Why I want good things for those who aren't on the team anymore

So, as I mentioned in my post before this one, I have an ironclad rule I follow as a CITY fan, which is if you wear the jersey and play for the team, I want good things for you and will root for you. 

I just don't have it in me to be a toxic fan. It's just too stressful. Plus, my buddy and I waited 9 years from our pact in 2014 to become superfans if we got an MLS team for me to waste it being negative, and if I ever got the chance to meet one of the players I'd want to genuinely be able to tell them I'm cheering for them and not have in the back of my mind that I called them a wanker for missing a pass or some such.

I plan to continue this rule past when the players who've donned the jersey move on to other opportunities; see note about I just don't have it in me to be a toxic fan, and if you put in minutes for the first team in any competition unless you straight up diss the club in an unforgiveable way or turn out to be a murderer or something I still generally want good things for you.

So, with that in mind, before the season starts I figured I'd go through our list of departures and just say good memories of them I have while they were with CITY, and wish them well on their new opportunities.

I won't be including those on loan but that we haven't actually sold yet, like Pidro or Jensen, and I similarly won't be talking about those who had first team contracts but never actually stepped on the field for the first team, like Max Schneider and Owen O'Malley. The latter I'll mainly be excluding just because I don't really have a memory of them or anything to say really rather than any ill intent, as I still wish them well, although special shout-out to O'Malley for making me REALLY CURIOUS about rumors he got suspended for violating team rules (twice, supposedly) and more or less getting discharged at the end of the year.

John Nelson - Look, he may have essentially played himself out of his job by midseason, but he was our starting left back to start the first game at CITYPARK and that means something. When the Cincinnati game was waiting to start and I was sheltering in the parking garage while it rained, my buddy and I had a whole discussion about him being on Cincinnati last year and how he'd perform against his old club, and of course that was his best game! He dribbled through two dudes and lasered it to Niko, and only didn't get an assist because Niko bobbled it. When he was on the field, he worked hard, results sometimes aside.

Now, I follow all the players on Instagram, and I saw a few weeks back that Nelson has removed all posts that showed he played for CITY, so I can only speculate that he may have been dissatisfied with how things played out with his role. However, it seems like he's still cool with all the current players and I can't really blame a dude for being upset at losing his job, so I hope his stint with LA Galaxy works out (although I still giggled when AZ cooked him in the preseason game).

Jon Bell - Jon really only ever got spot starts, and while I'd agree he never really earned more than that he was perfectly adequate the times he did play. It really seemed like he enjoyed giving back to the community too, as I remember seeing a lot of posts about him visiting local schools and hospitals talking to the kids and just being a general all around good dude. 

I saw a while back a minute long clip of him talking to some media outlet and the caption was something like "Jon Bell never felt like CITY SC gave him a chance" or something, and I never listened to the audio myself (I spent like 20 minutes scrolling twitter trying to find it and just couldn't dig it up). I hope he knows the he kinda signed up for the same thing with Seattle, but for his sake I hope it works for him.

Lucas Bartlett - C'mon, you gotta like Lucas' story. Gets to camp as a trialist and wins a spot, fills in early when Parker had his brief injury, and did a really good job! I remember seeing a lot of reddit posts of people saying they thought he would be a no doubt starter long term, and while that didn't pan out, he was depth for us when we needed it. I never made it down to the Pitch during the events where he bartended, but it seemed from the pictures like he really enjoyed meeting the fans and making the experience memorable. D.C United was the first MLS club I vaguely rooted for when I was 7 (I'm still looking for a Marco Etcheverry jersey) so I hope they do well with him.

Niko Gioacchini - Say what you want about his frequency going to ground, the dude stepped up when Klauss was out and scored ten goals for us. He didn't even complain when Klauss came back and Adeniran started balling, being a bench player and super sub for us later in the season. It seemed like he really liked the area too, I remember an interview of him saying he was looking for houses here and he also did more than his share of community appearances. Plus, c'mon, the video of his goodbye speech had ninjas cutting onions for everyone.

Jared Stroud - This one hurt. There's few things that gave me greater joy during the season than Stroud running up on a dude and starting beef. I remember one game, I think it was the Cincinnati game, where Klauss had gotten in someone's face earlier and then something else happened and Stroud got run up on and I commented to my buddy "see, they've messed up because Klauss can kill you, but Stroud will kill you"

Scary Jerry just always was the attitude we needed when we needed it. I remember when I found out he's from Jersey and is the oldest of three brothers and just thinking "ah, that tracks". I plan to bring a sign to the D.C United game that says "Stroud, we miss you! But we hope you lose today! Please don't kill us!" and I hope he smiles when he sees it. And doesn't kill me.

And finally, do we win that first game in Austin without THE MOST EGREGIOUS BACKPASS IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY. There's so many speculations on how that goal came to pass, and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Stroud actually managed to pull that off on purpose because if you watch the video, he appears to look at Kipp Keller (who is by the way a St. Louis native) and motioned to get the ball at his feet, and Kipp obliged him. Kipp even backed off after he passed to Stroud to give space, which is what you're supposed to do when you passed to your own team, which they were the year before. Potential incredible subterfuge aside, that goal set up the Klauss comeback winner and set the tone for the whole season. We don't win the first 5 games in our teams history without that one folks.

If any of the players I listed ever read this, know that I want good things for you as fellow human beings and wish you well. You were a part of something incredible last year, and I at least will always appreciate that.

Thanks for reading!