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Klinsmann reveals details of talks with U.S. Soccer

JuergenKlinsmann (ISIphotos.com)

Juergen Klinsmann emerged from his extended vacation recently to discussa variety of topics with Kansas City Wizards television analyst Sasha Victorine and revealed that U.S. Soccer's unwillingness to give him full control of the national team in writing ultimately led to the end of discussions about him possibly taking over as U.S. national team head coach.

“We had conversations maybe about three or four weeks period of time, and very positive conversations, but we didn’t get it to a positive ending because we couldn’t put into writing what we agreed to verbally."

Klinsmann confirmed a report from ESPN last month that revealed that Klinsmann had met with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati to discuss the U.S. head coach position before U.S. Soccer gave head coach Bob Bradley a contract extension. Gulati refused to discuss or acknowledge any talks with any other candidates when asked after Bradley's re-signing.

Klinsmann stated that it came down to wanting complete control of the national team and not being able to get such control agreed to in writing.

“It’s obviously always about authority. When you have conversations with a club team or a national team it’s who has the last word in what issues, and that’s why we couldn’t get into the written terms," Klinsmann said.  

"Verbally we agreed on that the technical side is my side, and I should have a hundred percent control of it. In written terms, they couldn’t commit to it, and at that point I said well, I can’t get the job done because I have to have the last say as a head coach for my entire staff, for all the players issues, for everything that happens with the team.

"Unfortunately they couldn’t commit to that and that was basically the end of our talks, and then they agreed then to continue with Bob as the head coach and that’s totally fine."

You can see Klinsmann's full interview with Victorine here.

What do you think of these revelations? Wish Klinsmann had been given the job? Not convinced Klinsmann was the right man for the job? Are you glad Bradley was re-signed?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Once again, take this from a german: After the disaster in Euro 2004, NOONE wanted to coach the german NT. The search became a national issue until Klinsmann shows up. He stirred up the nation on his first Pressconference when he claimed that their goal was the WC Title. At that time, EVERYBODY thought that even just reaching the quarterfinals is questionable. So, yes, the Sommermärchen 2006 was a great success, something people tend to forget. 2006 was the foundation for the great runs in 2008 Euro and 2010 WC.

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  2. What do you think of these revelations?
    Nothing i didn’t already know.

    Wish Klinsmann had been given the job?
    Yes.

    Not convinced Klinsmann was the right man for the job?
    Well if we can’t have Guus Hiddink or Frank Rikjaard. But what i most want is a different philosphy of how you play football. A hell of a lot less British and defensive and a lot closer to Brazil, Holland, Spain and Klinsmann’s Germany. 1 touch, ball exclusively on the ground, possession is most important, play to feet not to space, did i say exclusively on the ground and 1 touch?

    Are you glad Bradley was re-signed?
    Hell No.

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  3. The Board of Directors of U.S. Soccer is the governing board of the Federation in accordance with the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. Consisting of elected members representing all facets of soccer in the United States, the Board administers the affairs of the Federation between meetings of the National Council.

    Board Of Directors

    President
    Sunil K. Gulati

    Executive Vice President
    Mike Edwards

    Immediate Past President (non-voting)
    Dr. S. Robert Contiguglia

    Athlete Representatives
    Jeff Agoos, Danielle Fotopoulos, Jon McCullough

    Pro Council Representatives
    Tonya Antonucci, Don Garber

    Adult Council Representatives
    Richard Groff, Jim Hamilton

    Youth Council Representatives
    Bob Palmeiro, John Sutter

    At Large Representative
    Francisco Marcos

    Independent Directors
    Carlos Cordeiro, Fabian Núñez, Donna E. Shalala

    CEO/Secretary General (non-voting)
    Dan Flynn

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  4. Juergen Klinsmann should be the U.S. coach plain and simple. Bob Bradley had his chance and did somewhat above average. We have done somewhat above average before. I want someone who has the potential to make us one of the elite teams–he might also make us flop on our face, but we have done that too. We need to aim high. I am sick of being the Atlanta Hawks of the World Cup–a team that can never get past the quarterfinals and usually is mediocre. How Gulati could not cede technical control to Klinsman is mind-boggling.

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  5. Nothing against Sascha Victorine, but how did he scoop the entire U.S. soccer press with the Klinnsman interview? The soccer media was feckless in finding out anything about what was happening with negotiations for the national coaching job after the World Cup. Gulati has clearly felt little pressure to be more accountable for the USSF’s selection process. Fans and the public deserve better.

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  6. Really? So you are going to put that fine a point on it?

    There are plenty of people who will tell you the Euros are far tougher than the World Cup.

    Saying that Lamm, Schweinstieger and Podolski were “untested youngesters” in the 2006 World Cup is just a joke.

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  7. You’re the guy who said BB “blundered” by not taking Charlie Davies to the World Cup. The same CD who is struggling in the Sochaux reserves as of today.

    You also blamed BB for Charlie’s accident by saying if Charlie had respected him more then maybe he would not have violated his curfew.

    Your dislike of BB does not seem entirely rational.

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  8. Imagine what a great coach and owner the world’s best baskeball player ( Michael Jordan) would be.

    Imagine what a fantiastic manager the game’s

    greatest ever hitter (Ted Williams)would be.

    Imagine what a tremendous manager arguably the world’s greatest soccer player ( Maradona) would be.

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  9. Forget about soccer for just a second.

    I don’t know what you do for a living but if a guy you didn’t hire for a job went to the press and explained in great detail why you didn’t hire him, wouldn’t you be relieved that you didn’t ?

    How would you feel about that?

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  10. Why? Klinsman could be lying.

    So far you only have Klinsmann’s side of it. Sunil hasn’t said anything.

    It’s an internal matter and as far as I know the USSF is a private organization so we will never know what went down.

    The existence of this interview alone tells you one reason why Gulati probably didn’t hire Klinsman.

    They probably don’t like Jurgen’s “transparency”. And Klinsman doesn’t seem to be dying to have the job either.

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  11. “So I made a mistake citing one player. Was I wrong about the other 3?”

    Yes you were.

    Lamm, Schweinsteiger, and Podolski were all on the Euro 2004 team with Lamm being cited as the best thing about it. By 2006 Lamm and Schweinsteger were regulars in the German team and at Bayern. Podolski had been the top scorer in the enitre Bundesliga in 2005 and was scoring regularly at Cologne.

    Calling those three “a group of untested youngsters” by the time the 2006 World Cup rolled around is beyond laughable.

    Your research is faulty.

    I doubt the USMNT ever had three such credentialed, talented players coming up at the same time.

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  12. That’s crap logic and you know it.

    Have you ever been fired from a job? If so, you don’t ever deserve a better opportunity because of it (according to your logic). So good luck being a dumpster-diver.

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  13. “We, the US soccer supporters community, can do nothing as Gulati ruins US Soccer and our nat’l team’s future. The media puts no pressure on this man. We have a part time econ prof with the power to singlehandedly make this decision. US Soccer is broken and there’s no way for outsiders to fix it. The insiders will continue to protect their interests. Game theory, Prof Gulati should understand that.”

    Wow, a tad melodramatic. So much self-pity! There’s a movie in this somewhere.

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  14. Man there are a lot of people on this board who apparently are privy to the inner workings/thought processes of every soccer mind in this country. You all should get paid for these incredible insights into the minds and thoughts of these highly placed people.

    This bashing of Sunil Gulati is ridiculous because no one on these message boards knows anything other than pure speculation. Just because you want to believe the worst about him doesn’t make it true, and most likely is a self-fulfilling expectation.

    And to all you Klinsmann adorers, please tell me where we are suddenly going to get all of the players necessary to pull us that high-tempo, technical (can’t stress that word enough, meaning tight ball control) to pull it off. I’m sorry, but until the technical skills of the average player are raised substantially it is not possible. Now could he help, sure, but saying we are dead in the water because he didn’t get hired is absolutely ludicrous.

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  15. “It makes it clear that BB sees his role as being over coaching of senior level team and games and not much else.”

    If you listen to the interview, Klinsman sees things that way as well. So it appears BB does not have complete control of the senior team.

    It’s interesting how most of the responses on this site ignore the fact that Klinsman thinks Arena and BB are capable of coaching in the EPL. Apparently he has a much higher opinion of American soccer coaches than most of the posters do.

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  16. MLS has steadily grown (new teams, stadiums etc) and all fans of soccer wish it would explode but that’s not realistic in a country where soccer still ranks behind hockey in popularity. Until it goes belly up I’d say MLS has been handled about right.

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  17. We don’t need Klinsmann, I mean c’mon, he was fired from the Metrostars, for crying out loud!11!!!1! Oh wait…errrr…. nevermind, that was Robobob.

    Yea, USSF screwed this one up.

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  18. So I made a mistake citing one player. Was I wrong about the other 3?

    It doesn’t discount my point that the German squad completely turned over by 2006, and that they were in no way viewed as even remote favorites, even by their diehard fans.

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  19. No surprise here. We can talk all day about the future of the USMNT but we know that Sunil wants someone that will take orders when told, bottom line. I am not saying that Klinsman is the ultimate answer by any means, but their is a fundamental problem here. We need someone that has experience at the international level that can come with new progressive ideas that will get us to the next stages in major tournaments and create a larger developmental program based on other that work in Europe and South America. Again, politics reign supreme in US Soccer!

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  20. I don’t know if JK was the right guy or not but I do know that BB is not the right guy. He did little to advance the US in four years and I don’t see that changing over the next four. I really wish JK had got the job. Maybe nothing different would have come of it but at least we would have tried something different. Four more years of Bradley surely will get us no further than we got this time. In fact, unless we get another soft draw, we won’t get out of the group stage.

    Good job Sunil … tool

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  21. The Question now arises? Who is on the USSF Board? How were they elected? Who elects them and When is the next election.

    I think Klinsmann has identified a systemic failure within US soccer. I refer to, of course, the youth and development system. He wanted to have the power to evaluate and change it if need be. Naturally, as in all corporate structures, he was stepping into someone’s territory, whether it was someone on the Board, or someone close to those on the Board.

    Unfortunately, when an organization becomes self-perpetuating, i.e., retains the status quo, because it is in it’s own self-interest, then change from the inside is slow, non-existent, or extremely hard.

    Klinnsman wanted the power to make changes without the direct acquiescence of the powers-that-be, something they were, for good or ill, loathe to give up.

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  22. During the last negotiation cycle, Klinsmann wanted to choose the players he wanted for Copa America and matches which were held the same days as MLS fixtures. He was told no. My guess is he wanted a written assurance that this would not happen, and they would only offer him a verbal assurance.

    Gulati said shortly after announcing Bradley’s contract that he was the best available. That to me lends credence to the idea that Klinsmann rejected his offer.

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  23. Personally I am only think it was wrong for Gulati to only have serious discussion with two canidates. I am not mad at him for not giving complete control to Klinsman. Personally I think we should have just changed managers I don’t care who it is Bradley just needed to go because of the low success rate of repeat World Cup coaches. I would have been happy if Kinnear got the job.

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  24. I actually think that might be the right Place for JK. Putting him in control would get things changed and somebody like Bradley can coach. The problem there is not sure JK wants to be the head guy and not the coach.

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  25. What the hell would give you the idea that Bruce Arena never played? He was a capped player for the USMNT! You clearly don’t know what you are talking about!

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  26. I didn’t say that. I said I’m glad that we have a board who cannot be swayed at all by what the fans want. Anyone who comes here regularly can clearly see that most fans are juvenile blowhards.

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  27. US Soccer is a garbage, mediocre, incompetent , amateur kindergarten organization that should never have been set up the way it was in the first place. I predict Mexico defeats Costa Rica for the Gold Cup final, and we fail to qualify for 2014 after losing to Honduras, Costa Rico and Mexico w/o scoring a single goal, not to mention we get scored on in five minutes each time.

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  28. Well, by his own admission, he’s a “big picture” guy, and not a tactics guy. Loew was drawing up the game plans when Klinsmann coached Germany. Who would be Klinsmann’s Loew with the USMNT, and how much would we have to pay him?

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  29. people need to realize that Sunil actually is good at what he does.

    Sexism is obviously rampant in this sport in America.

    Sunil found the coach that completely revived our womans program, a coach who probly saved hope solo’s career, (and i dont care what anyone says solo>Howard. I guarantee solo makes saves howard never would) and he renewed her contract the instant the womans team won the olympics.

    I honestly think he knows what needs to be done hes just not given the power to do it in the mens game. That being said Klinsmann just flat out may not be the savior US fans are looking for

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  30. The amount of Klinsmann love here is ridiculous and sickening. No one remembers that the Germans were 10 minutes away from being eliminated by Argentina in 2006. The truth is that we lost 2 irreplaceable players to injury in Davies and Onyewu, yet people act like playing Mo “Xavi” Edu more would have put us in the semifinals. If Klinsmann doesn’t want the job, then fine – I don’t think we need to bow down to him. Sir Alex said we should run to re-sign Bob (maybe he knows a thing or two about soccer).

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  31. was he?

    were you, Clayton?

    if so, apologies. (i’m a longtime journalist and get a bit overzealous about giving appropriate props.)

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  32. To all my fellow posters…

    Sorry I’ve been so grumpy and rude to everyone. It’s not you, it’s me. I’ve just had a bad day. That’s all. Plus I REALLY wanted JK for the USMNT….

    Please accept my sincerest apologies.

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  33. Not a fan of Kilnsi. With that being said, I have no idea why the USSF wouldn’t conceed full control to him. He grew up in a system that has won 4 World Cups. He won one himself. I think he knows a thing or two about youth development and club development. Germany has THE best youth program in Europe, bar none, and this is true for both the national program and the individual clubs. He’s also “made it” at some huge clubs – Spurs, Inter, Monaco, Stuttgart, Munich, Sampdoria (notice how every country he’s played in has won a World Cup), so I think he has every right to call for change, because even though this country is progressing, we need a new perspective to take us to the next level. Hopefully, that perspective brings a WC winner’s medal along with him in his CV, because god only knows he’s the only WC winner willing to coach us at the moment.

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  34. These are some of the same issues that go on in ANY sport when it comes to hiring a coach. For instance, in the NFL or NBA you often have team owners who want to have say in personnel or coaching decisions. Some head coaches are willing to put up with that, and some aren’t. Klinsmann wasn’t.

    Would Klinsmann have made a good coach? My inclination is to say “Yes.” However, I think that ship has sailed. I doubt if Klinsmann would ever return to the bargaining table with USSF, especially given that this was a second effort that resulted in the same sticking point.

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  35. Sunil is the Fidel Castro of football. He doesnt care about the future of football, he just wants his wallet to be full of dollars.

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  36. I’m not an expert, but my experience when a player is about contemporary with those leaving the NT cohort right now (in a ruralish area). I know that the coaches in place in the same kind of town that I grew up in are already much better than those I came up with.

    We’re progressing, I’m sure!

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  37. Looks like the members of the USSF National Council. Dunno exactly what THAT is. I THINK it is reps from the members (various associations, leagues, etc). The council seems to have about 300 people.

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  38. so have you bought the argument that Loew was the master tactician, the brains behind the success? Not taking away from Joachim, but Klinsi can stand on his own. His major asset (besides knowledge and motivation): he has the balls to take on, and change, the system. The USSF is afraid of that.

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