I quite literally have said nothing like "tons." The alternate take is you seem to think there was no better, more internationally successful and experienced coach we could have hired than Arena-Sampson-Bradley-Berhalter-Klinsman, which I think is a fairly untenable claim. Many small (from a footie stand point) or poorer countries hired more successful and experienced coaches than 2 guys who had US D1 college coaching experience. My argument is simply that I think our program would be been better off with more experienced (even if not at the Sr. Men's head coach level) coaches. But that's water under the dam. I hope we continue to try to hire the best internationally experienced coach we can, and staff some of the U's as well. That's just my take.
The problem is budgets............... We aren't paying the salary of our head coach. its being paid for by our right-wing billionaire benefactors. The CSA in Canada isn't paying Marsch's salary either, so at least we're not alone. Will our sugar daddies continue wanting to pay for things? We'll see. If not, we probably can't afford a coach's salary similar to the top 10 federations in the World. [Pochettino was the 3rd highest paid coach at WC26. The two guys getting paid more than him didn't go any further than he did. Ancelotti with Brazil and Nagelsmann with Germany.] How Billionaires and a Costly Red Card Are Reshaping U.S. Soccer “We hope to prove to folks that we’re good stewards of capital—that by virtue of giving us money, you can see impact,” U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson said in an interview. “And if you look at our business over the last two years, we went from a business losing $40 million a year to one that will be quite profitable and is making record investment in things that years ago wouldn’t have seemed possible.” Those investments include Pochettino, who makes his debut as U.S. coach this week with a friendly against Panama on Saturday in Austin, Texas; USWNT head coach Emma Hayes, now the highest-paid women’s coach in the world; and a new $200 million National Training Center under construction in Georgia. Financing for many of those efforts has been secured through donations, a relatively new priority for the federation. Batson said the group has raised more in the past year—upwards of $60 million—than it has in its entire history. “Part of this is that we just never asked people before,” Batson said. “Turns out, that helps.”
Ex Germany World Cup and Bayern Munich manager Jurgen Klinsmann was our big money gamble, at a time when US Soccer had much less money. He made as much as $3.3 million one year. How did that work out? The $30M a year US Soccer got from SUM was the bulk of their revenue. I'm not sure many top managers would have taken the job after 2018. And if they did you would have had to find funding for their salary over the course of 4 years.
If I were hiring, the whole interview would be related to aspects of answering the core question: “How do we make the quarterfinals in 2030?” I think Poch did a terrific job of finding a tactic that worked for the core players. He did a very good job of improving the culture. His squad selection was IMO fair…some good things but the lack of an Adams backup needs to be justified. He gets an incomplete for “dual national recruitment” and “finding and integrating new talent” because of his short tenure…but Alex Freeman is a big plus. He also gets an incomplete for “building on field chemistry.” I don’t think he was smart or effective with his subs. And we looked worn out against Belgium, which calls into question his squad rotation and conditioning. For me, Poch would need to allay those concerns before I’d rehire him. Especially about wearing the squad down. And for all the outsider candidates, they’d need to give good answers to all of these questions.
Up until about 2 years ago, if even then, a huge contingent of fans were adamantly opposed to hiring a foreign coach. It was reported Poch was living in Barcelona while the head coach and there were lots of fans who didn't like that. So I think getting a big international coach to coach the team and who is willing to live here (I could care less) is going to be difficult. "There's go to be someone" isn't an answer. I'd be ok with a guy like Schmetzer but 1- I don't think he's interested and 2- I don't think many fans would think he's "good" enough. I'd love for the Fed to surprise us, and they did with Poch. But I don't think that's going to happen. Though, I'd love to be wrong. Nagelsmann I think is free.
Again, everyone is arguing some "top coach in the world" rather than the simple "best coach we can find with most international experience - even at the youth level - who has come up through a top-tier program." But this is just circular. "We could do better than Arena, Sampson, Bradley, Klinsman" "But we couldn't get Pep, Klopp..." "But we could do better than Ramos, Porter, Kreis." "But we couldn't get Mourinho, Sir Alex..." Ok. We're both right. And then there's the vast, vast, vast middle where we, for some reason, refused to swim.
We should coulda hired a coach with just the right amount of international experience who could have fixed the youth program and got us at least to a World Cup semi-final. Isn't that what Sunil Gulati thought he had with Jurgen Klinsmann? Maybe Gulati, Klinsmann and Reyna thought Richie Williams, Tab Ramos then John Hackworth were the best available options to coach the youth teams at the time. After Klinsmann and Reyna moved on we put Earnie Stewart in charge. He was technical director of US Soccer for 5 years. I can't think of anyone more qualified for the role.
Who exactly are these coaches in "the vast middle" you are talking about? Who are these highly qualified coaches who have been interested in coaching the national team that the federation has blown off? "There has to be some" is not an answer, it's a wish.
We apparently went after Klopp at the time we went for Pochettino. Thru his representatives anyway. We showed ambition and went for it. We got creative with financing and figured it out when we hired Poch. We just hadn't done that before (according to Batson anyway). So...............................can we definitively say that if Poch decides not to continue, that we won't do the same? Can we outbid Italy and others for the service of Pep Guardiola? Maybe. I doubt we'll do that, but we shouldn't ever say its impossible ever again. Just go to Elon Musk and say "We can get Pep Guardiola if we can make him the highest paid coach in the World. $12 million a year for four years. You in??" Elon won't even notice the money is gone. If we were able to use donations to (in large part) pay for our $200 million training complex in Georgia, maybe we can also get those donations for the next USMNT coach. I suspect we might be paying Cherundolo more than any Olympic coach we've paid before. From my vantage point we can't go back. We can't go back to hiring a coach for Berhalter's salary. Berhalter made $1.3 million during the 2022 cycle. Pochettino made $6 million. If you're going to pay the coach $1.3 million, then you're not going to get the Roberto Martinez international coaches. He made $4.5 million with Portugal this cycle. Money doesn't buy everything, though. Saudi Arabia throws money at people. Some go. I suspect that most politely decline. They didn't have Mauricio Pochettino at the World Cup. Is there middle ground between Berhalter and Pochettino? Of course there is. Berhalter, by the way, is in the process of turning around Chicago. He's not chopped liver.
I'm in no way saying we should do this, but we probably could hire one of those lower profile Argentine managers that keep circulating through other national teams in South America. Doubt there's many obstacles there either job reputation or money wise. Those would be the middle types. Maybe a guy like Muneco Gallardo.
...............as long as its not Bielsa. There were posters on here making the case for Manuel Pellegrini for about a decade. That kind of coach could have been obtainable. What I would say is that we should have a requirement that the coach speaks English. It doesn't have to be fluent, but quite well. Pochettino speaks English quite well. Pellegrini spoke English. Some of these guys don't............................. I remember that was a big strike against a coach like Fabio Capello in England. Lippi and Trapattoni are others in that category from Italy. There are some people that have ridiculous ability with language. I remember seeing Pep Guardiola's first press conference at Bayern Munich. You're like..........................when did this guy learn German??? [Supposedly, he took German lessons four hours a day from the second he accepted the job.]
Hold on, isn't the premise of this discussion that we could have appointed a coach 40 years ago that would have revolutionized our player development at every level? Appointing a mercenary international coach, like Claude de Roy, who manages teams through one cycle or less isn't going to do that. And to that end, isn't that exactly why Gulati appointed Jurgen Klinsmann and made him technical director? Isn't it why the current regime appointed Matt Crocker, who took the money and ran as soon as a better offer came along? Let's talk about England. In the 1990s England went through 7 English managers. Then they had the bright idea of appointing the best available coach, no matter his nationality. Sven Goran-Erikssen - fail Fabio Capello - fail Thomas Tuchel - ? Their best appointment was Gareth Southgate, an average club coach to manage the under 21s. He inherited the main job and took England to their first major final in 50+ years. My point is, that even if US soccer has pushed the boat out, using money they didn't have, to hire Guus Hiddink as manager and Cesare Maldini as technical director, there's absolutely no guarantee that they would have fared any better over the last 40 years.
There's a very short list of potential dual nats that haven't already been involved in the USMNT youth program or played in the US. Ken Aboh 21 Forward Norwich City (on loan to Boston United) Bryan Okoh 23 Center back Auxerre Anrie Chase 22 Center back RB Salzburg Bora Aydinlik 21 Winger Fenerbahce (on loan to Beyoğlu Yeni Çarşı) Austyn Jones 18 Forward Jong PSV Alexander Staff 18 Forward Eintracht Frankfurt (on loan to FC Saarbrucken) Leonard Prescott 16 Goalkeeper Bayern Munich U19 The bottom 3 in particular are already part of their home country's youth program.
If Pochettino re-signs and then leaves before 2029 ... it'll be Cherundolo. That's basically done and dusted.
No guarantee Cherundolo will be in that position in three years. Plus if Poch is fired regularly scheduled plans are probably out the window.
He'll be in the job through summer of '28. He's clearly also a favorite of the former player / domestic coach crew. The fact that we won't have a Sporting Director screams to me that they are more in charge than before. The only real specific outside voice to push for others would be if Cone felt that way or basically Ken Griffin. Copa América is likely to be in the US, and it's a likely evaluation point for both USSF and Pochettino. The Olympics are right after. It's just very convenient. The closer we get to 2030, the more someone close to the actual program will be valued. Bradley hasn't even had a year with NYRB and the team actually isn't very good. If he works miracles I could see it, but Cherundolo has a somewhat prime position here, and there's lots of things pointing to him being an heir apparent. I'd also note that while I am not super excited about Steve the coach, he's got great experience for an Olympic coach, and having someone with his CV in program for the next two years is a really smart way to mitigate the flight risk if Pochettino re-signs.
I just don’t see an under 23 coach being promoted unless it’s an interim basis. I’ll change my mind if he wins the Olympics or has a great run but until then my Cherundolo skepticism is there.
Well, Scaloni and de la Fuente were both youth coaches, so there's other federation precedent. But more relevantly, Cherundolo is not our typical U23 coach. He's won an MLS Cup, Supporter's Shield and went to a CCC Final. This isn't Marko Mitrovic or Tab Ramos here. In fact, I'd put out there that I suspect Cherundolo might not have even taken the Olympic job without a conversation about succession.
Yes, but in 2011. Before he became national team manager, he was a national youth team manager since like 2013.