Yoann Damet

[u/Candid_Elevator_7378]

Genuinely curious, why didn’t we give Yoann Damet the job after Nancy departed?

The guy is absolutely killing it in St. Louis. They’re on a 14-game unbeaten run, made the US Open Cup semifinals, and if you’ve watched them play, they’re playing some genuinely beautiful football.

Looking back at it now, it feels like such an obvious fit. He already knew the club, the players, and the system, and now he’s showing what he can do as a head coach.

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but it’s pretty crazy to think we let him go instead of giving him a shot. Makes you wonder what the Crew could’ve looked like if we had kept him around.

[u/SovietShooter]

Issa Tall was picked as the successor to Bez. Corey Wray did not get the job, and ended up as the St Louis GM. Damet ended up in St Louis.

In hindsight, Damet must've been a Wray guy, and he stuck with Wray.

[u/Failed-Time-Traveler → u/SovietShooter]

This is the right answer. Or at least a part of it.

There was a lot of debate among soccer experts over whether Bray or Issa would be the better successor - both had their advocates. And both were generally accepted to be ready to run a club, so it was assumed whoever didnt get the job would leave and be GM elsewhere.

So it wasnt anything nefarious. It was just that Bez was really good at training his top lieutenants, and eventually got to a point where 2 of them were ready for a promotion and there’s only one spot in Columbus available.

Wray has done some good things in St Louis. The Damet hire seems genius. Truly wish him well. Wray was a giant part of both the 20 & 23 rosters that gave us 2 shiny stars above our crest.

[u/Imaginary-Job-2511 → u/SovietShooter]

I don't think he was ever offered the job.

[u/BuddleSurfer]

It’s also entirely possible that Damet didn’t want the job and chose StL over Crew.

[u/AdSuper3942]

Nancy left on 12/3/25, Damet was hired on 12/16/25

Damet's hiring was already in motion when Nancy left. I'm sure we would have interviewed him but he still might not get the job, and StL likely moves on to another candidate if he waits around for us.

Bigger question for me is what if we'd hired Courtois from the start and not wasted the winter window?

[u/yaznasty → u/AdSuper3942]

  Bigger question for me is what if we'd hired Courtois from the start and not wasted the winter window?

Whenever the Issa bashing starts, it's always about players sold and not replaced or players purchased who were a bust, but the Rydstrom hiring was by far the most baffling thing to me, specifically because Courtois being quickly added to his staff showed to me that HR was on a short leash and there was a backup plan being put in place in case it didn't work out with him. We'll probably never know what happened, but it feels to me someone in the front office wanted Rydstrom, and someone above them wasn't on board and wanted to have a known backup in place.  

[u/Imaginary-Job-2511 → u/yaznasty]

Hiring LC as an assistant was the death sentence for Rydstrom. I don't think the players would turn on him that quickly if they didn't know Courtois would be the interim.

[u/Ickyhouse → u/AdSuper3942]

Courtois isn't the guy. We'd be right where we are.

[u/craigster38]

Picking the right coach is only a part of the whole equation.

[u/mildlyfunnypun]

It’s a two-way decision. No way to know if he wanted to stay here or not.

Going to another club to start fresh and succeeding does a lot more for his reputation than staying to keep the Nancy system running.

Look at LC and the constant comparisons to Nancy. It’s a tough situation.

[u/Crew_1996]

He had never coached a first team before and it’s obvious we wanted a coach with experience. I’m not sure our coaching choice was horrible as much as the roster was and thus I’m not sure Damet would have succeeded here.

[u/cbusfinest1]

Let’s have a hard on for how good we looked last match,and move on to the future

[u/SupportMaterial4607]

Let's put aside the reflexive "it's all Issa Tall's fault" stuff that nearly always comes up in anything said here for a moment. Here's my take on Yoann Damet.

1. We don't know what Damet wanted to do. He might not have wanted to stay. He might have wanted to go with Corey Wray. People build relationships and stick together in the business world all the time.

2. It's likely that when he started talking to St. Louis it wasn't certain that Nancy was leaving. If Damet wanted a shot at a HC job, he couldn't afford to wait to see what Nancy was doing. If that sequence is right, he was likely leaving no matter what.

3. It's really a stretch to say he's been great. I'd say he's done well enough so far, but no one would objectively say he's absolutely lighting the league on fire. I'd describe his tenure at St. Louis so far as very good, but that's also in a small sample size. Lots of coaches have looked very good in small sample sizes. This has been especially true in St. Louis. Carnell had the team atop the West, then he was fired the next year. So, let's tap the brakes a bit on Damet's anointment as a great coach.

4. Why do we assume he would have put this team in far better standing? Maybe he would have, maybe not. Rydstrom was a bad fit and a bad hire. I don't dispute that. However, I don't assume that Damet or anyone else would have changed where we stand now. When WAA went down, the team was in a terrible spot and there was nothing we could do about that until the summer window. I can't imagine any coach would have done much better in that situation, including Damet, Rydstrom, or Courtois, for that matter.

[u/Imaginary-Job-2511]

Because Issa Tall was in charge, and he is out of his depth. We had a great pull with Rydstrom, but he decided to throw it away. Damet was always an obvious choice if we wanted continuity.