Will the Fury of youth make up for the lack of big name experience?
The Ottawa Fury FC today announced their coaching staff as well as the signing of their first Canadian player, Carl Haworth.
While far from being a household name, or even the best available Canadian free agent, it seems indicative of the direction of the new club. At the press conference today head coach Marc Dos Santos indicated that Ottawa fans should “Expect a young team.”
Carl Haworth was born in Southport, England his family moved to Barrie, Ontario when he was just one-year old. During a standout few years at Niagara University he played the summer months in the PDL with both FC London and last year with the Ottawa Fury.
At 24, he seems like a good signing for the team. Just approaching his prime and with connections to the city, but it’s hardly a marquee signing. Calls for Terry Dunfield or even Dwayne De Rosario can be put to rest as this signing seems to be part of the philosophy for the team. The PDL fury players have been sent a message that they now have a place to go once they outgrow the PDL.
“It was clear from day one that we wanted to do something very serious regarding the academy. The Ottawa Fury has a huge history and great things that have been done in the past with the academy and we wanted to keep it very high profile,” said the head coach. The coaching staff have high hopes for the Ottawa Fury academy and said that they want to expand on its calibre. “Today, we don’t see our academy being a pro academy, but we really believe that in the future it’s gonna get into that.”
When discussing the signing of Carl Haworth, Dos Santos said, “We really think that not only we’re giving him an opportunity that he deserves but we want to do that to send a message of our loyalty and what we really want to do with the academy also.”
When asked about big name players Dos Santos replied, “Our objective” – “Is not to be a team that in year one, we spend all kinds and in year two we disappear. We want to make sure, our objective this year is to put a very good base together and that base is gonna be a younger side.”
Ottawa Fury management is determined to take the youthful approach. It’s a strategy that might be doomed to fail before it gets started. Signing (largely) no-name players to an expansion franchise in an untested soccer market might be the best soccer decision but it doesn’t help the marketing department. One big name player can create a buzz, get people talking, gather interest when otherwise there might not be any. Look at what David Beckham did for MLS or what Del Piero is doing for Sydney FC (and the A-League). However, this doesn’t seem to be in the cards for Ottawa. Having a strong core of young players who develop collectively can definitely give management a solid foundation to work from. This is a luxury a lot of teams don’t have or choose not to pursue.
For example, Toronto FC tried for many years to buy the right team but never really developed their youth the hard way, through time and patience. After years in the league, the Reds still find themselves without any playoff experience to date. I believe the Fury’s management are making the right decision to start young rather than go out and get bigger name players that might boost season tickets, but might lack the hunger of their younger counterparts.
That leads to the great unanswered question. What is the soccer market in Ottawa? No one really knows. Everyone has an opinion but really it has never been truly tested at the professional level. Time will tell if the fire of youth was the right decision over a battle tested army of veterans, but what we do know is that the Ottawa Fury FC management knows which way they are steering the ship, and so far it points to the academy.
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