A lot of rumors are swirling about of City Football Group preparing a pink slip to hand to NYCFC’s underachieving Manager, Jason Kreis. Fans seem split as to whether he should stay or go, with his supporters unanimously pointing to his MLS Cup win & ability to navigate the sometimes archaic MLS roster mechanisms. Frankly, I'm just sick and tired of every Kreis apologist spouting his Managerial Urban Legend because they heard some blogger pundit discuss it.

It’s time to put Kreis' 2009 MLS Cup win in perspective and lay his fictitious Managerial Urban Legend to rest. If anybody did a little research on the framework of the Urban Legend, they’d quickly see Kreis’ aura is the equivalent of a house made of matchsticks. The guy was lucky and rode his Cup win to the hotly sought CFG 1-year sabbatical/internship & NYCFC Manager position. With the exception of that dubious MLS Cup, the guy has never won anything else while in charge – no League titles, no conference titles, no US Open Cup, No CONCACAF Cup (in fairness MLS traditionally sucks at this competition). NOTHING.

He won in 2009 when there were only 15 teams – back when Toronto, SJ, and RB were aimlessly lost souls-of-teams.

RSL Qualified as the last slot in the West

RSL achieved that slot only on goal differential over Colorado (+8 vs +4)

RSL had a losing record 11-12-7

RSL won the Conference Final & MLS Cup in Shootouts – T W O S H O O T O U T S

Jason Kreis is NOT the savant manager everybody thinks he is. Two penalty shootouts is the equivalent of flipping a coin twice – that’s it. He was extremely lucky to have even gotten in to the playoffs by virtue of a losing record and a tie-breaker. And NONE of that shows he has any clue how to navigate the strange morass of roster constraints….. all it shows is that he should have been in Vegas using his luck at the Craps Tables or playing the Mega Ball Lottery.

His ability to stock a roster is a complete fantasy. RSL had success because of players that were on the team BEFORE Kreis took over in the middle of the 2007 season: Nick Rimando (2007), Chris Klein (2006) - traded for Robbie Findley, Andy Williams (2005), Jeff Cunningham (2006) - traded for Alecko Escardarian (seriously), & Eddie Pope (2005). These guys were his teammates before John Ellinger was shown the Door and Kreis took over. Yes he made some roster changes (what coach doesn’t each off-season?), but FFS – ANY manager would be successful if they had Rimando, Williams, and Pope (three positions down the Spine), and yet he also had an entire roster of solid players in their prime. Cunningham & Klein had very productive careers after leaving RSL. Fabian Espindola & Javier Morales were acquired 3 months after Kreis took over - it's difficult if not impossible to believe Kreis pulled the trigger on them since it was the middle of the season and he would hardly have time to scout in Argentina - these have to be Lagerway players. Beckerman was a coup, but he wasn't a mystery player having been part of the Donovan/Beasley/Convey/Gooch 1999 Youth National Team at the U-17 WC and solid Rapid contributor - if anything that again goes to Lagerway for being able to pry Beckerman away for ONLY Mehdi Ballouchy as compensation.

He went on record at a press conference before this season started that he was pleased with the team he had & didn’t feel like it needed the 3rd DP at the start of the season– he wanted to wait until he saw how the team performed before using the slot (yet later in the season he claimed mid-season acquisitions, especially DPs never pan out). Obviously, the team he put together with Reyna was a joke to start the year. An eleven game winless streak takes a lot of coaching to achieve.

The guy had a two-year gig – the first year was spent "interning" with MCFC. Kreis took his coaching staff to Manchester to watch, learn, and partake in training sessions. How many coaches would cut off their left arm to have that opportunity to simply be tutored in the nuances of the game from the perspective of an EPL super-club ?!?! He (and Reyna) had plenty of time to scout for players and formulate a game plan (for this season and beyond). What did we end up with…. a coach that:

A. screwed up MLS’ multiple drafts by confusing which of the drafts he wanted the 1st pick for after Orlando chose the SuperDraft as theirs (he even laughed about the mistake).

B. a poorly drafted team (severely lacking of players to pull off his famed 442 diamond, drafting George John on a flyer is fine if the defense isn’t relying on journeymen until his health is determined, RSL East set of players)

C: shite scouting (Mendoza- never played, Nemec- never scored & was banished, Calle- never stayed healthy/how can a player get hurt three times in 12 appearances with non-contact injuries, Dunn – wasted a pick since he played less than a game) – Kreis has said he has final say on players. If true, this is damning.

D: It’s now come out he was trying to trade Poku mid-season to Philly – WHAT THE FCK?!?!?

I won’t even go in to the erroneous game-day coaching decisions & lineups he made or his bewildered lack of charisma (it’s NYC – he has to be personable), but Kreis doesn’t deserve another year. After the Orlando game, it was evident to me he had lost the team. Supposedly they trained really hard all week and yet came out flat & uninspired with the most maligned player on the team the guy getting the goal (oh the irony). Once the locker room is lost, the coach will never regain it – his knees are cut and it’s time to move on.

Today he's claiming:

he puts more pressure on himself and any of you could hope to.

It's not about feeling pressure, it's about knowing how to manage the pressure. There a huge difference.