When Denis Hamlett was let go by the Fire on November 24th of last year, my personal reaction was a bit mixed. I thought it was the right move for the Fire, but I was a bit sad to see Denis go. Though he could be pretty harsh to some journalists on the Fire beat, Denis seemed to take a liking to me (something I attribute to the fact that I'm young and seem completely non-threatening) and we became something like friends by the end of the season.
So, when the Fire chose to part ways with Hamlett on November 24th, I thought it was only natural that I reached out to him. I sent him a quick email offering my sympathy and blog space -- if he ever wanted his side of the story out, I would be more than willing to write about it -- but he never got back to me. At the time, I didn't really think anything of it.
But as the weeks have gone by -- and Hamlett has remained unemployed -- I began to think more and more about the Fire's former coach. My original question of "where will Denis end up?" changed to "will Denis land a coaching gig?" I was interested in hearing his story/status and it finally came out last night, thanks to ESPN Chicago's Charlie Corr.
The Fire headed into this question with a few big questions on their plate. One of those questions was whether or not the club would renew Head Coach Denis Hamlett's contract.
That question was answered Tuesday afternoon, with the team electing to not bring the longtime member of the Fire organization back to Toyota Park.
But why is Hamlett now looking for work? After all, he did lead the team to the conference final in both of his seasons in charge.
"If you look at it you can say, 'look the team [made] the conference final two years in a row,' but I think that there are a lot of things that go into this whole process," said a source close to the team. "Managing the group, almost treating them like a psychologist [would], getting the best out of players, game management; those are all things that you can put into it."
After two seasons at the helm, Denis Hamlett is out as Fire Head Coach. Hamlett, who took the Fire to two conference finals in his two year run as head coach, was told by Fire staff this afternoon that his expired contract would not be renewed this offseason. He will leave the club, effective immediately.
Hamlett joined the Fire for its inaugural season in 1998 and spent the last 11 years with the club, slowly working his way up the ladder from assistant to Head Coach.
Hamlett's tenure as head coach was characterized by many fans as a period of underachievement for the Fire which -- despite boasting one of the most talented rosters in MLS -- failed to bring home any trophies during Hamlett's run.
The Fire's front office brass and Denis Hamlett are scheduled to have a sit-down in the next couple of days to discuss the Head Coach's future at the club.
"We're supposed to have a meeting in the next couple of days," Hamlett said on Tuesday afternoon. "We spoke yesterday and decided that we want to sit down and have a discussion."
Hamlett wouldn't specify exactly who the "we" in the above quote included but it's probably a safe bet to think that Javier Leon (the Managing Director of Andell Sports Group - which owns the Fire), Technical Director Frank Klopas and possibly even Owner Andrew Hauptman will sit in on the meeting.
Hamlett told me that he doesn't know exactly what will be discussed in the meeting, or if the group will come to a final decision on whether or not to renew his contract. Hamlett did say that he feels like he and his staff have done enough to see their contracts renewed though.
Hey everybody, I have had an insanely busy last couple of days so unfortunately I wasn't able to write a full entry for this morning. However, I didn't want to leave the site blank for you guys so I thought I'd share a short -- yet loaded -- question with you all.
You can check out the poll after the jump. But for those of you who don't like to read titles, I'll give you a head's up, the question deals with Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett's future.
I'll save my opinion on what the Fire should do with Denis for a full entry that should be coming soon but I encourage all of you to go ahead and have your say in the poll on the next page.
One thing I will say is that the Fire needs to make a decision whether or not to renew Hamlett's contract (which expired at the end of this season) quickly. If they do decide to let Hamlett go, it's imperative that a new coach is brought in quickly so he can learn the roster, gel with the players and the front office and make a mark on the team with some offseason acquisitions.
I'll try and post something this afternoon dealing with the aftermath of the Fire's season. Be sure to come by and check for it later.
I'll be talking with Denis Hamlett tomorrow so the time is now for you guys to pose questions to the Fire's Head Man. Try and post your questions by 10:30 a.m. tomorrow and I'll do my best to get them answered. No guarantees this time though, as I will be speaking to Hamlett via teleconference -- meaning the number of questions I ask will be somewhat limited.
Ask away.
Hey everyone, I just got off the phone with Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett and I got quite a bit of reaction to the 2-1 Game 1 loss to the New England Revolution.
A lot of the quotes are same old, same old from Denis (funny how that happens when the team struggles with the same problems over and over again...) but all the same I thought I would share it with you guys. So, without any further ado, here's Hamlett's take on Sunday's 2-1 loss to the Revolution.
Overall Reaction:
"I think for stretches in that game we played well," said Hamlett. "We made some mental mistakes which I think cost us the game but I think all in all we can take some positives out of that game."
And what positives would those be?
"I thought we had a good start to the game and I thought we created some good chances... I thought for the most part in the run of play and we limited their opportunities but we fell asleep on set plays [and they punished us]."
I'll be interviewing Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett tomorrow and I wanted to open the floor for you guys to pose some questions.
Try and get your questions in before 11 a.m. tomorrow and I'll do my best to get them answered. I'll be starting the interview around 1 p.m. tomorrow so I should have a Mid-Week Update post up around 3 or 4.
I'll be back tomorrow morning with another piece before the Mid-Week update though, so be sure to come back and check that out. Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday.
Hey everyone, just wanted to open up the floor for any questions you have for Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett. I'll be interviewing him tomorrow afternoon so get your questions posted by noon and I'll do my best to get them answered.
Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday. I'll be back tomorrow.
Now that I've finally spoken to Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett, I can provide you guys with a couple of updates regarding the Fire's injury situation and give some reaction to the 0-0 draw with New England this past Saturday. Here we go...
Injury Updates:
Wilman Conde - Game day decision
Conde, who missed last Saturday's game at the New England Revolution with a hamstring injury, has yet to train this week.
"He's been sick with flu-like symptoms," Hamlett said." "He's had a little bit of a hamstring issue and for the last two days he's been sick with that so hopefully tomorrow he can be a little bit better."
If Conde, who has been a stalwart at center back all season for the Fire, isn't able to recover in time for tomorrow night's game you can expect Dasan Robinson to get the start in his place.
I'll be interviewing Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett this afternoon and wanted to open up the floor for you all to pose some questions to the man in charge of the Fire.
If you get your question in before 1 p.m., I'll do my best to get it answered for you. I should have a post-interview piece up for you guys at around 3:30, so be sure to check back for that.
Tuesday, 3:47 p.m. -- Bad news everybody, I have yet to speak with Denis Hamlett today. The team didn't call me at 1:30 (the time the interview was scheduled for...) and they just responded to my e-mails/text messages wondering what's up. All of this means that there won't be a post up anytime soon. I'll post an article shortly after I speak with Hamlett, but as of right now it looks like that will be sometime tomorrow.
In the meantime, feel free to pose more questions for Hamlett to answer. My apologies for the lack of content today, hopefully everything will be back to normal tomorrow.
-Sam
I'll be talking with Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett tomorrow afternoon and (in what is becoming a weekly feature here...) I wanted to open the floor for you all to pose a few questions.
Try and get your questions in by 12 noon tomorrow and I'll do my best to get Hamlett to answer them for you. This will be my last post until tomorrow afternoon, when I'll be back with any news that Hamlett passes along.
I'll be interviewing Denis Hamlett tomorrow and thought I'd open up the floor for you guys to pose some questions. Just so you know, I'll be asking Denis about all the standard stuff (i.e. Galaxy preview questions, injury updates etc.) so feel free to throw out any off-the-wall questions you may have. Get them in before 12 p.m. tomorrow and I'll do my best to get them answered for you.
And in some actual MLS news,
New England Captain Steve Ralston is done for the year after tearing his ACL on Saturday against Seattle. New England is currently in third place in the Eastern Conference, four points behind the second place Fire with two games in hand. The Revs will host the Fire on October 17th in what should be a critical matchup for playoff positioning.
Despite their horrible performance in a 2-0 defeat to the L.A. Galaxy last night, the Fire will go on and their focus must now turn to Sunday's increasingly important match against Colorado. But before we get to the Fire's next game, I wanted to pass along a few bits of info I picked up last night at Toyota Park...
The Fire revealed tonight that defender Bakary Soumare and Head Coach Denis Hamlett were each fined an undisclosed amount for what the team is calling a "locker room incident" that took place at halftime of last Sunday's 3-2 loss to Houston.
A Fire squad full of reserves was able to hold off fellow MLS club Chivas USA in SuperLiga action Tuesday night, defeating 'The Goats' 1-0.
Click here for my match recap and read below for some more thoughts I had on the match...
Here are a few quick notes from the Fire's practice on Wednesday...
Chris Rolfe is NOT boltin' to Bolton
The rumors that English Premier League club Bolton FC was interested in Chris Rolfe seem to be unfounded. Rolfe was unaware of the rumors and it looks like the striker will be sticking around Chicago (at least through the summer anyway).
Well, it had to end sooner or later. The Fire's 11-game undefeated streak came to a screeching halt Sunday afternoon at Toyota Park, where they lost to FC Dallas 3-0.
The Fire, although they were playing their third game in a week, are very disappointed by the result against Western Conference bottom-feeders FC Dallas.
"It was just one of those days," said Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett. "Giving up that first goal made it hard to try and come back... I think our guys went out and competed today but it goes back to making those mistakes which lead to goals."
The Fire will look to bounce back from Sunday's embarrassing defeat this Friday, when they will go up against the Houston Dynamo at Toyota Park.
Here are a few thoughts/observations I had on the match:
