I don't know if anyone else was watching the euro matches this afternoon but Grant Wahl said US soccer is having trouble finding candidates for the GM job because of the way its structured. Basically the assumption is the GM job would be over all of the men's program including youth set up. Truth though is that its just over the national team and Tab 'I don't have a clue' Ramos is still in charge of the entire youth set up. The GM job was a great idea but the way it is set up is just entirely bs, it should be over the entire set up and they really need to fix this. Tab Ramos needs to exit the setup entirely and get a club job and prove he can handle a job on his own. The idea of a guy like him may get the usmnt job just scares me so much.
Yeah, it's not a real TD position. Club GM's are used to having much more control than this position would allow. I think not getting to the WC is going to lead to a lot organizational growing pains that were combed over by making the WC. I also think USSF are going to have trouble finding a coach (American or European) for the men's team.
Not surprising that very few people are jumping at the chance to be a scapegoat. A true TD setup would have been grand. Just pluck someone from the best academies in the world(juniors would be nice since they have a proven track record finding gems in rough spots), give them power to make some improvements and step back. But instead it's a figurehead job. With the only real power being having a voice in calling in players and input into coaching searches. The only people who will want this will be doing it for a paycheck with very few opportunities elsewhere.
It’s easy to interpret this position as a insulating layer between the public and the president/CEO/board. I’m sure missing the World Cup wasn’t pleasant and they don’t want any continued public oversight.
A couple folks have been interviewed: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...t-curtis-interviewed-us-mens-national-team-gm
very good to see the grownups are being interviewed stewart would be a great choice...but to have full control not just the mnt.
Yeah, that might be a sticking point. He'll likely have a greater impact on player development staying with the Philly Union then taking the US GM job, sadly.
USSF, doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, despite their leading to failure... Is there any way to fire these people? They are totally incompetent!
I think most people would be happy with Earnie and he bridges the gap between the domestic crowd and the euro crowd. I don't know enough about Curtis to have much of an opinion there other than he seems to lack the international perspective Stewart brings.
totally agree but I think he needs full control youth and full mens team having tab ramos who was involved with dropping guys like mckennie and jonathan gonzales from youth teams scares me. I mean he dropped gonzales and then complained he didn't have a natural 6 on his roster lol.
You all who are in favor of hiring Stewart are unfortunately misinformed. While it is true that the Union don't have tons of money to spend, Earnie has made a lot of mistakes with his signings and wasted the money he has had available. Furthermore, he has refused to fire his coach, Jim Curtin, who is in over his head. This indicates that he is not a good judge of coaching talent, or he took a position in which he doesn't have the control necessary to do his job. Based on his Dutch record I used to think very highly of him. But his Union experience has shown he is either unable to solve player selection problems or doesn't recognize them. Hardly the person we would want in charge of the USMNT.
It should be noted that Stewart has never fired a manager before. He's only replaced managers after their contracts run out.....
mls is a very different set of rules then he had at AZ and a very different set of rules he'd be using with the usmnt. people are always in a hurry to fire a coach...until they then realize there aren't really great options. I mean could he fire him and get a porter...that would be an upgrade...but porter basically just got fired so is hiring the guy who just got fired in the same league sounds like one of those premier league moves where guys like big sam are non-stop being fired..and hired but there isnt any real improvement.
I somewhere in a US thread wrote down what the role of a TD is in clubs and in the Dutch FA. From your comments I get the impression you want a club style TD, while that isnot what a FA TD is about.
Unfortunately the USSF has giving the development side over to Tab Ramos. The GM role is simply to hire and fire the coach of the National Team. The position does not have a lot of influence on the youth development side of things. Tab Ramos reports to the CEO of US Soccer, and not the GM for the National Team.
In this thread I wrote down some things about TD positions: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/pulisic-speaks.2078564/page-13#post-36112552 see posts 313-317-318 for those interested.
Let's think in terms of an old fashioned corporation that makes widgets. General Manager is called General because he deals with all matters as opposed to an operations manager who keeps the process of physical production of widgets humming. The General Manager makes sure the Accounting department has its papers in order, if the union boss calls the GM deals with him, he makes sure the plant and equipment is up to date vis a vis the competition, he deals with governmental regulations, etc, etc. The TD as I would like to define it would correspond to an engineering department in the widget company. Basically it deals with how the widgets could be better fashioned - whether it's the U17 widgets or the U 20's or any other widget. They sample and monitor plant, equipment and labor performance and issue reports comparing tech specs of competition with the widgets the company produces, etc. etc. The most important function is likely the issuance of reports recommending how the company could get a competitive edge over the competition thru technical improvements. For me the difference with USSF is that I think the TD should be staff which reports to President instead of GM because it needs to have the independence required to critique the performance of the various teams. Producing widgets with reports due on Wall Street 4 times a year is one thing; producing a result in the World Cup every 4 years is quite another.
Maybe an easier analogy would be with US Govt: POTUS - Cordeiro White House Chief of Staff - General Manager Sec of State - USMNT Manager National Security Adviser - Technical Director. Henry Kissinger was Nixon's Natl Sec Adviser before becoming Sec of State. I think Rice was Bush's Natl Sec Adviser before becoming Sec of State. I could see the TD becoming USMNT Manager with USSF.