Veteran players dismiss reports of locker-room dissension
Veteran players deny season-ending media reports of personality conflicts on the team
When Jordon Mutch stepped off a plane back into the cold, wet and rainy United Kingdom, he turned on his phone and watched another storm unfold 7,500 kilometres away in the city he just left.
The Vancouver Whitecaps’ season-ending media availability — held Tuesday — was a tumultuous and eye-popping tempest made roiling by accusations of locker-room disharmony and personality clashes.
The unexpected turmoil had broken on the shores of the local media in a tsunami of headlines and tweets.
It was confounding to most. And to Mutch?
“It was a bit confusing, to be honest. To say there was a divide is just totally wrong,” said the England native, adding the Major League Soccer team went out for a postgame dinner after beating the Portland Timbers 2-1 last week in its season finale, and the meal was attended by everyone who didn’t have family commitments.
“I’ve been in a lot of locker-rooms, and that was one of the best I’ve been in. I don’t know where that’s coming from.”
The narrative snowball of a fractured clubhouse began with comments from Russell Teibert and Doneil Henry, who said there were questions about the motivations and drives of some players down the stretch as the team pushed for the playoffs.
Goalie Stefan Marinovic said he’d never been on a team with so many cliques in his professional career. Team president Bob Lenarduzzi then delivered the coup de gras, stating the team had a “culture problem,” one the front office had been aware of since May, but placed the responsibility for it on the coaching staff.
But several of the team’s senior players pushed back at the idea. Kendall Waston, who also reiterated his desire to leave the squad, scoffed at the notion of a divide, saying the dynamic was all part of the natural stratification of a locker-room.
“It’s difficult that 20-plus players can be best friends,” said Waston. “Obviously you’re going to have a better connection with two or three individuals. You and me can be good friends on the pitch, but outside the pitch, I can speak to you, good morning, good night, and that’s it.
“That doesn’t mean that I hate you or whatever.”
And Marinovic, in an Instagram post earlier this week, expanded on the comments he made at the press conference. “Any locker-room is going to have cliques in it. Ours was no different,” he wrote.
“It was, however, held together and kept in check by Robbo and the coaches. They always got the best out of us. It’s up to us as players to take responsibility for our own team culture.”
The Province reached out to former coach Carl Robinson for comment, but texts and phone calls were not returned.
The post-season availability now has the feeling of being an orchestrated event instead of a purely organic one.
Striker Kei Kamara, whose playing career stretches back to 2004 and includes numerous stops in MLS and overseas, intimated as much when asked about his teammates’ comments.
“That’s two Canadians,” he mused. “How come they both rhyme when they both talked about something?
“I’m not going to come to the end of the season and say (it) ended the way that it did because A, B, C didn’t give it their all, they didn’t really care about the crest. That’s not how I do it.
“I’m loud as hell in that locker-room, until I’m really annoying, but I’m only doing it for one reason. I want all of us to succeed.”
Midfielder Efrain Juarez bristled when asked about the comments by journalist Har Johal, telling her “That is a coward. That is between men. No go and cheat around his back. I don’t believe what they say. To be honest, I don’t respect.”
“It’s easy talking to the press,” he added. “It’s so easy talking to the press, and saying ‘I feel the club …’ I can do it now. That is bullshit. For me, that is bullshit. You need to show it in the field. The people that really show it, are people that really care.”
“The whole media thing got taken way out of context to what it was, you know? When I heard it was only a couple people for the shirt … everyone was giving their best,” added Mutch.
“For comments to be made like that, I think it’s disrespectful to the players who were in the changing room. And that could have been said in the changing room, if that was what the feeling was. I never got that feeling.”
That’s four players, including the team captain, with 46 years of professional soccer between them, casting doubt on the account of a locker-room at odds with itself for months.
They all agree the mood changed, however, when Robinson was fired with five games left.
“The atmosphere that was created by Robbo and staff, it was great. Training was always great and competitive. That only changed when Robbo left,” said Mutch. “The intensity when Robbo was there — tackles flying, people wanting to win (scrimmages) — that’s the kind of environment you want to create. I think we lost that when he left.”
The task of recreating that atmosphere will fall to the new coach. And it’s been reported that LAFC assistant coach Marc dos Santos, whose team lost 3-2 to RSL in the playoffs Thursday, will be announced as the Caps new manager in the coming week.