Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo promised to make changes earlier this season, and after two more debilitating losses for his club, he’s remaining true to his word.
The Impact announced on Wednesday that Nick De Santis has been relieved of his duties as sporting director, though he will remain with the club in an unspecified administrative capacity. While De Santis is losing his main role, the club is keeping head coach Frank Klopas in his role for the rest of the season and letting him remain fully in charge as “director of player personnel.”
“I would like to thank Nick for his involvement,” Saputo said in a statement. “He has been a key element and an architect of our organization.”
De Santis has drawn much of the criticism over the Impact’s current squad, which features many aging veterans and a weak defense that has allowed 37 goals this season, second most in MLS.
After a late-season collapse that saw them dumped out of the MLS playoffs in embarrassing fashion, De Santis failed to upgrade his squad adequately, only making a move for forward Jack McInerney once the season started and signing veteran defender Heath Pearce during preseason training, while also letting Jeb Brovsky, Nelson Rivas, and Hernan Bernardello all leave this summer.
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What do you think of this news? Surprised it took this long? Think that De Santis should have kept his role as sporting director?
Share your thoughts below.
Am I the only person who thinks Frank Klopas/Frank Yallop are the two worst coaches in MLS? I get the Impact needing stability for once, but do you really want more Klopas? I would have kept Marco Schällibaum, yea he was a hothead but at least he had the team playing with some sort of mentality and identity.
Klopas did good things for Chicago I believe. However, I agree on Schallibaum at Montreal. Why only give a guy with no prior association or experience in MLS only one season? He did well considering the number of new things he had to deal with. The Impact started off great under him, and they made it to the playoffs. Yes, the end of their season was disappointing but they should’ve given him the chance to work on that. Apparently Saputo expected perfection.
IMFC is an absolute dumpster fire. They have no direction. Between drafting poorly, trading away young talent for international roster spots, and spending big money on old and ineffective Italians/Argentines, it’s no surprise they are terrible. They should be called Chivas Quebec