He came, he saw, he most certainly didn't conquer and now he's thankfully gone.
The Whitecaps made it official today. Tom Soehn is no longer part of the Club in a mutual parting of the ways.
The writing has been on the wall for Soehn for many months now. When his son wasn't listed in the Caps Residency teams this season, you knew he was likely to be heading to pastures new pretty soon.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
When Soehn came to Vancouver as Director of Soccer Operations on January 19th 2010, it was felt by many to be a good appointment. Bringing in a man with MLS experience as both a player and a coach seemed to be the smart thing to do.
And if he'd just stayed in that role then perhaps his legacy in Vancouver would be thought of differently. He did after all help to bring fan favourites like Gershon Koffie, Alain Rochat and Davide Chiumiento to Vancouver. But then he also brought some of the USL 2010 disasters, Mustapha Jarju and a wooden spoon to the city.
When he was brought in as DSO he was tasked with building a Whitecaps team to compete with any team in MLS. He didn't do that, but at least he helped contribute to some fantastic opening day memories last year.
Then it all started to go wrong.
Soehn was hired for his knowledge of the League and his contacts. At his introductory presser he boldly claimed <i>"It's a challenge, but with the time we have, it's less of a challenge"</i>.
Did he completely underestimate the job that was needed to turned the Caps into a competitive MLS team? Did he think he was bringing in players that were better than they were? Or can the blame be laid at the door of Teitur Thordarson for last season's failings and the Caps not being MLS ready?
When he was introduced to the media in 2010, Bobby Lenarduzzi was keen to stress that Soehn was not coming to Vancouver to take over as Head Coach in 2011.
On May 30th 2011, Soehn was named Head Coach after the sacking of Thordarson.
At the time of the dismissal we said we felt it was the right decision to remove Thordarson, but also raised concerns that Soehn's appointment was not the right one.
We were prepared to give him ten games before judging. Other weren't.
By replacing a fan favourite in Thordarson, or in particular, a Southsiders favourite, Soehn brought the wrath of those fans down upon him. The Teitur Loyal crew felt that Soehn had manoeuvred his way into the job at Teitur's expense and felt that was his plan all along. We were always told that the decisions had come from very high up the Whitecaps chain of command.
Whatever you want to believe, there was no getting away from the fact that Soehn was a shit Whitecaps manager and took the Caps to the ignominy of officially becoming the worst team in Major League Soccer.
I never did get round to running my cartoon strip - 'Tommy Soehn and his magic brown wand'. Everything it touched turned to shit.
Soehn took charge of the team for the first time in LA for the game against Chivas on June 1st and he immediately rang the changes, bringing in his own guys like Joe Cannon and Bilal Duckett.
I was down there for that game, and the next one against Real Salt Lake. The alarm bells were soon ringing and Soehn didn't help himself by not acknowledging the travelling support after either game.
And that was another complaint from the Caps support and the hardcore in particular. It was felt that Soehn made no attempts whatsoever to build bridges with the fans that didn't want him there in the first place.
As a result of that and the performances on the pitch, he was hated. and he can be thankful he wasn't managing a team in the UK as the abuse would have been raining down on him at the games and not just online.
When he took over as Head Coach, he made another of his bold statements. It wouldn't take much to turn this team around.
So was he delusional or just a terrible manager?
He was in charge for 23 competitive games, including a Voyageurs Cup loss in Toronto. His record read 5 wins, 4 draws and 14 defeats, and we're giving one of those wins to Colin Miller as he picked the team.
One by one the players seen as Teitur's guys, and again, fan favourites, were released or frozen out. His reliance on his own guys, especially those from the drafts and college ranks rankled many.
Every manager wants to have his own guys around him. Martin Rennie has done the same. The problem with Soehn's guys was that they didn't seem any better than the ones they replaced. Fans could have bought it more if they at least saw some improvement.
Watching that 2011 team, you knew that a massive clear out had to happen for the team to progress, and Soehn should have been included in that clear out.
I'm sure Soehn did a lot of things behind the scenes that we never got to see or know about. He went on numerous scouting trips, but we seldom saw the fruits of those labours making the MLS squad or even the Residency, just a few guys here and there at training and they soon headed home.
So how will Soehn's time in Vancouver be remembered?
To some, he will be remembered for bringing some fan favourites to the Club. To others, he will be remembered for taking the Whitecaps to one of their lowest ebbs. Whereas to others still, he will be remembered for his love of hotdogs.
Frankly, we're just glad to see the back of him. He was never going to have the support of a large section of fans after last year's shambles and we would have liked to have seen him move on a year ago.
Where he'll go next has been a talking point online. I'm more concerned that we get a new, qualified Director of Soccer Operations in soon, but it's a decision that should not be rushed.
The Club’s current technical team will assume the Director of Soccer Operations responsibilities for now.
It's going to be a very important role for moving the Caps forward and as we've seen with some of our recent acquisitions, bringing the wrong players to this League can be detrimental to the whole team.
We need to have a guy that knows the League, knows the rulebook and has some great contacts around the world. I wonder what Tom Soehn's doing these days.
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