Red Bull has given Arena the keys to the castle. Yup. One leaves the press conference after basking in Arena’s confidence feeling that Red Bull made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Was it the money or the absolute autonomy he’d enjoy in building a soccer club? Or was it a combination of them both.
Arena will pack up his familia and move up north. He’ll be both be the soccer director and the coach. He’s gonna keep Richie (as assistant coach) and Des (the goalkeeper coach). He’ll add a few more to the team, including a technical director, fitness coach, and third assistant, and anyone else he damn well pleases.
Here are some highlights:
Appetizers were passed around before he finally arrived (he was about 40 minutes late), which included shrimp, kobe beef, sushi, chicken wraps and other stuff. So if he was an hour late, none of us would have cared.
Final design of the stadium will be ready in a few weeks. It will be the best soccer stadium in North America.
They’re working on two separate paths to complete a practice facility for the team and the youth teams to utilize. In case one fails, they’ll have the other. Could be ready before the stadium.
Arena seems optimistic of a team that has Wynne, Mendes, Guevara, Stammler, Buddle, O’Rourke. He mentioned Guevara more then any other and thinks he’s one of the best midfielder in the league.
There are no plans for an immediate acquisition while the transfer window is open. He’ll probably try and improve the team through trades and whatnot.
Arena thinks DC is the best team in MLS and is excited to play against them.
Paul Gardner asked where the players were in a negative way and Arena, classically, answered something like: Well, they have practice and I believe they’re on a 1:00 plane to Columbus for tomorrow’s game. Gardner is an idiot.
Arena drank some Red Bull.
Gio tells us that all of the Red Bull youth teams are in first place.
Arena kept mentioning that things will not be done cheaply and that Red Bull is behind him with whatever resources he’ll need.
He came to terms with Red Bull about 10-14 days ago.
At first, he didn’t want to return to MLS but after his conversations with the company executives in Austria and here, he though it was a unique situation where he can make a big difference and help the team/league get better.