Well, once you get through all the (deserved) comments about accidentally using the wrong person for a major club announcement, it turns out a lot of people had positive comments to say about the technical staff’s head coach appointment.
Here’s a roundup of what reporters, pundits and others said about FC Cincinnati appointing Jaap Stam:
Charles Boehm: “Jaap Stam, and a plan, is just what FC Cincinnati need.”
In Boehm’s well-written column for MLSsoccer.com, he stated the uncomfortable reality of how poorly FC Cincinnati’s 2019 season went. That said, he praised the club’s “damn impressive” ability to transition from that season, to courting “one of the biggest names in world football to sign on the dotted line and make his home on the fair banks of the Ohio.”
He added: “At 47, he’s still a young coach, and he’s got a world-class soccer brain between his ears and more likely a contacts network of comparable quality.”
Extratime, MLSsoccer.com’s podcast, offered similar praise toward the Orange and Blue during Thursday’s podcast.
Lead columnist Matthew Doyle said he “really liked the idea behind this hire for FC Cincinnati” after the club appointed a big-name coach who’s had coaching opportunities in Europe, but in high-pressure circumstances that led to quick turnover.
In this case, he compared Stam to his former Ajax and Dutch national team teammate (and Atlanta United FC head coach) Frank de Boer for coming to MLS and getting time to build a club how he wants.
“With MLS and with FC Cincinnati, they’re going to give Jaap Stam at least three years, my guess,” Doyle said. “We will have an idea at the end of those three years if Jaap Stam can really do the job at this level.”
David Gass credited the team for “going 100%” in on the Dutch Way of building the team with general manager Gerard Nijkamp and now Stam.
“If you’ve got a GM and a technical director from PEC Zwolle who have a belief in the way the game should be played,” Gass said. “They’re going to buy players to play that way and are going to build and academy and a team that plays that way, then you should have a coach who understands that was well.”
He continued: “I don’t know that (Stam) has the best track record, but I like the idea that FC Cincinnati is going 100% on a certain style and identity and club vision … You’re talking about a timeline to build something up.”
MLS veteran Calen Carr said three years sounds like a long time – especially given FCC’s previous timeline of coaches – but highlighted this hire as another step in the right direction.
“I give Cincinnati credit because what they have done is they have confirmed, or maybe reconfirmed, their belief that they were on the right path, and that they have an identity and a belief in a system and a story and a profile of a coach and an admission that they just had the wrong man (previously).
“The fact that they’ve gone and found a similar profile of a manager, it just goes back to saying, “We do have a plan of what we want to do, we just had the wrong guy.”
