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New England Revolution: How team will move forward without Jay Heaps

By Tommy Butler

COMMERCE CITY, CO - APRIL 04: Head coach Jay Heaps of the New England Revolution leads his team against the Colorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on April 4, 2015 in Commerce City, Colorado. The Revolution defeated the Rapids 2-0. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
COMMERCE CITY, CO - APRIL 04: Head coach Jay Heaps of the New England Revolution leads his team against the Colorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on April 4, 2015 in Commerce City, Colorado. The Revolution defeated the Rapids 2-0. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images) /
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Now that Jay Heaps is no longer the Head Coach of the New England Revolution, what has to happen next?

Late last night, the New England Revolution sacked their head coach of six years, Jay Heaps.

Heaps’ Career

After eight years and 243 appearances with the Revs from 2001-2009, Heaps was signed as the head coach in 2011.  As the head coach, Heaps lead the Revs to a couple of high points, including the 2014 MLS Cup Final.

It went downhill from there, with a loss in the knockout round the next year and missing the playoffs entirely in 2016. Now, again in 2017, New England appears to have all but fallen short of the playoffs.

Leading up to the Boot

As the season continued to look grim, the final nails in the coach’s coffin were the 7-0 thrashing by Atlanta United and the 3-1 loss to Sporting KC.

Not only do those two losses nearly guarantee the continuation of last season, but it puts Heaps’ career coaching record at an  almost even 89-88-44. With the Revolution the line is 75-81-43, not good for a coach that has had so much to work with at times.

Heading into the Sunset

For the rest of the MLS season, assistant coach Tom Soehn will take over as interim coach.

With a 10-14-5 record at this point of the season, Soehn shouldn’t be expected to turn this team around in time for the playoffs.

The only thing that we as fans can home for is one, or all of a few things.

Robert Kraft Selling the Team

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

As a Pats fan, I love the Kraft family, they took a franchise in the basement and made it the most dominant team, arguably of all time. As a Revs fan, the feelings are not the same.

The Krafts don’t seem to care about the New England Revolution, certainly not to the extent of the Patriots, and it’s effecting play.

More from New England Revolution

Mr. Kraft, either sell the team to someone in New England who truly cares or take care of your team.

Overhaul the Management

Fans have been begging the team to dump Heaps for some time now, so better late than never. Don’t think that the job is done though.

Getting rid of Heaps doesn’t solve all of the problems the team has from an administrative standpoint. Seeing as the season is virtually over, an interim coach is all we can really ask for at the moment, but the Revs need to bring in someone with experience winning.

Take it further than that too, we need people who will do their best to put the strongest team on the field every match.  As long as they have experience, it shouldn’t be too hard, New England already has multiple quality players on the roster.

Next: Patriots gridiron news: Defensive end Deatrich Wise rushing towards success

Now that the Revs are officially rebuilding, they can’t just dip their toe in the process. Get anyone holding the team back out now so New England can have the successful team the fans so desperately desire.

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