Quakes looking to extend Yallop’s contract
By Jeff Carlisle · January 5, 2010
Multiple sources have confirmed to CLS that the San Jose Earthquakes are in talks with head coach Frank Yallop to extend his contract, and that the basic details have been agreed upon. Yallop’s current deal is due to expire at the end of 2010, and it is believed that the extension being negotiated is for one additional season.
So why extend the contract of a manager who has failed to take his team to the playoffs in his last three full seasons as an MLS head coach? No one is saying at the moment. A Quakes spokesman would state only that “nothing has been finalized” with regard to a possible extension. A call to Yallop was not returned.
Opinions vary as to how much the decision was based on D.C. United’s attempt last month to talk to Yallop about their then-vacant head coaching position, one they eventually filled by hiring Curt Onalfo. Although one source said Yallop had been “very interested” in talking to United about the post, another source said the decision to grant him an extension has been in the works for a while, and was made independent of DCU’s situation.
Yallop’s interest in the DCU job was understandable given that he served as an assistant coach with United in 2000, and knows the team’s brass very well. But any hopes he had of heading east were extinguished when general manager John Doyle denied the Black-and-Red’s request to talk to Yallop.
My take? I have to admit, I’m borderline stunned. I will say that I think Yallop is a good coach, despite his struggles in Los Angeles as well as in San Jose the last two seasons. But the fact remains that the Quakes regressed in 2009 primarily due to some poor personnel decisions, and that falls at the feet of Yallop, as well as general manager John Doyle. Granted, injuries also played a part, but this doesn’t exactly cry out for extending the contract of the manager.
I had long thought that 2010 would be a make-or-break year for Yallop. Three years is usually the maximum amount of time a team will give a coach to get a side into the playoffs. Such thinking certainly paid off for the Columbus Crew when they kept Sigi Schmid, despite him not getting the Crew to the playoffs in his first two seasons. He then led the team to their first MLS Cup in 2008. Afterwards, Schmid left the Crew to take up the reins in Seattle, and perhaps that was on the mind of the Quakes’ front office in deciding to tie up Yallop beyond the end of the upcoming campaign.
Clearly, Yallop is set to be given even more wiggle room than Schmid had, and it seems likely that he’ll hang onto his post even if the team doesn’t make the playoffs for a third consecutive season, giving the impression that 1) results don’t matter to the San Jose front office in assessing a coach’s performance, and 2) the organization is simply marking time until a stadium can get built.
We’ll see what 2010 brings.
Stunned! Maybe instead of asking for Yallop’s head, we should be asking for a whole new FO. This shows that bad decisions are made from the top down in our club.
Yallop had been “very interested” in talking to United about the post, this says it all. i truly believe the good yrs. were ’cause of having donovan and feeding off his great talent. yallop hasn’t done squat since and his pick of players have been horrible. but it’s ok lets sign him for an extension!
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Good Lord,
The lunatics are running the asylum. The front office is thinking about giving Frank a contract extension when they should be giving him an ultimatum, “Win or Else!” It boggles the mind really…..
Fantastic!
We should have sacked Frank last June. Heck even sooner would have been OK with me. Giving him an extension is unthinkable. And Doyle is a moron for not letting him talk to DCU. We could have ditched him and looked like good guys, while simultaneously sabotaging one of our opponents! Yallop is a terrible coach. However good he was in the past, right now he sucks. Of course, Doyle is an idiot and should have been sacked last June along with Frank, but of course Lew doesn’t give a @#$% what I think. This is a terrible, awful, horrible, stinking, rotten, lousy idea. Sack Frank and JD right now!
Frank’s a good coach.
Colin, buddy, pal, comrade! What makes you think that Frank is a good coach?! Our beloved Quakes have sucked hard two years running. Before that, Frank sucked in el-lay. Frank’s only success was when Dominic Kinnear was his assistant.
Here’s some more thoughts. Frank started Convey, Corrales, and Garcia whenever they were available. Frank benched Zaher so he could play both Convey and Corrales. Convey, Corrales, Garcia, and Elliott all sucked for us in every match. They had a bright spot or two here or there, but on the whole, they were awful. But he started them or in Elliott’s case, used him as first sub. But Frank benched Z when he was playing well rather than bench Corrales. Frank waited to play McD until he had no other options. Ribeiro was much better in Central mid than either Corrales or Elliott, but Frank played them both in front of Ribeiro. (Not that Antonio is great mind you, just not nearly as terrible as Corrales or Elliott.) Frank made our center mids play much to deep in the formation, allowing the enemy to get too many free shots. Alvarez refuses to play with his right foot, and Frank can’t seem to change that, nor does he bench Arturo. Cannon almost always kicks the ball deep, losing possession, rather than rolling it out or making a short pass to one of our guys. Neither Alvarez nor Cannon seemed to suffer any repercussions from their poor play.
So tell me again how you think that Frank is a good coach?! He’s horrible, and our record shows it.
Colin, please make your argument for Frank being a “good” coach. I would love to hear your viewpoints, why should he be given an extension?
Why was Frank “very interested” in DC job? Does he foresee another bad year? Would you offer him an extension in light of failing the past 2 years and being “very interested” in another job?
Does anyone know why DC would be interested in Frank? Sure he’s got connections with them but what does an established team, who’s expected to not only to make the playoffs but to progress in them, want with a coach who’s got Frank’s record over the last three seasons?
FY needs a time away from the MLS game; something has gone awry with his game tactics, communication with players and selection of players. at this time, he lacks passion and seems ‘burned out’; i dont c a good year coming for the Quakes!!
Gotta agree with all the criticism of this move. It sure feels like Lew and the Front Office are only interested in putting a product on the field, any product. Not one that demands our devotion. With that logic, I am worried that my 20% 2010 ticket price reduction will be matched with the logical 20% reduction in quality.
I guess I’d put it this way: of the currently available, likely replacements, who among them would we rather have as head coach?
And until we get clarification as to how the player personnel decisions are made - who makes those decisions - I am not willing to put the blame for poor player acquisition decisions on him. For example, the only thing we know about the decision to expose Salinas was that John Doyle thought Hernandez might be injured for longer than expected. That explanation makes no sense to me, and it sheds no light on Frank’s role in the process.
frank is an okay coach… I think that the reason we have been at the bottom of the conference is because of our FO!
first off, they were a expansion team to start so you have to build from scratch and that does happen in one or two years. Next, any coach is going to fail in san jose until doyle is changed. Lastly, you guys don’t know the restrictions imposed behind the scenes. They know that no other coach is going to put up with that crap so when Yallops improves the team greatly this year it truely will be a feat under those circumstances. He’s won the league before and that was no coincedence. He had better circumstances from above.
S
I am not surprised they are offering Yallop an extension if Doyle and the FO would be doing there job one of two things would have occured over the last two years: 1) the signing of risky injury recovering players, unproven players and trying to force a player to play out of posistion just cause of who he is woudln’t have occured or 2) blame all the problems on Yallop and sack him. Since niether one of those as happened I blame Doyle for all the issues SJ is having not Yallop.
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