Dallas is doing quite well with their new head coach, Peter Luccin. I'd go so far as to call him "the French Wilfried Nancy." [I know. Its a joke.] There will be a bunch of openings in MLS, and Berhalter will interview for a bunch of them. I've yet to figure out why Peter Vermes seems to have a job for life in Kansas City. At some point soon, the seat is going to get hot under Josh Wolff in Austin. The list goes on. Being an MLS coach isn't easy due to parity. When people say Berhalter only did this or that in MLS, I'm thinking..............Berhalter made the playoffs 4 out of 5 years. Made an MLS Cup final. Owners and front offices will want a guy with his resume on their sideline compared to some of the other doemstic coaches that get jobs.
He is, but the job is his if he wants it. [Or so they say.] He ticks all of the boxes. Very successful European career as a player in France and Spain. Came to Dallas as a player, and then worked his way up thru the organization as a youth coach, reserve team coach, then assistant to Estevez. Just knows the organization backwards and forwards. If he'd laid an egg, then they start another hiring process. He's done the opposite. [I know the "French Wilfried Nancy" thing was a joke, but Luccin does have the capacity to make that kind of impression.]
Doug McIntyre isn't even updating us on rumblings at US Soccer; instead he's doing a human interest story on the Olympic team. It's good they're keeping it quiet. I kind of wonder if that points to Renard and we won't hear until early-mid August. I still think Vieira smells like the bait to distract us.
As he set out to conduct a global search for candidates, he deployed a multifaceted evaluation mechanism divided into three categories: [several lists of corporate-speak] Within these categories, he utilized advanced data analytics, sophisticated metrics, and cutting-edge hiring methods to profile and rank each candidate. During the course of several weeks, candidates were evaluated through all of these filters and went through a battery of practical and psychological testing. In the end, after a multitude of domestic and international coaches were considered, the choice, in the end, was clear and convincing. ---- In the end, I don't see any international coach of renown subjecting himself to the humiliating peeking and poking, taking batteries of tests and, in the end, performing tricks for the Federation. So if, in the end, those were requirements, they basically reduced their pool to the local coaches willing to, in the end, subject themselves to such asinine methods. If they're doing the same again we'll be lucky to have a coach before Christmas.
People want the Fed to fork over millions of dollars to a new coach but then they are aghast that the fed would want said person to take a few psychological tests. Seriously? In what other world do businesses pay someone millions and to be the face of the company without doing a thorough evaluation? If someone isn't willing to do a couple psychological tests in order to get a job paying them $3-5 million dollars a year, why would you even consider hiring them?
Exactly. You command respect with behavior. Not with "a name". You're not talking about a bunch of junior high students acting up in math class... these are professionals and they'll (overwhelmingly) respond to a professional approach.
This is true. Even Leeland Van Lew had to be subjected to a rigorous screening by Reuben Feffer from Indursky and Associates.
And it's also this weird confirmation bias. First you decide Crocker is an idiot. Then it's easy to arrive at "Pep could show up at the office ready to interview with Scaloni and de la Fuente ready to be his assistants and Crocker would turn them all down in favor of someone willing to take a stupid test." Did Emma Hayes have to take a psychometric assessment? If so, why didn't it bother her? There's nothing "humiliating" about pencil-and-paper assessments it per se. When Crocker was two months into the job, it makes sense he would rely more on that stuff. We don't know enough about the process to complain convincingly about the process.
I do think the thing to gauge with the bigger name candidates (if there truly are some) is how committed to the job they'll be. I don't know that you need some sort of formal psychological test to do that, but it would take in-depth conversations to see about their knowledge of the player pool, ideas about a tactical approach that would fit the team, how they'd do things differently from club level, etc. If, say, Pochettino called Crocker and said, "I want the job," Crocker pressed for a more in-depth screening, and Pochettino didn't want that, I'd say that's a red flag with regard to Pochettino.
Sadly, at this point I don't think we can blame the players much. They are what they are. They could do better with a decent CB pair though. Adams was vital to our '22 team. This time he's likely out for good (or he can be a backup at best), so my current hope is for Cardoso to keep improving.
I think I saw Rio Ferdinand say that Glenn Hoddle was the best England manager he played under. Glenn was fired for expressing the view that people with disabilities were being punished for sins in a previous life. But he's available.
I know I’ve been waiting for some new name to be floated that freaks out the fanbase only for it to be shot down a day later.
Something is amiss. Crocker says it was clear who the guy should be after evaluations. I thought Marsch was his guy, until the players changed his mind. What is the truth here? Because if Marsch was the guy after the interview process and Crocker threw that out the window because of the whim of some players, he has no integrity at all. And if Berhalter was the clear choice after the process, why the business about how the players swayed him, I was new to the job, that’s not clear at all. He sounds like he’s full of shit to me.