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Report: Jurgen Klinsmann linked to England job

Jurgen Klinsmann USMNT 78

Whenever the England management position opens, a whole slew of candidates from all over the world are linked with the job. This time, one of those candidates just so happens to be Jurgen Klinsmann, even if a move seems unlikely.

The U.S. Men’s National Team had coach has been linked with the England gig in the aftermath of Roy Hodgson’s resignation following England’s Euro 2016 loss to Iceland. The move would hypothetically represent a return to Europe for Klinsmann, who managed Germany before assuming the role as USMNT boss.

According to Sky Sports, Klinsmann does have interest in the England job. However, Klinsmann has publicly stated his happiness with the USMNT job, as well as the toll working in Europe took on him during his days with Germany and Bayern Munich. The German-born head coach still has several years on his contract and would be unlikely to leave before the 2018 World Cup.

Reports abroad state the impression that Klinsmann has made with his USMNT achievements. Klinsmann is credited for guiding the USMNT out of their World Cup group in 2014, while also earning praise for reaching the Copa America semifinals.

Former England defender Jamie Carragher stated that he believes Klinsmann is his pick to take the job.

“My own view is that international football should be about the best in your country against the best of someone else’s,” Carragher said in his column, “so I had always favored an Englishman but there can be no complaints if the FA look to a foreign coach.

“With that in mind, I wouldn’t knock the idea of appointing Jurgen Klinsmann, who has been to a World Cup semi-final with Germany, a Copa America semi-final with the United States and knows our game.”

What do you think of the links? Expect England to offer the job? Should Klinsmann consider it?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Oh, please! Equivocate all you want, but facts are facts, and your excuses are, sad, really.

    As you well know, Bayern is THE most storied club in Germany, and has been for the better part of a century–not to mention Bundesliga champions in the years immediately leading up to Klinsmann’s arrival–as well as after his departure. So this argument of yours: “Poor Klinsy had no talent to work with….Bayern hampered Klinsmann…” is pure pablum.

    Two words: Phillip Lahm. When the Bayern locker room, including the future German & Bayern captain, turns on Klinsmann, alleging that Klinsmann’s time at Bayern was a complete failure, then there are reasons for concern. Credit to Bayern. They saw him for the snake oil salesman that he really is within 6 mos.

    I suspect Gulati has finally had that epiphany, but is gutless to do anything about it.

    Just a damn shame that Gulati didn’t have Lahm’s autobiography on his reading list before hiring Klinsmann.

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    • The Klinsmann haters should probably just quit patronizing the sport for awhile. All they do is complain like spoiled children. Matt Doyle at MLS is the worst.

      I got to see two of the Copa America games. It was a blast and the team showed up and fought for us. Klinsmann included. Some of these moronic JK haters protested the games with nonattendance. What kind of moronic loser denies themselves a historic USMNT fan experience because they don’t get their way in choosing the coach?

      Idiots.

      It’s time for idiot pied pipers like Matt Doyle to give it up. They’re doing nothing to advance the sport here.

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    • And guess how many transfers they signed the year prior to Klinsmann, ten. Frank Ribery, Miroslav Klose, Ze Roberto, Luca Toni roughly 90 million euros were spent that year. In 2008-09 they spent 0, bringing Tim Borowski 23 goals in seven seasons with Bremen and LD on a loan in January.

      Bayern Results
      05-06 1st Bund. 1st Cup Rnd 16 CL
      06-07 4th Bund 3rd round cup qrters CL
      07-08 1st Bund 1st Cup Semis Uefa Cup
      08-09 2nd Bund Qrtrs Cup Qrtrs CL
      09-10 1st Bund 1st Cup Runner Up CL
      10-11 3rd Bund Semis Cup Rnd of 16 CL
      11-12 2nd Bund 2nd Cup Runner Up CL

      13-16 4 League Titles 3 Cup Titles 1 CL Title

      Look at the facts from 2005-06 to 2011-2012 Bayern would alternate good year and not good year. As I showed you in the other post generally aligned with how much they spent in the off season.

      And Lahm was constantly complaining about everyone at Bayern from 2005-2010 because they wouldn’t let him transfer or play right back (not just JK like 6 different managers). Yes, he didn’t like Klinsmann, but he didn’t like anyone else either he trashed pretty much every manager he ever had Van Gaal, Voller, and Magath. His book sounds like Goldilocks and three bears, this manager’s too soft, this manager’s too hard, this manager’s too soft.

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      • Yes, poor JK – stuck at a tiny club like Bayern that never win anything. What was he supposed to do?

      • Come on slow, I didn’t say that, but this narrative that it was all JK’s fault at Bayern is ridiculous. What major club do you know that would spend no money on transfers for a whole season and expect to win their league and advance past the quarters of the CL. No one would do that, people try to make it out like Bayern was as dominate as they are today and then JK came and they were bad and then dominate immediately after he left and its just not true.

  2. Whatever you might think of Roy Hodgson as a manager, you’ve got to tip your hat to him. At least he has the integrity and self-respect to walk away after a humiliating defeat.

    I wish Klinsmann could do the same after several such results.

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    • Its not really integrity when you know you are going to be fired, remember Hodgson couldn’t get England out of the group in Brazil. He just saved himself a day or two of everyone in the media talking about when the shoe was going to drop.

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      • Point is that Hodgson didn’t stick around to get fired, however imminent his dismissal may or may not have been. That is praisworthy. How many coaches at club and int’l level voluntarily step down? It’s much more common that they’re fired, just as Klinsmann was from Bayern after only 6 mos.

        Difference with Klinsmann is that he full well knows Gulati isn’t going to fire him. Judging by Klinsmann’s disingenuous and misdirected laying blame for past failures, he almost looks as if he’s daring Gulati to fire him.

      • He stuck around for two more years after not getting past Costa Rica at the World Cup when people were calling for his head. I don’t see how its praise worthy at all, everyone knew he was done, he can just say at his next stop he wasn’t fired.

        Remember this wasn’t the free spending buy the best players and compete with Barca and Madrid, Bayern Munich this was you get one summer transfer and one January transfer (Landon Donovan) and that’s it. The following year they signed 10 players including Mario Gomez and Arjen Robben who combined scored to score 37 goals across all competitions and with emergence of 19 year old Thomas Muller burst back to the top. In 2011, they tried the one fall transfer and one Jan. transfer and suddenly Van Gaal who had led them to league and cup titles and Champs League runner up was fired in April as well. The next year transfers in Manuel Neuer, Boatang, Rafhina, and two others that didn’t pan out 2nd place in league, cup, and CL. At this point they had learned their lesson and didn’t go back to their 2 transfer rule buying Mandzukic, Pizarro, Dante, Javi Martinez and four others and won the CL. Bayern learned if they wanted to dominate the Bundesliga and win CLs they had to pay for the top players. Only one trophy in 2015, suddenly Douglas Costa, Vidal, and Coman are all signed. That’s a really long way to say Bayern hampered Klinsmann just as much as Klinsmann hampered them, oh yeah and Landon was there too.

  3. I actually think JK would be perfect for the England job. The problem has always been managers that don’t have the confidence or gall to stand up to the FA or employ aggressive tactics with a stable of talented players. JK is a good people motivator, and he would likely bring on an assistant with a superior tactical sense, and you KNOW he wouldn’t bow to the status quo of selecting past it players from big clubs over young, talented players (AHEM rooney over Vardy/Kane), so it could be just what the Three Lions need.

    I think JK is wrong for the USMNT and that his experiment has largely failed. The USA needs a manager who can institute an identity, a style, and a mentality in the players that has been high at the best of times and low at the worst over these last years. Now would be a good time to move on.

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  4. It does show you how Europe evaluate’s the US soccer program. They view US advancing out of the group in ’14 and the 4th place finish in the Copa as notable accomplishments while US fan base focuses on the GC failure and Guatemala game. They also give much more credit to Klinsman for his time in Germany and with Bayern as the building blocks that led to both sides later success. Are they over valuing him? Probably. Are we undervaluing him? Probably. The grass is always greener on the other side of the pond I guess.

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    • Wow a level and non hyperbolic statement!! I’m a JK a supporter, but I dont think he is the savior of US Soccer (I do think he has taken huge steps in player development, and more importantly cultural and philosophical advancement). I do think you’re being a little nice about his time at bayern though. The negative opinions may have tempered a little when Van Gaal spent 70million more for incremental gains (none in ucl if I remember).

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      • I’ve read several articles from the UK and they are much more positive about his influence on the club than what you hear here in the US. Everyone just keeps repeating the highlights from Lahm’s book. A big part of JK losing the locker room was due to him playing Landon above Podolski and Muller which I always find somewhat ironic. He was fired for falling out in the quarters of the CL and being in 4th place with a month or so to play in the league, but only a few points back. At a lot of clubs that would get you an extension, but you can understand why it wouldn’t at Bayern. Van Gaal second season at Bayern was much worse.

  5. That’s about as much tactical preparation as he is prepared to give.We have no zone to step out of. The USA team is totally random soccer. Like a box of chocolates.

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  6. A match made in heaven….I don’t believe it is true, or will happen at least…but a match made in heaven.

    He is probably getting tired of teaching us dumb Americans about soccer. He really is too good for us, obviously. England is also, obviously, too good for us.

    Perfect match.

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      • good point. we probably just need to get out of our comfort zone more, or step on some toes. if only we had listened to klinsmann. 🙁

      • no, don’t leave us hanging! how will we ever understand what happened in last year’s gold cup? what will we do without foreigners teaching us about soccer? should we be calling it football? then will we be good?

      • Last years Gold Cup was a “blooding of young players” that people were calling for this Summer. Brooks, Alvarado, Yedlin, Morales, Garza, and Zardes all saw either first minutes or first starts in a “major” competition. 8 of the starters from the Jamaica game were part of the 11 that started 3 straight games in this years Copa.

        Could we have seen more especially against Cuba sure, but it was an unusually tough draw for the group stage with Honduras and Panama both Hex qualifiers last cycle and always GC dangerous Haiti.

      • if the problem with last year’s gold cup was that klinsmann was using it as basically a series of friendlies, well then no wonder he wasn’t more explicit about “what happened”.

      • The “we were just blooding new players” narrative does not work — Klinsmann himself refuted it in the run-up to the Gold Cup, frequently and explicitly. He was trying to win that tournament as his 1st, 2nd, and 3rd priorities, and certainly he put a lot of stock in the Confederations Cup playoff that came in its aftermath, and that went no better than the Gold Cup itself. Trying to pretend that our poor results were because we weren’t really trying is pretty disingenuous.

  7. As much as I dislike Klinsmann and think he’s taken us as far as he can, England’s interest in him has given him tremendous value…like an item at a yard sale, you don’t want it anymore until a buyer shows interest in it hahahahahahaha

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  8. What’s the over/under for how many germitish (german british) recruits he brings into the England team?

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  9. If he was available I could see this working, but he is committed and enjoying the USSF job and this offer is not enough of a step up to leave what he has.

    Now, US fans need to start appreciating who we have.

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    • I really don’t get all the Klinsmann bashing. The US looked better in this tournament than I have ever seen them. That is real progress. So we got crushed by Argentina… shit, Chile didn’t score on Argentina either. the only difference is that Beckerman wasn’t kicking Messi all game, whereas Diaz and Vidal literally stepped on him all game long. I don’t get it, how can all these people not listen to what JK says about stepping on toes… then see that Chile Argentina game get scrappy like that, and not understand exactly what he was looking for from his guys, and why he was disappointed. It must be a vocabulary thing.

      Let me translate for all the Americans out there: “I wish they had stepped on toes a little more” — “You have to fight for every inch. I am disappointed my guys came out soft.”

      Anyway, yeah, we had a crap result against mexico… and the gold cup was weak sauce… but in soccer, progress is like the Samba… 2 steps forward, one step back… and some side to side shuffle too.

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      • it’s interesting that you call the our copa america result (where we met expectations) progress, but you don’t call last year’s gold cup or confed cup playoff (where we didn’t meet expectations) a regression. “two steps forward and one step back” would be an extremely generous assessment.

        and the “step on their toes” line was laughable because no, that wasn’t the problem against argentina.

      • first off, concacaf has gotten better. secondly, no, we didn’t play well in the gold cup. But it has been a full year of not playing well as we have been trying to change our style to be more proactive. Finally, we play proactive soccer… we finally look like a team that can play the game and knows what it is doing… and you are pissed because we lost to Argentina and Colombia? c’mon man. If you can’t see that this is progress either you don’t have eyes, or you don’t get soccer. SUUURE we have con gold cups… SUUURE we beat spain with bunkerball… SUUURE we made it to a world cup QF by beating a Mexico team that we are familiar with… and then played bunker ball against Germany… SUUURE we previously made it to a COPA 4th place finish by playing bunker ball. This was different this was a team that came out and played to win and did that against very good teams in a real tournament.

      • Losing the Concacaf Cup was really just an extension of the GC so you could argue it was only one step and losing to Mexico on a neutral field isn’t really regression. Second no where else in the world did anyone expect the US to make the semis, and many here laughed at Klinsman when he set it as a goal so you are selling that a little short.

        If you take “step on their toes literally” yes that’s ridiculous, but being more physical certainly wouldn’t have hurt against Argentina.

      • @johnnyrazor

        fair enough on the concacaf cup; so just one huge step back on the gold cup, considering both the style of play and the final result.

        i admit i did think it was a pretty audacious goal to make the semis in the copa america, but that was when i assumed we would be using the tournament to try new players. with our first team, on home soil? i think beating costa rica, paraguay, and ecuador, and losing to colombia and argentina is basically meeting expectations. it just seemed more impressive because we were comparing it to our abysmal gold cup.

        and thanks to you and turkmenbashy for the translation of “step on their toes”. pretty sure most people understood that it simply meant “get more physical”, and like i said, that was not the problem against argentina.

      • no, that was exactly the problem against argentina… did you see how that Chile Argentina game went down? or that Germany Argentina world cup final? shit… I re-watched the game just to make sure my eyes didn’t decieve me the first time… we literally ignored Messi for most of the game. I think we committed 2 fouls. When Wondo fouled Messi… my section of the stands actually cheered that we had finally pushed a little. The joke in the stands was, forget the ball… we aren’t even good enough to kick them! you can’t sit back in a game like this… you have to get stuck in, and fight for your right to be there… otherwise it will be 4-0 every time against good teams. you have to go in and win 50/50 balls… etc. I don’t think we won a single 50/50 ball the entire game. so yes, the problem was physicality…

  10. Odd thing is, Klinsmann’s skill set is working with the psychological aspects of the players and the game. England’s problem is fear of failure and fear of letting everyone down in the big moment and it ends up becoming self fulfilled prophesy whether it be going down a goal to Iceland or England’s kryptonite, penalty shootouts.

    England’s problems are not player development or lack of a deft first touch they have all that in spades.

    They need the one thing Klinsmann loves to mention the most, BELIEF.

    He could thrive there.

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  11. I refuse to get excited but I would be willing to help him pack. He’s a bonehead and England is just the place for him

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  12. This would be a good jumping off point for Klinsmann – the tricky part is Gulati telling ‘no don’t go but I understand if you leave for the England job’. I have many issues with Klinsmann as a coach and the ‘progress’ of the national team over his tenure – but there is no denying he has helped improve the player pool by being a great recruiter of talent over the last 5 years. The national team is in a better place than 12 months ago and a new coach will benefit from the current generation that is coming through. For England Jurgen.

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    • Fabien Johnson is the only player that JK can take full credit for. Any other player on our team would have been there anyway. Maybe you could say that Klinsmann made Jordan Morris, but that’s a stretch given his pedigree. He was going to be playing for the Sounders at some point anyway.

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      • Danny Williams first cap was for Klinsman. Brooks is a Klinsman guy (called in for youths during Bradley tenure but had then played for German youth teams after that) as would be Zelalem, Green, Kiesewetter, and Wooten (although they aren’t yet regulars). Aron Johannson would also be a JK recruit. Chandler also had to be talked back into the fold and was cap-tied by JK, so some credit there.

      • The notion that JK is the problem with the USMNT is laughable really. Our talent level has been slowly improving, and there is reason for optimism, but we just don’t have the players to get consistent results against better opponents and we still don’t have a really exceptional game-changing talent. The Dutch didn’t even qualify for the Euros. Brazil didn’t even make the knockout rounds of the Copa America. Spain, who remains loaded, just lost in a early knockout round. Portugal struggles to impress with Ronaldo. Then there is England, who does and has had better players than us and can’t ever beat a higher ranked team in a knockout game no matter who manages them. The US is a fine team — and fine teams generally lose to teams with better players and sometimes lose to lesser teams. JK has extracted a few nuggets, but we have a talent ceiling he’s bumping up against that neither he nor any other manager can do anything about.

      • johnnyrazor — Danny Williams was certainly already on the radar under Bradley and would have entered the talent pool under any manager; same thing for Brooks and Fabian Johnson after Jermaine Jones’s good experience with the US. Zelalem, Green, Kiesewetter and Wooten are up for debate, but it seems pretty clear to me that there was a bubble of German-Americans who were already on the way over to the US under Bradley and that trend would likely have continued unless we had hired a coach who deliberately discouraged it. Jordan Morris would be exactly in the same place as regards the national team under any coach (playing for Sounders, on the Olympic qualifying team, trying to impress enough to make the full national team) under any coach, it’s just that JK gave him a few premature caps. Aron Johannsson might be the only one that you can point to and say was really brought in because of JK’s special pleading, but he has not exactly had much of an impact on the national team. The talent pool for the US has been expanding consistently (though with some ups and downs) for the last 25+ years and it will continue expanding regardless of the national team manager. I am unconvinced that Klinsmann has done much significantly to accelerate the process.

  13. Please. I oppose censorship in nearly all cases, but these stories are one exception. First, they are manifestly silly. The English FA are a bunch of idiots, but even they would not hire Jurgen. Second, it is manifestly cruel to raise hope among American fans. The sad truth is that we are stuck with Jurgen until 2018. Suggesting otherwise amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. So, please, squash all these stories.

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  14. Paraphrasing a Honigstein article, Hodgson stated ” Systems dont win games, good footballers do” This is JK s mantra , Like the USA, which played a marvelous ,500 ball ( Kind of like England) both teams delivered nothing due to lack of instructions and preparation.Conte said ” Ideas conquer talent.” Italy and Iceland had ideas, England and USA had none. So why would England hire a Coach from the USA with no ideas. JK believes that top players can come up with their own solutions and would be inhibited by specific instructions, just like Hodgson. So why hire his twin JK?You know the emperor is naked when you hear coaches talking about giving their players freedom to play with instinct. That was so 30 years ago, when JK was in his prime. He still has not left that era.

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    • Hodgson was talking about formations when he said that. With his club teams, and as Swiss national coach, his teams were very well prepared and organized. That was a hallmark of his coaching. It just appears the high profile jobs like England and Liverpool are too much for him. He caves to the criticism like with England when he switched to a 4-3-3 after being criticized for being his team being boring.

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  15. this is such crap. Unless his kid gets a youth team contract in the UK he is staying put in LA until 2018. After the world cup, and incidentally, when his kid might get a roster spot in an EU league… then JK would likely go back to Europe.

    Dude loves LA, he doesn’t want to be “over there”

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    • Agreed. Why would he leave California lifestyle to make virtually the same amount of money in England? Plus in US he can lose to Jamaica and Panama in competitive matches at home and not fear for his job. Pretty sweet deal.

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      • Even with the drop in the Pound, I’m sure the FA pays a heck of a lot more to Jurgen than the US does. Didn’t they pay Capello something like $12M? The US pays Jurgen around $3M, right?

      • Hodgson was paid £3.5million a year. Capello £4million a year. Jose Mourinho at Chelsea was highest paid EPL manager in 2015 at £8.5million. Club managers make much more than national team managers…so no, Jurgen wouldn’t make much more than he is making now…assuming trends remain.

    • He wouldn’t leave anyway. This is the guy who fell in love with California at 16 while here on a preseason tour; who commuted to Germany during his time as germany manager. He’s not leaving period. Maybe if England fa let’s him commute again…

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  16. While I just don’t see it happening, this is how I see it:

    He’s got 1 1/2 years left in the US, gotta believe he will not be renewed unless they make the semis or better in 2018. He’s coming off of a ‘successful’ tournament run, and WC qualifying is in a good spot. What else does he have left to prove in the US? He can leave now and feel that things are just a little bit better than when he arrived (up for debate, though I think the developmental systems are better). He can go to a country with a ton of talent to work with, and a country that has a much better understanding of the game (though the press is worse).

    His style of coaching may pay better dividends if he picks up someone to be his Lowe, as England seems to be bogged down with how they SHOULD play, instead of how they can play. He’s not going to tell anyone how they should play, just that they are good and can do it with positive reinforcement.

    With that being said, I think he likes living in California, is making $3 million, is technical director and will wait until Gulati tells him to leave.

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      • Results at youth tourneys are meaningless and there is no correlation that success at a youth level, otherwise Nigeria and Mexico would be world beaters.

        These tourneys are good to qualify for, and learn what it takes to get out if a group. Anything else is bonus.

        And yes, we are better. Our players for the first time aren’t relying on athleticism to get results. In fact, I’d say our u20 team lacked speed and size against Ukraine and serbia, which is a good thing. Those are traits players can improve upon, to a certain degree, for the next 10 years. Much harder to improve technical skills, and ingrain players with the correct instincts and IQ after this age.

      • The better question is whether our development system is getting better because of anything that Klinsmann has done. He’s tweaked and fiddled a little, but otherwise our development system has continued pretty much along the exact trajectory it was following before he was hired. No one that I know in the club, academy, or USSF development has much positive to say about his leadership or initiatives — they mostly reply to questions about it with a shoulder shrug or the counter question “what initiatives?” Pretty much everyone involved knows that the elephant in the room is that our system is based primarily on self-financing by the players themselves (pay for play) and that no major breakthrough will take place until that is fixed; Klinsmann has done nothing even to begin altering this, and so all we will get is talk of the “learning curve.” The only people who talk about him “revolutionizing” the system are those on the outside who have drunk the kiool aid.

        And as to the question whether youth results matter, Klinsmann himself disagrees with you — he staked a lot on the importance to his plan of qualifying and doing well in major youth tournaments. You are just moving the goalposts for him.

      • I do not think Klinsmann has done a single thing that helped youth soccer in the USA.

        At the local level, he has had no impact. At the Development academy level, he has done nothing that was not planned and started before he became US Coach. At the youth national team level, performance has arguably been worse than it was when Steve Sampson, Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley were the USMNT coaches.

        The only one of the three levels that Klinsmann controls directly by selecting the NT coaches has suffered from his choices.
        While many thought no one would be worse than Thomas Rongen or Sigi Schmid, Tab Ramos, while a great player, and Herzog have been demonstrably worse than their predecessors as coaches of the U-20s.
        He has finally replaced his own choices at the U-17 level with John Hackworth, who was successful before JK came along and guess what the U-17 team did better after replacing his first choices with the guy he basically fired at first. (At least he can learn.)
        At the U-23 level the USA has not qualified for the Olympics since Klinsmann began selecting the coaches. The USA had qualified 4 out of the 5 previous times that this was a U-23 tournament.

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