Stillitano, Sakiewicz, Lalas, de Grandpre, Arena, Agoos, Soler

Charlie Stillitano. Nick Sakiewicz. Alexi Lalas. Marc de Grandpre. Bruce Arena. Jeff Agoos. They all have failed.

Welcome to the club, Erik Soler.

Stillitano, Metro's original GM, had a vision, and the vision was AC Milan. Expensive foreign coaches Carlos Albert Parreira and Bora Milutinovic proved to be idiotic hires as Metro failed in each of Charlie's four years, culminating with the worst season in league history in 1999.

Enter Sakiewicz, and relative glory of 2000 (with much thanks to the magical Clint Mathis) followed by a steady decline. Then, a resurrection in 2003 after the hiring of Bob Bradley, quite possibly the best move in the franchise history. For the first time in Metro history, there now was a long-term plan.

A long-term plan that came to a halt in 2005 when Sakiewicz was pushed out and replaced by Alexi Lalas. The ginger clown jumped on a chance to fire Bradley, and dismantled the foundation that was built.

Next year, Red Bull came, Lalas lied through his teeth, and quit. De Grandpre, a soda salesman with no soccer experience held the fort until Bruce Arena was hired as coach and GM. A long-term plan in place again.

A long-term plan for a year and a half, as Arena was jettisoned by de Grandpre. The drink man paid a fortune to get Juan Carlos Osorio to coach, and Jeff Agoos was promoted from being Arena's glorified secretary. Disaster followed.

So now, in comes Soler. He seems intelligent and aware of the issues (although we're a tad worried that he dismisses learning from past mistakes). How quickly he will grasp the concepts of MLS is another question.

For we're tired of failure.