Rich Telford is one of the best, if not the best coach / owner out there and with players coming and going, it matters not, for as long as Rich runs the show, XSV will be up there somewhere.
It might all self-implode, who knows but what I do know is this, some players get above themselves.
The MOST important thing to remember is this, the team is the identity, it is the brand, it is the main thing and the players are just employees of the team.
Some of these fackin pro players lately think way too much of themselves both on the field and off. In this month's article for PGi (not a shameless plug) I have written why I believe Nexus went the way it did and there I mentioned a case where one of my players said to me this year that because he had played for Nexus for so long, he believed he should therefore own some of the team.
The fact he had been enjoying hugely subsidised Paintball, being able to play in the very top of our sport across the world with fantastic sponsor privileges, and also unbelivebale media expsore, all this seemed to have escaped his rationale for believing he should own some of my team.
Some players, especially some pros are just about the most ungrateful people I have ever met in my life and yet the irony is, if you ever meet Ollie Lang, the greatest player there has ever been, he is one of the most grateful guys I have met, he is respectful, professional and gracious.
Why the fuk isn't he a role model our pros aspire to instead of this ******* culture so many seem to indulge in?
Rich Telford is a man's man (a stand up guy ), a true professional and if those players have left XSV then it's their frikkin loss because that team there was sitting at the very top of the pile usurping Dynasty's stranglehold on Paintball and that was all achieved under Rich's tutelage and direction.
I doubt any of those players could do what Rich has done and although some of them may find a limited success with other teams, I personally think they are sometimes so far up their own ass and they lose sight of what's really got them to where they are, and believe me, I have some pretty recent personal experiences of just that mode of thinking.
Good Luck Rich is what I say !