The early trades we executed in season 1 were mostly Reyna's, those seemed to work out reasonably well; for example Poku, Villa, ectera. Then Kreis got involved and created the dumpster fire that was the rest of the team. This caused concern at CFG, the investment vehicle that actually owns all of the teams; i.e. the guys who can fire people at Manchester.
This concern, for the significant investment that is NYCFC, started to become apparent after we couldn't win for 11 games in a row. The result of which was getting players like Angelino, who we were never supposed to get our grubby mitts on, and the high priced DP reinforcement that was Pirlo; who had just started a champions league final.
After missing the playoffs during the first year, and seeing the possibility of a terrifying drop in attendance and revenues from a city that is used to winning, CFG panicked just a wee bit. They fired Kreis and every coach except the goalkeeping coach, and brought in their version of the MLS go fast team. Namely, PV and any coaches he wanted to bring; checkbook officially open, get who you need to win. Oh and you've been allocated way more usage time with the CFG scouting system.
Sometime during this sorted affair Reyna reminds CFG that we need at least two years to fully fix the roster because of how rules work in a salary capped league. This in no way caused additional panic at CFG.
So the situation that at the start of year two is that CFG have sent over all their fixers and hired a few to make sure NYCFC sticks to the plan; never miss the playoffs. This is the situation we find ourselves in now.
So the answer to your question of are we benefiting from the mother ship or not is most easily answered with, yes. With the caveat that NYCFC is its own team with its own staff. Whats really happening is that we're engaged in some actual corporate synergy, which I'd thought was mostly a BS term for something that didn't exist. Don't make the mistake of conflating MCFC with the actual mother ship though, those are two completely separate concepts and entities. Any help we received, or appeared to receive from MCFC was at the direction of the CFG execs looking after their American investment.
CFG are the hard nosed guys that have actually managed to do the impossible and make being a top spender in the PL be profitable year to year. If last year and this year didn't work out, they would slash and burn until they got what they wanted.
