Here's what he will do: "McBride’s primary areas of focus will be to oversee the development and management of the player pool, build and guide the culture within the Men’s National Team environment, manage relationships with clubs and represent the USMNT on the global stage. " Stewart hired one of he and Berhalter's 2002 World Cup teammates and USMNT great with little general management experience to do this job. This is a big job with a lot of moving parts, but mainly relates to player management. Scouting, development, communication, etc. I'm sure that he'll also be working with Berhalter to make decisions on who to bring into camps. This should be interesting. Fans in the US fancy themselves as general manager know-it-alls. Now the object of their disdain becomes Brian McBride, a guy who Fulham fans love so much that he has been memorialized there. USMNT fans also have quite an affection for him for his performance, work ethic and character. Let Big Soccer v. McBride begin.
Okay, I get that there aren’t exactly a million General Managers with knowledge in the beautiful game, but honestly, why McBride? Is it because he can sacrifice his work-life balance by living in Chicago?
Ah, so there's the new narrative...Berhalter = BAD, Stewart = BAD, McBride = GOOD...so as for now, Berhalter + Stewart + McBride* = BAD, where *= not really a factor.
Interesting. Loved him as a player and have no doubt he will give heart and soul for this job. Does he know how to do the job? That's a legit question. In the press release, there are 6 paragraphs detailing his soccer achievements (and, clearly, he could ball, best pure forward the US has ever produced). There's one on his post-playing life: "For the past seven years, McBride has provided expert on-air analysis and commentary, first for FOX and then ESPN. In 2011, he founded McBride’s Attacking Soccer Academy, and he was the Co-Founder & Chief Strategic Officer for TiPEVO in charge of strategic offerings and outreach to the youth sports community. He holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Saint Louis University and a USSF ‘B’ License." That's some relevant experience, but this is his first GM stint. It's a big job for a first time GM. Hope he knocks it out of the park.
At first blush, I thought it was hilarious how much love the McBride hire was getting -- people love him, so they were just ignoring that he seems eminently unqualified. I was hoping for someone with strong player development credentials, perhaps in Europe or South America. But when you see his responsibilities, McBride seems like a solid, if not home run pick. Some of the stuff was things that Earnie and Berhalter were clearly offloading that they did not like to do -- manage club relationships, and in Earnie's case, going to the media. I'd imagine McBride is going to be better at both of those, especially the latter. We rarely get anything out of Earnie; I expect McBride to be an easy interview to find. I think the build and guide the culture aspect is helpful in that Berhalter is more cerebral -- McBride can bring more of the fire. And the managing the player pool probably encompasses some of those phone calls we'd all wish Berhalter and Earnie would make more often. I also expect he will get a say on call-ups -- that's the one part where I'm not sure if he's bringing a ton to the table. But he's an affable, media-savvy, complement to the cerebral ranging to grumpy we have now, and I think that's why he's brought in. It makes his role seem like fluff, and maybe some of it is. But it's also the fluff that Earnie and Berhalter weren't good at, and this frees up time for them to do other things.
Why do people think Chicago is a place no one wants to live? It's a really cool city. It's not like USSF is headquartered in Topeka, Kansas (apologies to Topekans; it was just the first random city that came to mind). Tons of professional people in various industries move, all the time.
Das ist Mist, Herr Nietsche Ist Mord. [1] I have yet to meet a fan, in person, who fancies him or her self as "general manager know-it-alls". There are not even that many who fancy themselves as "manager know-it-alls"..... but I have met many who can see the fruits of incompetence and nepotism staring at them year after year. [2] Uh, nope. Brian enters the scene with a huge amount of good will as a person, as well as earned admiration as a player. If he can save the USMNT from the malfeasance of The Brothers Berhalter a shrine may well be built in his honor. Should he be unable to do so, and TBB keep doing unto us what they have been richly doing so for the last couple of years, then the fault lies with them, Nepo and Egg, and not with Brian McBride. Let Chicago House desperately hoping that Captain America can save them from themselves begin.
As someone who has lived in Chicago, "cool" doesn't begin to describe the chill most people in that city must abide in.
My only questions at this point is: as GM, does GB work for McHead or is McHead simply doing things GB doesnt like to do? I for one think GB is doing a horrible job on player selection and strategy. I fully expect this to be clearly obvious when the next series of games start in the Spring. Can McBride step in if this happens and direct changes or is he just a figurehead? Time will tell and GB has had long enough to show something
In short, McBride will just be doing things General Egg does not like to do. It is a shame that what General Egg likes does not match up with what he is able to do well.
I expect player selection across all national teams is more of a group decision at this point -- Berhalter, Earnie, Kreis, scouts, etc. I'm sure McBride will have a say in those rooms. But while the official org chart is very vertical and hierarchical, I would not expect McBride to be dictating anything to Berhalter. The vision and strategy of the US program is coming from Earnie, full stop. He has a view of the national teams playing a similar style with coaching staffs fully integrated (hence, the Chicago decree, amongst other things). McBride isn't a figurehead, but I also don't really think he's Berhalter's boss so much as the three of them will be in a room a lot together making the bigger decisions. And while I'm sure McBride will bring a different viewpoint on individual players or choices that could influence things, there's simply no way he was hired unless he was on board with the larger strategic vision.
I thought it was pretty obvious, but people on Twitter were loving this. Go read the announcement. The job "description" couldn't have been more vague. All it says is that he is supporting Egg and Earnie, which means he has virtually no authority. I have no doubt this is strictly a PR move, and to US Soccer's credit, it seems to have worked. I haven't even considered the fact that McBride might not be qualified, which someone could answer much better than me.
I think it works like this: Earnie takes the job as GM then realizes he is responsible for hiring/firing the USMNT Manager so he creates a new position called Sporting Director and decides he is the perfect candidate for the job and takes the seat. Then he notices the job of General Manager, with said duties mentioned above, is vacant. So, he hires McFriendly Hero Nice Guy to take the job of firing Jay Berhalter. All clear?
One of my all time favorite players, but is an ex-teammate of Berhalter too close to him for an unbiased evaluation? Of course, Earnie Stewart and he who shall not be named have the same issue...