After briefly righting the ship with 4 points from two road games following the low point that was the week of May 5 - May 11, things are once again headed south and it may be time to press the panic button... How bad did it get for the Earthquakes? Real bad “It’s absolutely a disaster,” rookie coach Mikael Stahre said. “My bad.” ... “Obviously, I pushed the wrong buttons,” Stahre said. At this point many Quakes fans are probably done with Mikael Stahre and think he needs to be replaced as coach, but it's tough to discuss that sort of thing without the names of some potential replacements. Some (mostly-realistic) potential coaching candidates: NASL: Marc Dos Santos - SF Deltas, now an assistant coach with LAFC Alessandro Nesta - last with Miami FC USL: James O'Connor - Louisville Alan Koch - Cincy Ian Russell - Reno Simon Elliott - Sacramento College: Jeremy Gunn - Stanford Bubby Muuss - Wake Forest MLS assistants: Robin Fraser - TFC Chris Armas - NYRB Not currently employed: Caleb Porter - last with Portland Bruce Arena - last failing miserably with the USMNT Former MLS players: Guillermo Barros Schelotto - probably not going to leave Boca Juniors for the Quakes Javier Morales - give JaviMo a shot to become the next GBS? Former US players: Steve Cherundolo - assistant coach of VfB Stuttgart Tab Ramos - US U-20 coach My take: Gio Savarese is showing with Portland that a lower division coach can succeed in MLS... 1. Marc Dos Santos 2. James O'Connor 3. Allesandro Nesta 4. Robin Fraser
And of course there are just about a thousand coaches in Europe, many better than Stahre... I think we should take a look at some coaches in Germany, I'm realistic enough to know that no one who is succeeding in the top level there would be interested (sorry no hotshot like Julian Nagelsmann or Domenico Tedesco), but maybe some coach from the 2 Bundesliga who has taken his current team as far as they can go? Some random names from Europe... Frank Schmidt from FC Heidenheim - I saw him in that documentary on German coaches... Markus Anfang - did well in the 2 Bundesliga Peter Bosz - buy low based on his success with Ajax following his disaster with Dortmund Graham Potter - the coach we should have hired from Sweden Gertjan Verbeek - coached both Bradley and Altidore in the Netherlands
Next 7 games: @ LAG (5/25) @ Chi (6/2) vs LAFC (6/9) vs NER (6/13) @ RSL (6/23) vs LAG (6/30) @ Por (7/7) Does Stahre make it through that? Given how this team has performed so far, what can we reasonably expect from that stretch of games? How many points does Stahre need go get to still have the job after the Revs game? After RSL? Galaxy at Stanford? Portland? I just can't see things turning around under Stahre, just fire him Monday morning and give the team a chance to recover under a new coach, who can then have the summer transfer window to reshape the team.
Why has no one mentioned Arsene Wenger? He's currently unemployed, of course, he's legend status and wouldn't waste his time with the Quakes, but my god, could you just imagine how amazing we would play? But of course, if we can't get a Tedesco, we won't be close one smidgen to signing Wenger, who's yearly wage would surely be far greater than any one of our players (and of most players in the league).
So if it would never happen, what's the point of even mentioning it? Also, Wenger was innovative in the 90s and 2000s, but certainly has not been at the cutting edge of coaching for a while now (that would be Guardiola, Klopp, Tuchel, etc.). Soccer is a young person's game, even on the coaching side. What Wenger brought that was new, things like changes to training and diet regimen, are now standard. The new hotness is stuff like advanced data analysis, Dortmund's Footbonaut, Hoffenheim's Videowall, etc. the biggest being the adoption of various forms of gegenpressing:
Jeremy Gunn would be a great choice. He is local and knows the American player. I don’t know though if he would want to leave the comfort of Stanford for the uncertainty of the pro game. Or the Quakes for that matter. Caleb Porter for example had signed a 10 year contract extension in 2011 I believe at Akron and quit to take over the Portland Timbers. Granted he won an MLS Cup but only lasted 5 years and is now out of a job, Bruce Arena is too old and I wouldn’t want to see him at the helm. Maybe as a consultant or GM. Alessandro Nesta just took over as head coach of Perugia in Italy. They are involved in the promotional playoffs. Sounds like Nesta is pretty happy he got the job and will probably stay there whether they get promoted or not. As far as hiring currently employed MLS assistants, isn’t there a rule against it? I remember Jeff Cassar got in trouble because of it when he went from Dallas to RSL in 2007.
The coaching search should begin and end with Hugo Perez. He has more youth connections in Northern California than any of the local college coaches. His teams play out of the back and value flowing soccer that is a joy to watch. His eye for talent was unmatched in the US youth system. He knows how to develop young players. It’s long overdue.
I agree with what you're saying. It would never happen because people would never take it seriously to get him here....But remember, philly fans went around like idiots chanting the name of a team that doesn't exist at football games, and look! They have a bad team. Who's to say we couldn't do the same? Yes, for the 90's/early 2000's he was great! However, MLS is stuck in the 80's and i'd wager any team from the 70's in England would put us in our place. He might be old, but he has a lot of experience. Even if he implements tactics from 2010, we'd still be a monster of a team.
I though Caleb Porter is just waiting in the wings to become the USMNT head coach? If things continue and the Quakes get embarrassed at Stanford against the Galaxy (which at this point is highly likely knowing how Ibrahimovic performs when the spotlight is on him) Stahre will be shown the door.....dwindling season ticket sales and losing what the front office/marketing team consider the biggest game of the year will be to much of an embarrassment for front office. If poor season tickets sales sped up the removal of Dom, why wouldn't get Stahre booted? Unless someone tosses a ton of money at them, no big name coach is going to want to work for this ownership.....owners not showing it desire/dedication to winning (see Oakland A's).... thats why you'll end up with someone who is A. old and washed up B. young with no experience who will work cheap C. Someone who is clueless (which is apparently what we currently have) Arsene Wenger at least knows where San Jose is located. It's a pipe dream even considering/fantasizing Quakes would land someone like that. pipe dream ˈpīp ˌdrēm/ noun an unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme.
I did not realize that, thanks for the info. Looks like Perugia finished 8th in Serie B under Nesta. If they're not promoted and he isn't offered a job elsewhere, I think it might be possible to lure him back to the US....
I've been mentioning Hugo Perez on here for years, but I think it may be too big a leap to appoint him as our MLS coach. I think we should hire him though, he's currently coaching youth soccer in the bay area, why not hire him to coach the Quakes development academy? If he does well he could take over the entire development academy, and as those players come up through the system maybe he could coach Reno and then the Quakes...
Porter is not on the list of USMNT coaching candidates: Current list of #USMNT manager candidates. Ramos, Tata, Marsch, Berhalter, Friedel, Osorio, Vermes.— Rob Stone (@RobStoneONFOX) May 5, 2018
You don't put Hugo at the bottom of your pyramid, you put him at the top. Why would you ask him to identify and develop talent that the head coach wouldn't even play? The Quakes have skilled young players. There are a lot more out there. The Quakes need a guy that knows which ones have "it". They need a guy that is willing to work with them to develop. They need a guy that will put them in situations that best suit their games (do you believe that TT will be successful playing the last 8 minutes of a lost game? That it will boost his confidence?). Honestly, the very best scenario for SJ right now would be for Fischer to can both Fioranelli and Stahre. Move Chris Leitch into GM and hire Hugo Perez to coach the club. It's time to flush the Euro experiment and stop the endless parade of international/green card mercenary acquisitions. We know Leitch values developing youth and isn't afraid of the growing pains. He'd be perfect to work with Hugo on a rebuilding of the team's future direction. By the way, I heard from a friend of mine that is a coach in northern California that Hugo was the one that spotted Jonathan Gonzalez playing in Santa Rosa as a young kid and got him involved with the youth national team. Can you imagine how much better the Quake's midfield would be if Hugo had been the coach and encouraged the Quakes to sign Gonzalez?
Bingo. I met Hugo Perez' son at a game a few years ago and chatted with him the entire time. He was sharp, friendly and knowledgeable. The fact that the Juventus Sport Club that the Perez family runs is tuition free was both appealing and news to me. My impression is that the US Soccer establishment has blackballed Hugo Perez, probably because he sees through the dysfunctional system and wants to fix it, which threatens entrenched actors and their paychecks. Your idea is worth the try. It couldn't be worse than what we've endured for many years.
MLS teams like NYCFC, Toronto, and Atlanta would do well in the early 90s English football, when Italy had all the good international talent. This was voted on an Italian magazine as the worst 20 seconds of soccer and was played by the 5th and 9th best PL teams that year.
Thanks for your support of this idea. While I’m at it, I would also clean out all the assistants. Bring in this guy as Hugo’s number 2 and groom him to be Perez’s replacement when Hugo gets the El Salvadoran national team job after winning multiple MLS Cups with SJ.
I didn't want to scan the video to figure out who you this person is. If it is FCD coach Oscar Pareja, he would be a good choice to coach the Quakes now despite last year's FCD collapse.
Their academy director, Luchi Gonzalez. Who apparently played 8 games for the Quakes in 2002. Oscar Pareja is not leaving FC Dallas to be an assistant coach for the Quakes under Hugo Perez... that makes no sense on any level, he's with a somewhat competent organization, with much better players, as the head coach, in the city he wants to live in, with over twice the PPG currently (1.7 to 0.82).
Thanks. I didn't think the other poster meant Pareja, but when I started the video, the narrator mentioned him first.
I think we have to be realistic in what coach would be best with Jesse continuing to be the GM of the club. With him at the helm he probably will not cede the power guys like Arena, Porter, and possibly some of the youth-oriented guys want to make player personnel decisions. Jesse is the man with the vision and won't be looking to hire guys who see themselves as the vision guys who'll work on implementing their slightly different visions.Sorry for the weird wording I think the four main qualifications are the experience with 3 ATB since Jesse looks to be building towards that, adaptability for MLS with some European guys thinking it'll be a cakewalk, willingness to innovate like the Dortmund/Hoffenheim guysAs in actually innovate not just looking at heatmaps like Ralston and willingness to play youth.
Yeah, I think that Jesse is not willing to let go of too much power. So ... 1. We should look for a team that plays the way we want to play. Then, we should try to snag a coach from one of those teams. A lot of these clubs have lots of coaches working with their youth sides, and lower division teams. We can probably get a guy like that, or an assistant to the Jeffe. 2. Failing that, we could use Ian or Chris L as head coach. (I'd love to see Hugo Perez, but that won't happen unless we sack Jesse also, which I think vanishingly unlikely.) 3. We might be able to grab an assistant from some other MLS club. I'd like to see us look for a young-ish head coach in Central America, or maybe Portugal. (FC Porto fantasy here, except they have a lot of coaches and could probably afford to lose one.) The list of coaches is really long. Hell, we could make Paul Holocher our HC. He's already on the payroll. But we need change. Like right now. How is it that Stahre did not get fired today? No. He doesn't. My guess is after we get thumped by either Chitcago or LAF#ck that Stahre gets the boot. We can't let this go too far. And, yet another season in the crapper. Go Quakes!! - Mark