A mere three days after saying he would be involved in the search for the Revolution’s next head coach, he’s now out of a job.
In a stunning dinnertime move that swept the Boston soccer landscape in an uproar and left it turned on its head, the club announced that embattled general manager Michael Burns has been relieved of his duties, effective immediately.
In a release to the media Monday evening, team president Brian Bilello noted, “In light of recent results and the team’s on-field direction over the last few seasons, we felt it was time to take the soccer side of the organization in a different direction. We expect to make an announcement related to the leadership of the soccer organization in the coming days.
“As an original Revolution player and throughout his time with the club’s front office, Michael has always been a terrific ambassador for the club. His impact on the team and organization has been felt in many ways and we are grateful for his commitment and service to the New England Revolution.”
A native of nearby Marlborough and an original member of the club -- three goals in 108 appearances as a defender -- when Major League Soccer launched in 1996, Burns’ firing comes just four days after the Original Ten club gave manager Brad Friedel the sack, and three days after Burns met the media for seven minutes to discuss not only Friedel’s firing, but where the club goes from there.
In addition, Burns’ firing comes in the days after The Rebellion and Midnight Riders — the two main fan groups of the club — released statements that the team needed new leadership in the soccer operations department. The Rebellion handed Bilello a letter Saturday requesting a Supporter's Town Hall meeting with the upper hierarchy of the club, with the intentions of discovering what the team would do to fix the Revolution's problems.
On Friday, Burns was defiant when BostonSportsJournal.com asked if he believed he deserved a third chance to hire a head coach, given the mediocrity he had overseen since he had become general manager in November 2011. (Watch Friday's news conference here.) He had been in the front office since 2005 — he was director of soccer and vice president of player personnel, two separate positions before becoming GM — and since 2007 the Revs had only made the MLS postseason in four out of 11 seasons.
New England has missed the postseason in the last three seasons, and now sit bottom of the Eastern Conference table with three wins in 13 tries.
BSJ Analysis
Exhale, Revolution fans. Celebrate, if you want to. The day you’ve wanted to see for quite some time has arrived.
Look, I won’t mince words — like you'd want that from me anyway — but this needed to happen. Desperately needed to happen. I said it in Saturday's Match Report that no one should be complacent with the win; the win only masked the issues at hand, and that Burns still had to go. This team needed an enema wicked bad, and that occurred on a rainy Monday night, just as everyone was settling in for Wheel of Fortune.
With the rest of MLS passing the Revolution by in the last half-decade to 3.0 status while The Boys In Blue remained in 1.0, the Route 1 outfit have sunk so far since the glory days of Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman, since the days of getting to MLS Cup Finals year after year, and Burns was — in many peoples’ view, not just mine — the main culprit in the club’s demise. Between signing players who just weren’t very good — that’s Claude Dielna on Line $900,000, Krisztian Nemeth on Line They Gave Up What For Him? and Cristhian Machado and Guillermo Hauche on Line Why Did They Come Here Without Any Semblance Of Talent — or not doing enough to bring better players into the club or filling out the roster properly — gee, is that a lack of defensive depth I hear? Have the club found A.J. Soares' replacement yet? — the last three-plus seasons of mediocrity lay squarely at his feet.
I said it last week that firing Friedel only solved a symptom; getting rid of Burns should — should — take care of the black mold that has settled and spread over every inch in this club. And not only that, Burns did not necessarily have the greatest reputation around the league — remember last year that six of his fellow GMs admitted that they did not like working with him — as well as with agents (Ron Waxman has repeatedly noted that the Revs would not win anything with Burns as GM). Showing him the door was the only possible solution to helping the club — and no one person is bigger than the club. No one person is infallible, and seven-plus years with only three playoff appearances was long enough tenure. Three years, and the threat of a fourth, without playoffs should not be allowed in Boston, and that leads us to the announcement of Burns’ sacking.
Now the Revs must now move on and find two people — or one, one person taking both roles and convincing the Krafts to spend big money on good players; hell, if Toronto can have three DPs, if Los Angeles can have three DPs, why can’t the Revolution? — to come in and completely revitalize this once proud team.
And if Twellman’s tweet just before 8 p.m. — nearly an hour after the announcement of Burns’ ousting — is correct, it’s a big name, indeed.
Fully expect Bruce Arena to be named in at least one capacity if not BOTH capacities of GM/Coach for #NERevs this week. Stay tuned. #MLS
— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) May 13, 2019