Next Coach

On the other hand, March's availability is becoming more likely.

 

Sure though we don’t know that they aren’t doing those things. This particular leak came from the Zidane side and not the USSF side. And in the context of him also turning down interest from Brazil and Portugal. Once the process is over we should get a better sense of how broad a net they cast. Either way the group of people conducting this coaching search is very different than how it’s been done in the past, so I don’t think past searches are a good proxy for what will happen here.

I don’t have strong feelings on Hjulmand, but it’s hard to say a coaching search is good or bad because they did or did not contact one particular candidate.

 

If you listen to Leeds Youtubers, maybe Marsch will be available. But I’d rather he continue his snails pace evolution toward greater tactical flexibility before he is considered for the national team. I do love the way he communicates with players and fans.

 

I do think there are European managers who do have interest in the US job for their own idiosyncratic reasons. The trick is figuring out who those coaches are. Hence the need to do due diligence and reach out to guys broadly to gauge interest.

Southgate for instance I believe has said he’d be interest in coaching in the US once his time in MLS wraps up. Pep has also said he’d be interested in coaching in the US at some point too.

The trickiest thing I think for a top club manager is that coming now is a 4 year commitment. Unless they are an Ancelotti type who is at the end of his career, they typically don’t want to be away from the club game for that long. I think Ancelotti would be available and interested in 2024 for instance. But he’s not coming right now. You also can’t have a two year interim coach with only the hope of a big name coach at the end of two years.

 

Regarding the bolded, I don't think that's true given that 21-32 coaches at the 2022 WC were under 55. I can't be bothered to look at all of their careers, but I'm pretty sure most of them have spent a lot of time coaching at the club level before taking the international job.

 

I know I have heard in the past that some coaches coached a national team and kept their ties with their club teams even actively coaching both sides. I do not think it would be a good idea or even work well but I have become curious and wonder if there has ever been a coach that successfully pulled that off.

I do not think the success rate for those that attempt that kind of thing would be very high but I am not as adept at searching as some around here and it is hard for me, at times, to completely trust my ageing brain so I thought I would ask.

I do know there have been coaches that have coached both the women's and men's national teams, Canada is one that has done that, but, except for Canada, I do not remember any country that had any success with either team when that was attempted.

I also think I might enjoy the debate this idea could produce.

 

I should hope not. He has a strong possibility of carving out his own legacy whether at Leeds or elsewhere. If I were him, I'd come to the NT post-26.

 

I don’t think all international managers are older, but that the top tier elite coaches in the game typically don’t like to coach internationally till later in their careers. Morocco’s coach for instance is a younger coach. But he brought up often during the World Cup how African coaches don’t get opportunities in Europe. For him the international job was where he could make his name.

Also when you are hiring domestically you usually end up with someone more in the prime of their coaching career because there’s an appeal to coaching ones own country in the World Cup.

But I don’t know that there’s one sitting EPL coach who would have any interest in the USMNT (other than possibly Jesse Marsch of course).

 

Guus Hiddink did it for like a year from 2005 to 2006. Coached PSV to an Eredivisie title and CL knockout stage appearance while coaching Australia to the World Cup, and then to the WC Round of 16. I don't know if there have been any other successful examples since then though.

 

Then again.... hosting a WC is a huge advantage. It might be the best cycle ever to take over given the talent on the MNT/YNT. If Jesse took over and we got to a quarter or semi-final then I have to assume he would have a ton of options at the club level.

 

Ernst Happel was coach of Brugge in the Belgian first division at the same time as he was coaching the Netherlands national team in the run-up to the 1978 World Cup. I think his time as Brugge coach may have ended while the World Cup was still going on, but for a while, particularly in the first five months or so of 1978, he was coach of both. And he was successful with both. Brugge won the Belgian first-division title in the 1977-78 season and Holland reached the final of the 1978 World Cup.

 

It may have happened before, but it seems like a terrible idea. I don't think any coach can have the focus they need on either job if they are juggling both.

 

Ages of all coaches at World Cup 2022
Coach Team Age Date of birth
Louis Van Gaal Netherlands 71 August 8, 1951
Carlos Queiroz Iran 69 March 11, 1953
Fernando Santos Portugal 68 October 10, 1954
Luis Fernando Suarez Costa Rica 62 December 23, 1959
Tite Brazil 61 May 25, 1961
Gustavo Alfaro Ecuador 60 August 15, 1962
Gerado Martino Mexico 59 November 20, 1962
Graham Arnold Australia 59 August 3, 1963
Hansi Flick Germany 57 February 24, 1965
Dragan Stojkovic Serbia 57 March 3, 1965
Zlatko Dalic Croatia 56 October 26, 1966
Hajime Moriyasu Japan 54 August 23, 1968
Herve Renard Saudi Arabia 54 September 30, 1968
Paulo Bento South Korea 53 June 20, 1969
Czeclaw Michniewicz Poland 52 February 12, 1970
Luis Enrique Spain 52 May 8, 1970
Gareth Southgate England 52 September 3, 1970
Didier Dechamps France 52 October 15, 1970
Jalel Kadri Tunisia 50 December 14, 1971
Kasper Hjulmand Denmark 50 April 9, 1972
Roberto Martinez Spain 49 July 13, 1973
Gregg Berhalter USA 49 August 1, 1973
Rob Page Wales 48 September 3, 1974
Murat Yakin Switzerland 48 September 15, 1974
Diego Alonso Uruguay 47 April 16, 1975
Otto Addo Ghana 47 June 9, 1975
John Herdman Canada 47 July 19, 1975
Walid Regragui Morroco 47 September 25, 1975
Felix Sanchez Qatar 46 December 13, 1975
Aliou Cisse Senegal 46 March 24, 1976
Rigobert Song Cameroon 46 July 1, 1976
Lionel Scaloni Argentina 44 May 16, 1978

 

The real upsetting thing for me, and it just hit me, is that not one of those coaches was born in the same decade as I was.

Now I really feel old and decrepit. Thanks, I think.

 

Leads fans can thank me. I reverse-jinxed him today.

 

I think the interesting thing to look at is how USSF will have to adapt if they get a big name coach who likely will not base themselves in Chicago. I think there have been some benefits to having almost everyone under one roof, especially with the scouting and relationship-building aspects. The NT coach has been a lot more available for the grassroots operations, coaching licensure, an other things that were a bit disjointed.

Even with the battle of dual nationals. If we get a big name coach, do we lose out on the longer plays but win with the bigger names who are ready now?

 

I strongly doubt that.

clubs might let the world cup influence their player recruitment, but I don’t remember many coaches getting a big boost from it, apart from Klinsmann with Bayern (which is the biggest club in his home country, and hired him without any club experience).

For example, there has never really been strong links between Southgate and the top English clubs.

If Marsch came on within the next 12 months or so, that would mean he spends 3 years outside of the club game, and also likely that he wasn’t overly successful at Leeds.

no clubs in a top 5 league are going to look at a guy who was unsuccessful in his only two jobs at that level as a top option, just because he made one good World Cup run. I imagine he would still be appealing to some clubs in places like Belgium and the Netherlands, but I think that would still be the case now.

 

I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll give it a shot. I think you're suggesting that a "big name" coach might convince, for example, Balogun to join the USMNT but might be less inclined to give shots to lesser dual-nats.

Regardless of who the next coach is, I would think the scouting and communications folks will not be affected--they'll continue their due diligence at following all the players they have been (and whoever new that crops up). I may be wrong, but I get the sense that a big part of McBride's job is to open and maintain communication with potential USMNT players. The next coach will almost certainly appreciate having all this knowledge at his disposal. How he decides to use it might differ from how Berhalter has used it, and the new coach might ask that team to focus on different attributes. So, to distill it, I think it will still end up being coach's decision as to who to call up and for what reason, but they'll still have all the data available to help make that choice. As always is the case, it will be a case-by-case assessment. Some dual nats might benefit and some might lose out, but that's how it always is with roster selection.

 

I highly suspect that the hours on being a club coach now are much, much longer than back then.

In most North American sports, being a coach has become somewhat all consuming on that level. I suspect it is the same with soccer.

Plus the PR aspect -- the instant there's a stumble, it will be labeled as the problem. USSF is pretty patient, but the club side of things would be a problem.

And, of course, I suspect no one's contract allows for it.

 

Maybe after Wrexham are promoted, Phil Parkinson would be open to the idea?

I'm joking. I think.

 

Well it looks like Roberto Martinez is off the market…

https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2023/jan/09/portugal-appoint-roberto-martinez-manager

Just hired to coach Portugal.

 

I'm not sure how what you posted (what each coach has accomplished) proves what you said (that NT coaching is prestigious).

It's an honor to coach the national team of your country, but there is more money and "fame" in big club coaching. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Argentina, Germany, France, Netherlands have a pretty strong "pool" of coaches, with each having a couple with the kind of resumes people are looking for. But in most cases the best coaches from those countries are coaching club football and don't end up coaching the NT. Coaching the NT is relatively a niche job. That doesn't seem to impact the ability to lead the players, either, is my main point.

 

In general it's much easier to get a prestigious coach to coach his own country as opposed to bringing in prestigious coach a foreign country. There is a different appeal there.

But I don't think all those coaches had prestigious coaching backgrounds. Scaloni did a very good job with Argentina, but had virtually no coaching record to speak of.

Even someone like Van Gaal was basically retired because his last club stint had gone so badly and players like Di Maria were saying he was the worst coach they had ever had. Definitely someone with a great background, but none of it had been recent and no one was looking to hire him otherwise.

 

Curtin says no one has been in contact with him

On the national team front, Jim Curtin said there's been no contact with the national team to him. More in the story today, but this quote, on the stakes of the 2026 World Cup, I found enlightening. pic.twitter.com/6bn2mnPhKg

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) January 9, 2023

 

Curtain's an interesting guy for this. Seems like a player's coach. He doesn't seem to have a particularly strong belief or ethos in the right way to play -- or maybe he does now -- but Philly tried to play more like Earnie wanted when Earnie was there and now they try to play like Ernst Tanner wants. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

They pretty much run their stuff. He's not doing big changes game to game, but then again, Tanner has bought for that style. So it's all kind of circular.

I think he comes in with a lot of the same question marks we had about Berhalter.