Under grilling, Michael Burns defiant, will remain as Revolutions' GM

FOXBOROUGH — Longtime Revolution general manager Michael Burns was defiant Friday morning, side-stepping questions about his tenure and affirming that he will be involved in the process to find the Original Ten club’s eighth head coach.

In a seven-minute press conference outside the Revolution locker room, Burns deflected BostonSportsJournal.com's questions regarding his status as GM, a position he has held since 2011, and gave evasive answers regarding the end of the Primary Transfer Window, which saw New England lose out on its designated player target.

In other words, he’s not going anywhere.

“I guess to answer that question, Sean, I’ve been part of this club for a long time,” Burns said when BSJ asked if he felt that he should have the chance to pick his third head coach in nine seasons, given the amount of mediocrity the club has seen in his tenure and if he felt he should remain the GM, “and whether I was a player, or whether I worked in the front office or any job that I’ve ever had, I’ve never talked publicly about my own employment status, and I won’t be starting today.”

His comments come less than 24 hours after the club fired Brad Friedel, who held the head coaching job for 18 months before he was sacked. His assistant coach, Mike Lapper, took over on an interim basis effective immediately.

Burns noted he would like to like to have a new coach in place as soon as possible.

“Without obviously rushing anything,” he said. “Ownership will be involved, Brian (Bilello) will be involved, and I will be involved.”

In addition, Burns noted that the decision to fire Friedel came in the hours after the Revs’ 5-0 defeat — the club’s second consecutive five-goal drubbing — to the Chicago Fire Wednesday night.

Burns also refused to answer BSJ’s question regarding who made Friedel backtrack his comments from Sept. 1 last year, when Friedel insisted that he and his staff “would have winners here,” and that “me and my staff won’t tolerate things of this nature for very long.”

As general manager, Burns leads all aspects of the Revolution’s soccer operations, including oversight of the coaching staff, player acquisitions, and scouting.

“I’m not going to comment on quotes that Brad made quite a long time ago, so we’re moving forward today, and we’re looking forward to the final two-thirds of the season,” he said. “I think we have to (press the reset button) a little bit. Yesterday was a very difficult day for us and for the club, and in Brad’s time here, Brad gave us everything he had, but the decision was made, with what we felt was in the best interests of the club going forward, and having two-thirds of the season left; in this league, you can lose a few games, and you’re really down, but you win one, two, or three games and you’re right back in the mix. We feel we have enough time left in the season to resurrect where we currently sit, and that’s the goal.

Burns also touched upon the failed attempt to sign Congolese international winger Paul-José M’Poku before the Primary Transfer Window closed on Wednesday morning.

“I won’t specifically talk about any player that we did or did not acquire before the close of the window,” he said. “What I will say that we worked in earnest to bring in a player before May 7, and that we weren’t able to get it over the finish line, and so we’ll continue to work and try to add players this summer.

“When you’re in the designated player market, you need to do as much due diligence as possible because you want to both have a positive impact on the field (and), in the locker room. We’ve been actively looking and are actively looking for that second player. We’re not going to just sign a designated player to say we’ve signed a designated player. We want it to be the right person and the right fix. When you’re in this market for players, you need to keep in mind that a lot of the players have multiple options — non-MLS options — so you’re competing on a world market, and it’s challenging.”