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Betting sites list Klinsmann as favorite for Southampton job

Jurgen Klinsmann USMNT Guatemala 70

Jurgen Klinsmann still has plenty of work to do with the U.S. Men’s National Team, but betting sites across the Atlantic see the German-born head coach as an surprisingly favored candidate for a Premier League job.

Klinsmann has been labeled as the odds-on favorite to emerge as Southampton’s next manager as several British betting sites claim to have experienced a flurry of bets on the USMNT manager. Odds on Klinsmann plummeted from 40-to-1 to 1-3 in less than a week.

According to USA Today, over the last two days, 95 percent of bets on the next Southampton coach were placed on Klinsmann.

Klinsmann was previously linked to the Everton job that ultimately went to former Southampton manager Ronald Koeman.

UK-based betting sites have a track record of floating odds and rumors involving coaches with an American connection in an attempt to drum up business on this side of the Atlantic. Bob Bradley had previously been recognized as an odds-on favorite for the Aston Villa job, though it was eventually revealed that he was never a serious candidate, or even interviewed for the position. Klinsmann has been linked to EPL jobs in the past, but none of the links were ever proven to be real.

This latest rumor has already begun to be shot down as false.

Klinsmann and the USMNT still have a Copa America third-place game on the schedule as the U.S. takes on Colombia on Saturday. The U.S. is also in the middle of World Cup qualifying, which resumes on October.

What do you think of the rumor? Would it make sense for Klinsmann to leave?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Would these be the same UK Betting Houses that had the UK remaining in the EU? If so, I wouldn’t “bet” on it.

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  2. The problem with the Argentina is not that the US didn’t win, or didn’t “seriously compete with [i.e., threaten or worry] Argentina. It’s that the match wasn’t truly competitive. JK’s personnel changes and tactics took an undeniable gap based on talent and widened it. When you do that against Honduras or Guatemala, you get a close game and maybe a tight loss. When you do it against Argentina you get your head handed to you.

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    • I agree – there was probably no combination of players or tactics that could have resulted in a US win, especially given how badly the players actually played. But his choices to fill in the suspended players didn’t work. Obviously, the Argentina result alone isn’t reason for his firing but the overall record of this team since Brazil is pretty unimpressive. In most serious soccer countries, he would have been out long ago. And I’m not talking about elite countries, I’m talking about countries where they are at our level and soccer is the #1 sport. Garbage like last year’s gold cup and the poor results in WC qualifying wouldn’t fly.

      Overall, I think the USMNT met expectations at the Copa, but nothing more. If they had played one of the big boys in the QF, they would have lost then and the fact they didn’t had nothing much to do with the US. They avoided Brazil only because Colombia decided to play a B team in their last group game and the refs didn’t spot the handball on Peru’s goal. Brazil played poorly at the Copa but doesn’t anyone think the USMNT would have beat them? I do’nt.

      At the end of the day we got three wins against Costa Rica, Paraguay and Ecuador. All average sides we should expect to beat at home. The fact we did is good obviously but it doesn’t turn this Copa into some sort of watershed for US soccer.

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      • Sorry but that’s garbage. We beat colombia 4-0 and won our group on GD. If we win the third place game we will break the wins record in ANY major tournament for US and we have also beaten 2 of the last 4 and 4 of the last 6 CONMEBOL opponents. If we beat Colombia tomorrow that would of course improve to 3 of the last 5 and 5 of the last 7. We have never done anything like that before. There is no amount of rationalization that can wash that away. This event was groundbreaking for us in more ways than one. It’s just a shame 50 Million people around the world had to see us get boat raced vs. Argentina. People forget how poor we are against CONMEBOL opponents on a historical basis. Klinsmann has dramatically improved our record against European and now South American sides. He has a great record vs. Mexico. All that’s really driving the pressure on him is xenophobia and profit motive by the MLS writers.

  3. Just like with the Everton rumors…we aren’t that lucky. Now would be a good time for a new manager to start. Relatively winnable qualifiers and then two friendlies before the Hex begins in November.

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    • I agree.

      I’ve always said if we’re going to make a move or if Klinsmann were to jump ship the summer with two years out from the World Cup is the time to do it. For everyone involved, players and manager.

      Anything past that point and you simply stay the course.

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  4. Really? I’ve seen several on the other thread about the SBI breakdown of the match. And several others implying as much including a couple of posts above. Most of them were saying it was due to the way we lost more than the fact we lost.

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    • “Most of them were saying it was due to the way we lost more than the fact we lost”

      that’s a distinct difference, right? so they’re not actually saying it’s klinsmann’s fault we lost, which is what it seems like you were arguing against.

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  5. It doesn’t matter who our manager is, right now we don’t have the talent to seriously compete with the Argentina’s of the world. When we have a starting 11 that all play for clubs in the champions league and have a player on the bench who is one of the leading scores in the BPL, then we can think about beating Argentina. I’m neither advocating for or against Klinsmann, just adding a touch of reality.

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    • your comment may be reality, but it’s not really relevant. i haven’t seen one person say that klinsmann should be fired for the u.s. losing to argentina.

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      • I think the gist of the original comment is, whether JK quits or is fired, the US is not suddenly going to be the quality of Argentina, Germany, Spain, Brazil, etc. We don’t have the talent, and it takes years to develop that type of quality player.

        As someone who has followed US soccer for 40 years, the talent overall has never been better. True, we don’t have a Brian McBride or Claudio Reyna, but there is legitimate competition for most of the 23 spots on the roster. A C or D team camp cupcake-ish roster is more talented than the 90 through 98 teams.

        It’s probably going to take at least another 20 years until we develop consistency and start to be a regular in the WC Quarters rather than an upstart like 2002. I see a natural progression. Tony Meola, John Harkes, and Claudio Reyna all grew up in NJ and watched the Cosmos. Today’s younger players all grew up and watched the 2002 World Cup team, and so on…

      • “I think the gist of the original comment is, whether JK quits or is fired, the US is not suddenly going to be the quality of Argentina, Germany, Spain, Brazil, etc.”

        right, and my point was that no one’s arguing that.

    • IF the goal of the federation is to play a more attacking style, then Martinez is probably the right choice. His first season with Everton was a success but his last two were obviously not. Lukaku is a more talented version of Altidore and he thrived in Martinez’s system. So too did Ross Barkley. Maybe he can have Nagbe develop into a quality CAM. The one area that I think Martinez teams are lacking is defensively. Maybe it was injuries to Howard and the defense the last two years but Everton blew lots of leads and ties. I don’t want to see that trend continue with the MNT.

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      • The object of the exercise is to win, not to look good.

        Looking good is highly subjective. Argentina plays a defend/counter style and you don’t hear any complaints.

        In many respects, “style” is determined by the type and quality of players available. More than half the teams in Euro 2016 play “styles” that look more like Bradley than Klinsmann, because, in part, their coaches recognize their teams’ limitations and have designed their tactics accordingly. The USA’s roster is certainly no more talented than many of these “lesser” European teams, perhaps less talented than some.

        Martinez is a good example of a coach who struggles to adjust his tactics to his roster and thus his limited success at Everton. I can’t imagine what he would bring to the USA program that would be worth the money. Surely the USA needs a coach who is accustomed to making the most of players of limited ability.

  6. Please let it be so. Klinsy scores high on recruiting, overall has taken the US maybe a teensy bit farther than Bob Bradley but we’re talking tiny baby steps in the overall view. Most talent the US has ever had yet too many disappointing results and at times there’s no vestige of what the US fun to root for which is that American toughness and fire. The tactics against Argentina felt like way to many steps backwards after a short string of good showings. It’s time for the US to move on.

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  7. Oh no, we will never find anyone else wanting to coach US.

    Please don’t go JK, I will never understand soccer without you.
    I feel like you are leaving me at the semester break, when I was just about to get what tangent was.

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    • He gets much more credit for his time with Germany and Bayern over there, and many in Europe consider his time here a resounding success as well. There was an article just the other day calling for the FA to hire JK to replace Roy Hodgson, as there were to bring him in in 2014.

      Many Americans never saw JK play or saw just a few games because they just weren’t available in the States at the time so he gets much more credit for his playing history as well in Europe.

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      • “he gets much more credit for his playing history as well in Europe.”

        that would at least partially explain why the fa would consider hiring such a mediocre manager. (the other reasons: the fa is incompetent, and no good manager actually wants the job.)

      • Many would say the same about USSF and really most fans would say that at least about the organization part in any country.

      • I thought Hodgson was a good manager in the EPL except when he was at Liverpool. Yet, especially given the talent he has to work with, I think it can be credibly argued that Klinsmann has done better with the US than Hodgson with the England team. England were pretty bad in Brazil and so far in the Euros they have been very disappointing. Hodgson had good success with Switzerland and Finland as well as Inter Milan, too. Shows the perils of managing. You can have a great resume, but screw up once and you may be considered a failure.

      • “Many would say the same about USSF and really most fans would say that at least about the organization part in any country.”

        that’s a good point. after all, we hired klinsmann first.

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