McDonough Leaving Orlando City is No Reason to Panic

Orlando City has parted ways with General Manager Paul McDonough, leaving Chief Soccer Officer Armando Carneiro solely in charge of personnel decisions. Some people seem to be in a panic that Carneiro doesn't know the MLS rules and that it's risky for him to be at the helm. I am telling you I am not panicking yet. I believe that Carneiro can find technically sound players that other MLS Clubs cannot find.

Finding players that are technically sound is the basic fundamental of building a club no matter what sport you are in. The goal should be finding players who don't cost a lot of money and developing them to above their perceived talent levels. The argument can be made that McDonough and Orlando City did that with Cristian Higuta and Darwin Ceren. We don't know if Carneiro can do that yet but my guess is that he can and have a wider global transfer network than McDonough did.

I believe that Carneiro, the former head of Benfica's academy, can find players at a cheaper rate than McDonough and then it will be up to the manager to develop the players. Carneiro can learn the MLS regulations and he was just given a bigger pocket book with MLS allowing more allocation money to the clubs. Let's see what he can do.

The next question is whether or not Adrian Heath will be fired. I am going to say no because his contract expires in 2017. Next year could be a crucial year for him as he needs to get this team to a playoff spot. There is no way this team could have the same injury problems that it did in 2015 and despite those issues he nearly got an expansion team into the postseason.

There is a lot of loyalty that people say should be in sports. I am firmly against that statement. Soccer is about results and if this team is not getting results then I say bring in people that will get them. This team did not make the playoffs and went through a long stretch where it had trouble with discipline and defending. Heath is partially to be blamed for the lack of discipline of this team. You can only blame so much on MLS Pro referees. I like Heath's fire and I don't think his time is up yet. If he goes, I know the supporters will question the decision because of how much Heath means to Orlando's soccer development. He was "the chosen one" to take this team to the MLS level.

Heath has been very influential to this club but to paraphrase quote from the movie Moneyball, "If you lose the last game, no one gives a crap." I want the club to put our best team forward and if it isn't performing then you can get the pitchforks out and march down Church Street. Remember, it's about MLS Cups, Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cups, and CONCACAF Champions League Cups. Nothing less. However, let's pump the brakes and wait to see what the January transfer window brings us before we get up in arms about front office changes.