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?
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