Rob Stone: US Manager shortlist is Ramos, Tata Martino, Marsch, Berhalter, Friedel, Osorio & Vermes.

I kind of was seeing your POV until the Sarachan comment. Then I knew it must be a bit.

 

Sarachan has almost no head coaching experience. He’s essentially a career assistant. Also he’s way too short and kinda fugly.

 

The assistant, for the start, doesn't have to be Sarachan (who will probably leave on his own), but should be someone who knows what has been happening the last couple of years, knows the player inventory, knows the opponents.

When a company does a takeover of another company in the business world, they usually keep the current management for six months. Of course, many of the current management want to quit immediately. So it is sometimes part of the takeover that the current management must stay for awhile.

My point, fwiw, is that Bastain Schweinsteigger knows more about soccer than anyone else who would be willing to take the job. Does anyone think that Jesse Marsch knows more about soccer than BS? A career MLS midfielder vs a world-class midfielder. No way. As for personality issues, keep in mind he was Germany's captain. JK was only an "honorary" captain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastian_Schweinsteiger

 

I think you could have left the bolded part out and I wouldn't necessarily disagree. We can't go out and hire a pretty damned good coach if we want, we have money and that is a strong persuader.

Not advocating for or against Schweine, but not buying poor little USSF. I want somebody on the fringes of the circle jerk at worst, but they want the pivot man.

The JK experiment wasn't necessarily wrong, it just went on too long. That was mostly due to having a good agent, and Sunil having a man crush on the guy.

I want a coach that has an overarching philosophy along with real tactical nous, and flexible enough to conform his plan to the players he has available, not the players he wishes they were. I would prefer somebody that is in the world cup, or a club coach from a top four league with a winning record.

 

How does Friedel even make this list? Early signs are encouraging, and he may develop into an excellent coach someday. But FFS, let him accrue some work experience.

 

How can Ramos be on this list after he told Gonzalez to play for Mexico? SUM is a joke.

 

My favorite broadcaster, along with Donovan and Howard plus Holden (unchained version)

 

Put Schweinie at TechDirector and let him get his badges and learn all the ins/outs of the concacaf biz from a staff department like Tech and promote him eventually.

I agree we should leave Sarachan in place but bear in mind the marketing suits are already talking about Bradley being back with the Nats (it is seeping thru on game calls). We'll see if Sarachan can stand up to the marketing or if he caves.

 

What does SUM have to do with this?

 

Everything. SUM gets all of the profit generated by the MNT, and pays and flat fee to the Fed. They sit on the BOD of the Fed. The Fed is always going to do what is good for SUM. The Fed has basically licensed out the NT's to SUM. SUM makes the calls. And, the MNT is just one of of many assets SUM owns. They are only one of many diverse assets controlled by SUM.

 

Yes because ESPN, Coke et al make no profit off of the NT.

So you're saying SUM picks the coach? That the Jurgen/Bruce hires were chosen by SUM for profit? That they choose the roster or something? How far does this go for you?

 

The manager picks the roster. But, right now, with an interim manager, who is a company man, who thinks he has a shot at the job, you don't think SUM has some say in Pulisic being called in, flying intercontinentally, at the end of a long season, to play against a U-23 team? Oh, by the way the match is close to Puli's home town and his presence should sell a lot of tickets. CP's dad certainly thinks something is fishy.

And, scheduling a WCQ in Jersey, where you're guaranteed to get a sellout with CR fans, who will pay anything to see their team in a WCQ? Ya, think SUM made that decision. What else could explain it? And, oh, by the way, SUM makes money when the CR Nat team plays in the U.S., so energizing the CR fan base isn't a bad thing.

 

Where is neg rep when we really need it?

 

I want an experienced national team manager, who has some National Team playing experience, or in the alternative, I'd settle for an experienced club manager, who has considerable national team playing experience.

But I'm too busy today to parse that list to see who qualifies...

 

Read my entire post. Don't just take one thing out of context.
I do not want a mediocre manager. If ussf wants one, then Sarachan is as good as the other mediocre guy.
I want someone special. Someone who can communicate, can play the game, can win a world cup. That is why I want Schweinsteigger, not Sarachan.

 

I know it's ambitious, and probably too expensive, but Rafa is making noises about being unhappy at Newcastle, I wish we would make a run at him.

 

While Vermes is a great coach I have a feeling he sticks with the same older players 2years in. What’s working at SKC will only work for so long with the national team.

Marsh has the upper hand in my opinion unless Tata has any interest.

 

I cannot believe there are seriously people in this country who think the best option in the world to coach us back to world cup qualification is Sarachan.

Sarachan is Steve Fisher. Career assistant and when he was elevated to the main job at Chicago he fell off from Bradley's level. So it's like a xerox of a xerox of hiring Arena or Bradley. Which I am not advocating, I'm just saying, he's even that much further down my pecking order than people we would pull our hair out for hiring.

FWIW, he was not an assistant on a winner being promoted, he was an assistant on the team that didn't make it. And once interim promoted he's won one game in 3 tries from Paraguay, Bosnia, and Portugal. Even Arena looked better for two games.

 

That there is a short list before there is a GM undercuts the rationale for delay -- I feel like we are wasting a year, and we could have hired anyone off it probably last year when Arena was given the boot. It suggests US Soccer is now bogging down in corrupt federation politics like many third world countries. There was a degree of that with Chuck Blazer. There is a degree of that in always having to host Gold Cup, and in some of the recent site selections that seem to favor money over homefield advantage. But this is the first time since somewhere before 1990 that I would literally look at who we're considering hiring and say WTF, and wonder if we are stuck in someone's sports-inefficient power game. I care if they make the world cup. I don't care if the president gets their way, a GM gets created, or that inside baseball. And if I care about the inside baseball at all, I care about end product. If they spend a year on the sausage machine politics and this is the sausage it creates, efff this. I expected some Big Name for waiting a year, not this nonsense.

I mean, we waited a year supposedly for the president to get elected, and then a GM to get picked, and then this list comes out before the GM is hired and is no one new we couldn't have gotten last year. This sounds like we care more about internal politics and empowering people with ties, than the sports end.

I hope that this is really some thought balloon of obvious domestic options to keep a reporter from thinking the new president is just feet up on his desk. That we will consider everyone internationally and only the best off this list will even be further considered. But the list is largely a joke and worse sounds like having made a big show of how we need an independent GM to make decisions, the president behind the curtain is already pulling levers. In which case spare us the delay and the kabuki theater and sign someone in 2017.

 

I'd say the idea is pretty absurd.

By that definition, you may as well try and get Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Or Henri. Or Mario Gomez.

I do think Marsch knows more about the sport of soccer than BS. Bastian doesn't do payroll. BS doesn't sign players. BS doesn't structure contracts, set up teams, or set up tactics. He doesn't manage assistants, work with organizations, or do PR. Doesn't mean that he can't be a good coach, but being a good soccer player doesn't automatically make you good at coaching/man management, which is what coaches do.

 

If we're hiring domestically, hire someone who has actually won league, showing they can, you know, coach. To those who are like, but the payrolls are different, well, SAF was the last non-Glasgow coach to win Scotland, with Aberdeen. If you're such a good coach you shouldn't just lose to the obvious like the rest.

Otherwise I am amused there are tons of "hot names" on the list and Vermes is the only one who ever won anything here, and not the one I'd pick. And the same two teams have made it in the MLS final the past two years and neither team's coach is on the list. So we're more concerned with hype than actual winning.

To me going for a coach who's never won, on perceived potential, is building your team around a player you just scouted or maybe capped for the first time, and who didn't score a goal on their first appearance. Not a fan of hopeful coaching picks. Too many track records around.

 

Wouldn't SUM want a winning coach so they can make more money.

 

I actually agree with the Geman coach idea. They tried it with Klinsman but he was never thought well of in Germany. The question is which well thought of German coach (or coach who has recently coached in Germany) would want to coach the US. Schweiney is someone who may become one someday but is completely unknown at present and would be a huge gamble. Wagner is a high level coach with German knowledge and is even slightly American having been called up for the US a few times. Cherundolo has a much larger connection with the US team and is coaching lower level in Germany but I'm guessing even he would say he's not ready. Berhalter perhaps? Maybe a non US national and non-German who is looking for a new challenge? He'd better let US Soccer know because they don't know about those coaches right now. Also could make a case for a coach very familiar with the Chilean national team, a really good Italian or Argentinian coach etc. Don't really think the list for this thread is very creative and probably / hopefully just an initial list.

 

As I said I would go with Viera as TD and Wagner as HC.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wagner_(soccer)

He is fighting with Huddersfield. Knows how to fight while undermanned and outgunned. Problem is how much to get Huddersfield to let him go? Plus he is a Germican!! Known for being tactically sound.

 

Wagner just signed an extension.

And good. No young manager should give up a quality club gig for a NT gig.