With his first signing for the expansion side, Nowak may sign former Colorado Rapids keeper Bouna Coundoul.

Nowak is expected to have control of player personnel decisions in Philadelphia and his first signing could be a goalkeeper, Bouna Coundoul, a native of Senegal who played his high school ball in New York. Coundoul played last season for Colorado in M.L.S. and has also played for his national team. He is currently a free agent who has been training with clubs in Finland.

While I was never the biggest fan of Coundoul, maybe Nowak could get a little more out of him than Fernando Clavjio ever did.

“A lot of things happened through the year that I was not happy with in many ways, but I think because of family now I’ve decided it’s the right time to put all my energy into my family and recharged my batters and myself, too,” Clavijo said.

Like I said last week, I believed it was one of those things were he was getting out before he was outed in the offseason. The front office decided not to do anything to him during the year but you can tell they gave him little confidence that he would be returning next season as the head coach of the Rapids.

Even though we all know he was going to get the boot at the end of the year it is almost always better to see someone leave on their own power.

Clavijo said he will inform the team of his decision and endorse assistant coach Gary Smith, who lead the team to a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City last weekend. My bet is Smith will carry out the duties for the rest of the season and Colorado will push heavy for Houston assistant John Spencer in the offseason.

Are you shocked at all to see Clavijo stepping down right now? What does this mean for the Rapids?

According to reports he will not be back in time for the club’s weekend match with Kansas City, but he did not rule it out completely.

The situation comes at a time when speculation is surrounding his future with the club. His contract runs through this season. Currently the Rapids haven’t won a game since their July 4th blowout against New York. At 6-10-3 on the year, the Rapids are the second worst club in the league.

Its one of those odd things really, he knows his time is limited with the club right now. So does he go ahead and just bolt town before he gets the pink slip? We will have to watch and see but something like this always screams that the person is leaving on their own terms and not at the hands of some suit in the front office. Either way it doesn’t sound too good for this club right now.

What do you make of this news? Is he as good as gone here or is this just a thing to fuel the presses?

First up from the desk of Steve Goff. He’s reporting that Fernando Clavijo “thought he would be fired” but did not in a recent meeting with executives from the club. Instead he was pretty much given an ugly vote of confidence, meaning he is the lame duck that we all thought he was. His contract expires at the end of the season and unless the Rapids turn things around quickly and make a MLS Cup this season, Clavijo will be shown the door after the final game.

I think the club is probably doing this because 1) they rarely make moves like this during a season, 2) they are hoping in the off-season to be able to bring in a John Spencer (former Rapids striker) or a Paul Merinar to take over, and 3) because at this point I think they believe their club is seriously still in the playoff hunt despite their recent form. I guess they don’t watch their club much either.

Clavijo isn’t the answer now, nor has he really ever been for this club. I could see him go elsewhere in this league but then again I wonder if any club would really take a chance on a guy that is well below the sea level in terms of all-time records.

In other Rapids news, I have gotten word the LA Galaxy have indeed passed on defender Cory Gibbs and that the Rapids will use their allocation spot to sign Gibbs. No word on if they will actually keep him but more than likely they will at this point in the year.

Decent move for the club but in all reality they should try to trade him away to a club that needs defense and that would probably be willing ot deal with them for him (Dallas, Chivas, or Columbus).

No word on what exactly his contract will be like. My guess for a guy that is an injury concern he will get a deal with some options for a couple of season. That would make the most sense because you don’t want to be tied down to a player that is pretty much on the IR all the time.

Its about time right?

Yeah, considering the Rapids have been pretty terrible in recent weeks (1-5-3 in their last nine). Plus Clavijo’s all-time mark with the Rapids now stands at 39-49-24. Those aren’t exactly numbers that he promised when he started with the club. I think I recall him even saying by year three they would be a MLS Cup contender or something to that effect.

What happened in year three? The Rapids missed the playoffs.

This move could be coming in a matter of days so I will keep you up to date on what I hear.

No one has been fired since but seeing that we are now at the “All-Star break” here (well sorta, there is a game tonight) it seemed like a good time to revisit this once more.

To be honest, I have kept up a little bit on the sidebar with this list but haven’t gone into any detail about it. The names you see are in the heat. Though I did have to take Real Salt Lake’s Jason Kries off the list due to his club’s recent success in the standings.

So who makes this list? Who is feeling the heat now at the All-Star break? Well, its still a couple of the same names and maybe one or two new ones that are fairly close to going on the hot seat. Let’s see, shall we?

1. Fernando Clavijo, Colorado Rapids: I think at this point we all know that Clavijo is and will forever be on the hot seat. He is a lame duck coach right now and I honestly see no way of him being resigned by the Rapids this winter. The only way however would be a MLS Cup run, meaning either get to the game and win it all or just get to the game. That may really be the only way to save him at this point is a trip to the MLS Cup.

It won’t happen though. His club is like his coaching style, inconsistent. Sure, they are currently still in the run of things here but its that inconsistent play that continues to haunt them. For the first couple months of the season it was win-lose, win-lose. No winning streaks and no losing streaks. By summer we finally saw streaks but none of them have been a winning streak. I believe the only other club this season to not have a winning streak of at least two games is San Jose. That’s not good company to be in.

An all-time record of 52-67-32 leaves me wondering why he has had a job this long in the league.

If they are to get back on track the games coming up will certainly help. Three straight at home coming up, but then another three straight on the road. Their final two months see them play the likes of Houston, Chicago, RSL, and New England at home. Not the clubs I’d like to face late in the year.

2. Juan Carlos Osorio, New York Red Bulls: Ah yes, another year and another New York coach feeling the heat. That’s probably the biggest reason why this club has yet to see success in it’s history, they quickly give up on a coach. Will that happen to Osorio this year? Well, it still may.

The club currently sits below .500% at 5-6-6 on the year. I know they recently sign a slew of players, while losing Jozy Altidore to Europe and seeing Claudio Reyna retire. Not to mention their best player has been injured a majority of this season. I get that, I do.

But aside from all of that this club has a terrible defense that was expected to be so much better with Osorio. I don’t know if it was because they cased too many former players of his like Wilman Conde before the season that they forgot to actually sign talent. Some people thought their defense was really good at the beginning of the year but over time its gotten to be pretty bad (26 goals allowed, tied for second most allowed in the league).

Now if these new players that Osorio has gone out and signed this summer actually work. There is some hope with a guy like Jorge Rojas but one guy isn’t going to turn around that defense over night.

I look at that remaining schedule and while they have plenty of winable games to get them in contention, all of their road games look rough (at SJ, twice at Chicago, at RSL, at Columbus, and at DC). All of them are places they don’t play well at. With 13 games left, they have to make the most of their home games. They can get it done but its going to take a lot of work and some Osorio magic to take place.

3. Ruud Gullit, LA Galaxy: They’ve been great at times and have been absolutely bad at times this season. We know the offense can score, we do. And we know the defense can’t defend a team of 90-year old women, we do.

Management has said that its MLS Cup or bust for this club. Now I don’t know if that means they would buy-out Gullits contract that was for a couple years or if they would just up and fire the guy. I think most still would like to see them fire Alexi Lalas regardless of what happens this season.

If he can improve that defense before the end of the year, this club has what it takes to win it all. With that offense you can pretty much beat anyone on a good day. Plus it doesn’t hurt that the MLS Cup is in the HDC this year.

Their schedule left sees them on the road eight times. Yikes, only five home games! Well, okay six because they play Chivas one more time. Still, for a club that isn’t great on the road, that isn’t a good thing. Not to mention with the up coming World Cup qualifiers this fall, they will be without Landon Donovan for some time, Carlos Ruiz (if they don’t trade him), possibly David Beckham, and possibly Edson Buddle. All key parts to this club.

Others close to the fire:

• Curt Onalfo, Kansas City Wizards: Another season with no playoffs could be trouble for Onalfo, even with a young team. I doubt he will really get the boot this year or even in the winter but their offense and defense leaves me little reason to get excited about them this year.
• John Carver, Toronto FC: Should the Reds see another second half stumble like last year you can bet Mo Johnston won’t think twice about pulling Carver off the job. But Mo better be finding Carver a striker ASAP. Ten goals in the last nine games isn’t going to cut it.
• Dominic Kinnear, Houston Dynamo: No way Kinnear will get the boot but the fact that his club sits currently at 4-4-8 on the year isn’t too good either. I’m hoping SuperLiga put a spark in this club.

Who is missing here? Let’s hear it, did I miss a coach that deserves to be on the hot seat right now? Don’t like the main three that I picked? Comment below.