Coach Poachers

By now, you probably know all about Juan Carlos Osorio resigning as Fire coach to take over the New York Red Bulls. Luis said JCO felt "spurned." Ives refuted that pretty strongly without calling Luis out specifically, and elaborated on his family situation in the paper today.

Now Ives is reporting that the Fire will get New York's first round pick in the upcoming SuperDraft. On the one hand, I think there's not going to be a lot of time for the Fire to hire a new coach and for that new coach to assess both the team's needs and the available option to make good use of a draft pick this year, so maybe a pick in next year's draft would have been better.

On the other hand, this can be viewed as a defensive move, in that it denies Osorio the chance to capitalize on his time scouting for the Fire to land a pick for his new club. So I guess I can take it or leave it. The best scenario right now might be for Denis Hamlett to run the draft regardless of whether or not Chicago signs a coach before mid-January.

And this puts my Steve McClaren idea totally in play (sorry, Tom, I still think it's worth pursuing, and will talk you off the ledge if necessary). Mr. Guppy, make it happen.