoya.
They got a major haul for the rights to Bedoya, acquiring more allocation money (a source said that Philly sent $100,000 in TAM and $75,000 in GAM to Chicago), Philly’s 2017 first-rounder and the Union’s No. 2 spot in the allocation ranking, which moved up to No. 1 after they used the spot they acquired from Chicago on Bedoya.
The assets weren’t the first Chicago landed this summer. The Fire got more TAM on July 29, when they sent Designated Player Kennedy Igboananike to D.C. Igboananike was the second DP jettisoned in two months by the Fire, who released Gilberto in June.
Chicago used a portion of all that allocation cash to sign young Armenian striker David Arshakyan and acquire forward Luis Solignac from Colorado before the transfer window closed last Wednesday. The moves added some much needed depth up top, but they aren’t the sort of deals that’ll push the team back into the playoff picture.
That type of acquisition won’t come until winter at the earliest, with Rodriguez and Paunovic content to bide their time, stockpile money and create cap space as they wait for the right fit. After publicly acknowledging that they passed on Bedoya, the pressure will be on to land a big fish on the field and in the locker room.
The wait for a big signing is understandably frustrating for Fire fans, but, after years in purgatory, there is finally reason for some hope in Chicago.
The Fire have made their share of controversial moves this year (passing on Bedoya, trading Shipp and settling on an unconventional goalkeeping situation being chief among them), but the club actually has a backline worth building around, and some solid midfield and forward pieces in de Leeuw, David Accam and Matt Polster. If Rodriguez and Paunovic can land a legitimate star this winter – their own Nicolas Lodeiro, say – this is a team that could make some real noise in 2017.
“We’re fully aware of the direction the league is headed,” Rodriguez told ExtraTime Radio on Monday. “We’ve got to make sure that when we bring in a big player, whoever that may be, whether it’s a young player on the upswing, an established player like Lodeiro or a truly recognized player like [Didier] Drogba or [Sebastian] Giovinco has been, that the rest of the team is in position to take advantage of their talents.”
“We’re trying to identify and track players over the balance of this calendar year so we’re in a position in January and February to try to make a strike if the right player is there for us.”
They still have to go out and actually pull it off, but this time may just be different, Chicago fans. After years of waiting, your team is looking like they’re finally in a spot to reward all of your patience.
That’s progress, even if the standings don’t reflect it.
