10/13/17 Arena quits 10/24/17 Sarachan appt caretaker "for Portugal" (but then we decide Gulati won't hire) 2/10/18 Prez hired (at which point we say we want a GM to hire) 3/20/18 Sarachan "extended through June friendlies" 6/6/18 GM hired 6/14-7/15/18 World Cup 8/1/18 GM starts job 9/7/18 Brazil friendly (rumor) 9/11/18 Mexico friendly (official) 11/20/18 Italy friendly (rumor) Did Stewart give a timeframe? Is he doing any looking while working for Philly or are we literally, once again, playing a waiting game for a US Soccer executive's own schedule? Are we going to have a long term head coach within a year of the opening? Are we going to have a long term head coach for the "fall" friendlies, if so, which ones? Does Sarachan's ever extended tenure symbolize a certain degree of fecklessness? This does not send a message of a well piloted ship.
The first international break of next season starts on September 3rd. If we don't have a coach by then, we should riot.
I don't think there's any need to rush given the World Cup. Throw in the presidential election, the general manager search, and Sarachan doing fine in the caretaker role and the wait makes even more sense to me. A coach in place by late summer or early fall is plenty of time to build toward the Gold Cup.
I don't know. I think it's unlikely that we have a new coach by the September friendlies if Stewart really isn't doing substantial work on this until August 1st. If Stewart is conducting a serious search, there should be a bunch of candidates interviewed, which could take weeks. And then when they've settled on the choice, I'd imagine the contract negotiations could still take a couple more weeks. On top of that, if they're hiring a coach from an MLS contender, would that guy want to ditch his MLS team right before the ramp up to the playoffs just so he could be there for a couple September friendlies?
Making a hire just to make a hire does not send the message a of a well piloted ship, either. Yes, we can hire any American coach right now. We can also hire any American coach two months from now. Why limit our choices arbitrarily? If we have any interest in any of the coaches in the World Cup we wouldn't be able to announce anything for a few weeks. I would not be shocked if an announcement comes with in a week of the World Cup ending. Back in 1968 the University of Wisconsin was set to hire Bob Knight from Army as basketball coach. They made an offer, he tentatively accepted. He asked for a few days to think it over. The University leaked it to the press that they were about to hire Bob Knight. Knight withdrew from applying for the job upon hearing this.
The way MLS is set up there is no thing as a contender. Can go from near last place in June to making the playoffs and competing for a Cup. You just have to be hot for a few months. So almost everyone is a "contender". So if you want the NT job, get yo' ass in here and get to work. It's not like any coach here has a threat of relegation hanging over their heads.
In isolation the theory makes sense. Against a background of recurrent decision-punting it looks a little more dubious. Each punt has a logical explanation. But if we punt again that logic seems irrelevant or at least passe. Put differently, it appears to me that the time clock is being driven more by Stewart's schedule than any desire to coincide with the world cup. Coming from a different direction, we just saw Spain's coach fired on the eve of the world cup because it was announced "prior to" that he had a gig for afterwards. Which gets at the "he has an agent dude" reality that coaches with jobs already get approached routinely. Or teams with coaches already approach other coaches (both JK and Arena). Or coaches pre-sign for their next gig. Someone mentioned Queiroz, about who I am meh. But review of his wikipedia page will find that he has already applied for another gig going forward, even as he coaches Iran in the world cup this cycle. In fact, the guy we hired for GM has another job and we're waiting on him????????? But coaches, no, you're right, be the good boy and wait for their term to run. "After the world cup." But reality check, no signs of that churning quietly below the surface, instead we're waiting yet again for some exec to be happily situated where he can even start the process. There was that article where we waited on firing JK because some guy needed a transplant. In practical terms this isn't a ton different. Are we doing this for the team or is this federation now decaying into some third world prerogative-driven fiefdom?
Should also lob in there that the Rob Stone leak which has become an ad inifinitum coaching selection thread, undercuts the idea this is really Stewart's prerogative alone. So you go back to, what is the coherent logic here. The coherent explanation behind everything seems to be bureaucratic with Sarachan used to fill the hole while the bureaucrats play their games. That he keeps getting extended out itself repudiates the idea of this as a designed process with a controlled end. Clearly Gulati thought he would decide, etc. etc. Each powerplay delivers a timing logic but then that logic does not actually hold. Worse, Sarachan, who is the answer for nothing, has now been extended out enough where he starts to get his own seat at the table. It is a defensible counter-logic to argue "hand him the team, he's already had it nearly a year." Even if reality is he is an unheralded assistant coach (with occasional head jobs) who has won two games since he got in, against second rate South American experimental sides. Lost Ireland and then a bunch of low scoring ties. This is no way to run a railroad.
I buy your timeline and that's what I am starting to get grumpy about. I am not sure we get any hire, outside or in, in time for September coaching. They might even have to watch Sarachan coach. How nuts is that. I could even see a domestic choice -- if that's what happens -- being allowed to finish the MLS season. The GM's own ability to have his cake and eat it too is precedent. We're talking a year, 13 months to hire a coach. I don't necessarily disagree with the notion that having arrived at a place in time we then must rush forward. However, at a certain point that's kind of indulgent when you've had this long. Re your Knight argument the counter argument is outlined in my other post, since when do teams chivalrously await contract term to talk? Our own GM hire is not by those rules. Additionally, you need look no further than Vermes to see that while it can be framed as taking the necessary time for coach x's schedule, it can also run out the clock on coach y and they reup or go elsewhere. it's verging on a tautological argument that the best coach is always in front of you. Kind of self serving. Maybe it's the best of who's left. I still think if US Soccer takes away the transplant surgery exec's power and makes a definitive play for Arena, we qualify. Plus, I don't think "wait for world cup" is planned. As my timeline showed, I don't think there was some big picture plan in that way. it may be the new sales pitch. But it wasn't the plan the whole time.
Additional thought: while we do have 4 years left, we actually had 4-2/3 years to work on this. And we will soon be burning through the 4 years. This is not a snap your fingers fix. The new coach has to come in, evaluate, implement a system, find players suited to it, train players a few times, etc.....soon enough, Nations League, Gold Cup.....I'd prefer more time than less......like wasting a head start we had.......and while people are trying to frame it as needing to wait for the right candidate, I think we've been waiting on the bureaucrats to play their games and on their schedule to leave their jobs.....this is not about timing for the right guy, it's about federation politics. Also, the last 2/3 of a year at the end of each cycle are "lame duck." By that point you are in or not. So really we will be chopping into the front, and go ahead and take that off the back because it's done by then.
Yeah, I'm mentally preparing myself for Sarachan or some other placeholder to still be on the bench in September. It will be really annoying, but I also don't want them to hire someone just because they can get him signed and in place prior to September.
The coaching carousel, such as it is, will be over by then. The time to hire a coach is between the end of the World Cup and the beginning of the European club season. Stewart can absolutely be working on this before his official start date. If we get to 8/1 and it's like "okay, time to start looking for a coach" then USSF has given up even worse than we think.
Also worth saying, in circling back to "no way to run a railroad," that even if we accept that rushing is not wise, this should be a lesson on how not to run US Soccer, saved away in a memory bank. The past several years really. And since we're on a new regime put it away in the memory bank for when we talk about how the president or GM are doing, retention decisions, next election, etc. We've had a few rumored friendlies bouncing around for months but not announced. We have the float of coaching ideas before the GM is hired. Nothing about this feels firmly controlled. Wavering, inconsistency, leaks, punting, new logics behind why we're doing things......etc.
Yeah, I was thinking along these lines too. Lots of us keep saying, "Oh, these friendlies don't matter. We have so much time before real games start," which is true in terms of calendar time, but in terms of actual game and training time, we have what? September camp (2 games), October camp (2 games), November camp (2 games), January camp (1-2 games), March camp (2 games), and maybe a couple friendlies prior to the GC. Given that some games MLS guys might not available due to playoffs and other games where we decide to give Euro guys a break or they aren't available, we're looking at maybe 5-6 games where we can have our full A-team together prior to the GC. That's not much time for a new coach to do all the things you list, especially if he isn't in place for the September games.
It's a difficult dance to be sure. You don't want to lose out on the guy you want, but when it's apparent that you aren't getting who you want as your #1 you better be sure that #2 is in line. If it is a current World Cup coach, we more than likely already have a tentative agreement and the outline of a contract in place with his agent. It's amazing how quietly some of this can happen. Sponsors with private aircraft can make this happen with out many people knowing. What's frightening, college sports fan sites have people watching flights coming in and out of the local airports to try and discern who's interviewing. My point with Bob Knight is, you don't spill the beans before the contract is signed. There could very well be agreements in place that they legally can't talk about it. Or, won't talk about because one side is not fully decided. IE you have a verbal agreement with Yogi Low to be the next coach but he doesn't want you to announce until after the World Cup. You don't issue a press release on the second day of the World Cup that you've started negotiations with his agent. That would be dumb.
The moment he was announced as GM, I can guarantee that Earnie had a half dozen agents messaging him with clients interested in the job. He just needs to determine which ones are serious and which ones are worth pursuing.
I'd guess your two big signs -- short of the obvious -- will be when Stewart takes over, do we announce a name, or instead an opening, and does Sarachan get extended at some point through the September schedule. If they announce a name, Stewart was working "off the clock" on it for us. If we arrive at August 1 and he's like "well, time to get to work," then that's going to be weeks and depending on how much work I'd also expect to hear how Sarachan has been retained a little longer. You'd have to either know the name already, or be confident he can (or already has) watched some tape and can start soon enough to at least watch the training and manage the September team. So at some point some commitments or signs. We have to have someone coaching then.
I think Vermes insinuated as much when he said there was no indications of a plan in place. There are rumors of Gulati still being on conference calls and meetings. If it wasn't piloted well last cycle, there isn't much of an indication anything is changing other than adding a layer of separation between fans and USSF decision makers. I can't imagine what high profile coach is going to want the US head coaching gig. Maybe the intention isn't to target a higher profile coach and get a X & O guy with something to prove.
You'all should start following MLS. The first thing Stewart did upon taking the Union job was to kill all rumors. All scuttlebutt about the team immediately dried up. This is his style.