SAN JOSE, Calif. - We sat down with recently appointed club technical director Chris Leitch to discuss his first week on the job, what his new role means for the academy and more.
sjearthquakes.com:
Congratulations on the appointment! How’s it been in the new role?
Chris Leitch:
“It’s been great. I’m extremely excited about the opportunity. I’m working with a great organization that I’ve been a part of for seven years now, so anytime you can impact that club in a positive way is exciting.”
SJEQ:
For fans that may not know, what does the role of a club technical director encompass?
CL:
“My role is to help the technical department as much as I can. We have a great technical staff that has a lot of experience so it will be great working with them moving forward. I’ll be primarily with the first team and helping evaluate what needs to be done on and off the field – whether that’s scouting, budgeting with the salary cap and seeing what our possibilities are. I will help evaluate current, and create new, processes of scouting or bringing in players and analyzing past games. It will be a lot, but it’s a system that will hopefully help bring success to the pitch.”
SJEQ:
How important is it to have you as a former player of this league in this technical director role?
CL:
“I think it always helps when you have someone who has played at a high level. You come in knowing MLS, the history of the league and that knowledge alone will help you moving forward. When I first started, there were only ten teams in the league. It was tough to make a roster. There wasn’t a lot of money to go around for players, and stadiums weren’t being built. Fast-forward over a decade and you see the budgets are expanding; the league is implementing the DP rule that allows teams to bring in high-quality players. The quality of the domestic player is higher, stadiums are sprouting up all across the country and there’s a greater emphasis on the academy programs, which was almost non-existent when I began. For me to experience this evolution doesn’t guarantee success by any means, but it hopefully gives me a better feel for the inevitable changes that will arise in the years to come.”
SJEQ:
Carlos Bocanegra will be the technical director for Atlanta United FC. Chris Albright and Chris Henderson are technical directors for their respective clubs. These are all former players such as yourself that have enjoyed success in MLS. Do you foresee the league continuing this trend of bringing in former players as technical directors?
CL:
“These guys have experienced the same rapid change and evolution that I have with this league. Now they’re in a position where they can help their respective clubs and it is important to know where we’ve been and where we can go as a league. For me, I’ll always be open to the different ways I can help push the league and never remain content with where we are. I will always look to improve any way I can and I think Carlos and Chris share that philosophy as well which is good for MLS.”
SJEQ:
You’ve enjoyed success with the Quakes Academy programs over the past few years and the newly constructed Burlingame Dragons FC. Is there a similar philosophy that you plan to implement in your new role or does that process now change working more closely with the first team?
CL:
“I think first and foremost you do what it takes to get the job done. That’s basically been my philosophy as long as I’ve been with the club either on or off the field. With that said, its hard to be successful alone. I’m open to learning from the other members of the technical staff on a day-by-day basis. You’re going to rely on the people around you who have been there longer than you. Ultimately, when the club enjoys success, it’s not about pointing to any one person. It’s about pointing to the whole group and understanding that we got the job done together.”
SJEQ:
Talk about what this means for the Quakes academy system.
CL:
“I hope it strengthens the connection between the first team and the academy because it’s obviously becoming an important part of MLS. I hope to be a big voice in that. It’s not going to be a regular occurrence where a 17-year-old is going to impact the first team every season, but if you have a good connection between both systems, you can make better decisions all around.”
