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New York Red Bulls assistant coaches Richie Williams and Des McAleenan, who have served a combined 15 seasons as coaches for New York, have been fired.
The Washington Post reported on Monday afternoon that the two assistants were let go for what sources were calling "repeated violations of club rules"
(UPDATED) The Red Bulls confirmed on Monday evening that they have released Williams and McAleenan from their coaching duties. Calls to Williams and McAleenan were not returned.
Williams joined the Red Bulls coaching staff as an assistant for head coach Mo Johnston in 2006 and has sinced worked under Red Bulls head coaches Bruce Arena, Juan Carlos Osorio and Hans Backe. He has served as the team's interim head coach on two occasions, compiling a 4-6-4 record during those stints. Considered one of the most highly-regarded assistants in MLS, Williams has been a candidate for multiple head coaching openings in MLS, but had been seen as a potential successor to Backe before these recent developments.
McAleenan has been the Red Bulls' goalkeeper coach since 2002, coaching under five different head coaches and had developed a reputation as one of the best goalkeeper coaches in MLS.
Removing two key members of the coaching staff just three weeks before the start of the season would be a shocking development, particularly considering the remainder of the current full-time coaching staff consists of newly-hired assistant Jan Halvor Halvorsen. Recently retired Red Bulls defender Mike Petke has been working as an individual developmental coach, among a variety of roles he's taken on with the club, and he could be moved into a more full-time role as an assistant.
We'll pass along more information as it becomes available.
Oh, I see what you did there. Thinking you are clever and all …
* YAWN *
Root for a team that doesn’t even exist? That’s a sound plan …
Except both of these guys pre-date JCO.
Firing longtime, dedicated and competent assistants weeks before the season pretty much guarantees they won’t be able to get MLS jobs this season. Pretty harsh. The real reasons for this better be serious or this is an incredibly lame move.
I didn’t really need another reason to hate the NJ Energy Drinks, but I’ll take it.
later punk, enjoy your imaginary team you d.nozzle.
Have to agree with you there sir.
It does not make logical sense for this to happen so close to the season, and we might never find out the real reason why.
Richie and Des could have actually done something really bad to force the RB front office hand, and instead of the RB burying the two coaches and their careers, they just gave some generic line. Everybody saves face.
Cheers
Here’s a novel idea: how about waiting for more information instead of ripping into the Red Bulls or jumping to conclusions about wrongful termination?
I don’t think that a club would take firing such a huge part of their coaching staff three weeks before the beginning of the season lightly, and they would have to have a reason to do it to avoid backlash. Unless there are some serious, serious idiots over at RBNY, there has to be a lot more to this story (heck, this isn’t even a story yet–all we know is that they were fired).
They were obviously breaking the “Don’t ask; don’t tell” rule. I don’t understand why everyone else didn’t immediately see this…lol.
they must have been caught drinking Monsters
must’ve broken rule number 76… “play like a champion”
Wow, seriously? GTFO and go root for the Cosmos. The Red Bulls don’t need fans like you.
I heard it’s because Backe and Williams had a difference of opinion on which twilight character is the best, Edward or Jacob.
This article from last March looks strange now: http://www.newyorkredbulls.com/news/2010/03/backe-richie-williams-will-soon-be-head-coach
Does this really need spelling out?
Making a conclusion without any supporting information as to what happened makes the conclusions (and, jloome seems to be arguing, by extension the concluder) idiotic. Seems logical.
itll be announced in the coming days that richie williams is taking a job elsewhere and bringing McAleenan with him. That, or RB found out they were TRYING to leave and thats why they were released.
Why?
Everybody CALM THE F DOWN until the facts are known. Chill, everybody, chill!
HC
Anyone drawing a conclusion on what’s out there so far is an idiot.
My read on this is that Backe has someone he wants to hire, that guy wasn’t available until now, and so the team announces some pretext (tardiness and rules violations). I could be dead wrong on this. But that would explain why they weren’t let go last season and it only happens now.
TWO of the most respected assistants in the league. McAlleenan is an excellent GK coach, one of the best in MLS. Twice Richie Williams has taken a dysfunctional NY team in the midst of players quitting on the season and made them a competitive team.
What we know is that two guys with excellent reputations within the league and a fine track record of performance were suddenly released for “repeated rules violations” and “tardiness” (that is what Steve Goff was told). Not “philosophical differences” (which is reasonable) or “gross moral issues” (which is easily understandable). No fines, no suspension but outright release for what sounds like a bunch of rinky-dink reasons.
In this situation is Backe the back stabber or the backe stabbee?
you are one of those* fans….. huh?
(*= poser/not real)
Be interesting to hear both sides of this story. Potential makings of a soap opera depending on how this went down…
why not let them go at the end of last season?? I understand there are differences and I don’t think these differences developed over night…. however, not sure why wait until now to let them go. sad….
Some of these comments are ridiculous, and the hate is flowing strong.
anyone have any links giving any info on this (besides the Washington Post)?
The Red Bull’s loss is DC’s gain… come home Richie, we’ve got a front office job (or two) with your name on it.
Backe is an arrogant SOB. He will crash and burn.
Haha great point.
People are freaking out and just tearing into the Red Bulls for… nobody has any idea.
If they were fired for violating team rules, and that was the reason give, chances are it was something serious.
WTF? They have some explaining to do.
I heard Williams was addicted to FourLoko. Yeah, you can be a sensitive organization but at a certain point you’ve got to sort out your habits on your own…
i chuckled at this.
first Back publically belittles the playoff structure – not sure if that is a smart move to say publicly… and now firing one of the most respected assistants in the league?!?! not sure what to think of this….
Pretty much my thoughts. Let’s wait and see guys.
us fans, two ways to look at it either start to get scared for the season or soler is completely getting rid of anything tha has to do with osorio
Why do you a-holes always look to blame the RedBulls . Why dont u a-holes just wait and see what really happen before you guys start talking BS.. We dont know what happened just because you like Richie does not mean he didnt do something wrong …..
Wow, this is shocking and would be severely upsetting if true. Exactly the kind of problem the Red Bulls did not need at the beginning of this season. Both of these coaches have excellent reputations as professionals, I find it hard to believe they would do anything to deserve being fired.
well get a good juicy email soon enough…probably tried to call out henry for his lack of production….
gettin a lil scared now for the season, backe jus said agudelo n rodgers are gonna miss the opener and now this yikes could you imagine if we have osorio situation all over again? if tha happens this year im done moving on to the cosmos hopefully
They were caught drinking Rockstars behind RBA. HUGE rule violation.
This reeks of a massive dump of Bulls**t. The reason given to Steve Goff was “repeated tardiness to meetings.” Here’s what you do when you want to fire someone you don’t like or you’re looking for an excuse to fire someone and it’s not about competence: you look for rules violations.
If either of these guys had major philosophical differences with Backe, you could easily justify firing them saying “goo guy, yada, yada, philosophical differences, yada, yada, decided to go in a different direction, yada, yada.” But in this case, I’m betting that Backe, after a year’s success and feeling like he “knows” MLS has decided that he wants his own guys to work with. That’s unfortunately. McAleenan’s record speaks for itself. And Richie Williams–he’s carried so much water for this club and stayed with the organization when it was disfunctional, wasn’t always treated well yet performed when called upon. BS
I guess Backe & Soler didn’t need him anymore to show them the MLS ropes. Ricidulous! We’ll never find out why.
I hope they really did something wrong because I saw these guys as two key figures on keeping the red bulls grounded locally.
Rule 43D: More than half of the coaching staff must be Scandanavian.
shocking! Man I hope Richie takes over at another team and beats the redbulls eveerytime out. This would be the ultimate of disrespect for a guy that has help out in all the bad times.
Makes me wonder what team rules they violated…
Woah.
Awful…. Richie has been a loyal and well qualified employee of the club. I hate to see it end this way.
Some club will get a well prepared coach.
To be fair, Mike Petke has been involved in the coaching this offseason.