Speaking to Jerome de Bontin on Seeing Red! this week, he made mention of a funny comment by Joel Lindpere where the Estonian complained about having “49″ teammates in his short time with the club.
That got me thinking; how much turnover has there been year over year?
The result was pretty startling. All of eight players from last year’s opening day squad remain with the club (nine if you count trialist Tyler Ruthven).
Much like the infancy of the Hans Backe/Erik Soler regime, Andy Roxburgh promises to nurture stability for a club that has been marred by turnover, but first, the right people need to come aboard. One more winter of change was needed to create the desired base.
It has happened, and the new-look Red Bulls will be searching to define their identity this year – as they have in years past.
PIC: Drastic changes from #RBNY 2012 Opening Day lineup to now: http://t.co/4nfkpnLz (spurred by @SeeingRedNY interview w de Bontin) #MLS
Yeah, but to be fair, a whole year of events passed since this team took the field. Richards contract came up and he wanted to try Europe, Lindpere lost his starting role and was benched, Barkladge proved a better right back than Solli, Tainio declined because he had hardly anything left in the tank, and Agudelo shouldn’t have been starting that game in the first place. But if you look straight down the middle of your diagram, you see core: Henry, McCarty, Holger, Meara, (and would have been Cooper, if he had started as he should have) and that core has been strengthened with Cahill, Juninho, Olave and Espindola.
Wasn’t saying it was all on this regime. Just that a lot of change has occured. Pretty crazy if you look at it.
Visual Aid: Drastic changes from Red Bulls 2012 Opening Day #NCAA #Sports http://t.co/MnMW3g64