Sacramento Republic GM: I brought back most of our roster because I had faith in them

Sacramento Republic FC general manager Todd Dunivant was the latest guest on the club’s podcast, “The Breakaway,” this week, and among the topics discussed was the pieces already in place for the 2020 season.

While Sac Republic changed head coaches in the offseason and made considerable changes to the team staff positions, Dunivant said when it came to the roster, the club wasn’t starting from square one for this season’s roster.

“From a player standpoint, we wanted to focus on continuity as a starting point,” Dunivant said. “Even though results didn’t go our way last year, we had a great group of guys, a great group of players that we genuinely believed in. We were able to bring back the vast majority of them, which is not easy in the USL in particular. But I was very pleased with getting the majority of our guys back, so we started from a much [more advanced] standpoint than we had previously. Mark was able to pick up where we left off, and build on it.”

That may not seem like a big thing, but the history of USL is one dominated by roster churn, with most clubs turning over most of their roster each season. And while the end of the Simon Elliott era didn’t end in glory, Dunivant made it sound like he had a lot of confidence in the players themselves performing after being given another shot this year.

At the same time, expectations remain high for Republic FC, and Dunivant fully understands the stakes.

“We get 10,000 fans every game, and we’re not going to trot out a loser,” he said. “We want to win games, we want to perform and we’re using this time now to develop our culture. We know we’re going to bring that with us, to MLS.”

You listen about that and much, much more from Dunivant on the latest episode of “The Breakaway.”

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