The lone American manager in the Premier League has departed his club amid a relegation battle.
The 47-year-old, who made eight appearances as a player for the U.S. Men’s National Team left Huddersfield Town by mutual consent on Monday.
“I’d like to begin by thanking David for all he has achieved at Huddersfield Town over the last three-and-a-half years,” Huddersfield Town chairman Dean Hoyle said in a club statement. “Under his stewardship, we’ve achieved things on the football pitch that surpass anything in modern memory, and that have gone well beyond my wildest expectations as chairman and as a fan.”
Wagner took over the Terriers in November 2015 and led them to their first promotion to the Premier League in 2017.
In the club’s first season in the Premier League, Wagner led it to a 16th-place finish to stay afloat in the top flight for another season.
However, Huddersfield Town’s form hasn’t improved throughout the 2018-19 and the Terriers are in danger of relegation down to the Championship after earning 11 points from 22 games.
Currently, Huddersfield sits eight points from safety with Newcastle United and Fulham alongside it in the relegation zone.
Wasn’t this his first real first team job, got them promoted and kept them up for a year with no budget? Not saying he is a great manager but he did pretty good with what he had. He will get another job and lets see what he does
i understand not everyone can be Liverpool or have their budget but why on earth would i be eager for a head coach getting fired for being in a distant last place with 2 wins in 22 games, who wasn’t much better last season. it’s not that different than the people who want berhalter instead of martino. if you wanted an EPL coach go get Conte or Wenger who were already out of work and have won the league.
Roberto Martinez has long been coveted by American fans after his WC analyst jobs but really hasn’t had a great win loss record other than his one season in League One at Swansea before taking over Belgium.
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Most people recognize we couldn’t land a guy like Klopp so why not his top assistant at BvB who happens to also be a Germerican I think is the draw.
Given Dortmund 2 he lost more than he won.
I do not think the USMNT team can attract a current top European head coach the caliber of Conte who had good success leading Italy in the Euro competitions only a few years ago. Wenger, just like Mourinho, has lost their magic and touch with the modern games. If we picked Wenger as the new USMNT manager, I would rather go with Behalter, Tata Martino, and even Wagner. BTW, a 33-34% winning percentage with a team roster, where Australian midfielder, Aaron Booy is the best playmaker, that Huddersfield have had ain’t exactly that bad.
You would rather Gregg Berhalter than Arsene Wenger? Thats such a ludicrous statement. I get where you think you are trying to go there, but sorry bud. Thats just silly.
Were you in charge of the Cardinals hiring process recently? They used a similar methodology.
I think this underlines the sort of self hate thing going on in justifying Berhalter. This has traditionally been a regional power, even top of quali, quarters in 2002, and any old coach until now has not been sufficient. Not in about 30 years.
He was my top choice for USMNT coach. Wish this would have happened earlier (assuming she would have been a candidate).
Personally, I strongly doubt Wagner would’ve been interested at this point in his career. Despite how unwatchable Huddersfield have been in the EPL, his stock among club teams in Europe is still pretty strong. Strong enough that he can probably look forward to being considered for other low EPL sides, Championship sides, Bundesliga sides, etc. These are frankly better jobs than a national team job in North America, which is a effectively a wilderness from which few return.
Let’s be real, Wagner was born in West Germany, made a modest amount of US caps — 8 (no goals) — was a German U18 and U21 (before you could switch), played his whole career in Germany (mostly in the lower divisions), and began coaching in Germany. Presumably in German. If you see an interview with him, he has a thicker German accent than Klinsi does. I think we remember him because dual nationals at the time were even more a curiosity than now, Dooley, Regis, etc. But he never came here to play pro in MLS and I don’t see a real connection. He is a European creature and short of offering him our head job I don’t think he comes here. And if you look at his actual rate of success as a coach — 33, 34% winning, loses more than he wins, even with Dortmund 2 –no, not interested.
Yeah agree with this too. This guy meets the supposed criteria of speaking English (sort of), and he is American (technically). But really, what about him is so exciting? At best, maybe one to look at down the road, but right now it seems like a weak match from either side of the deal.
That Huddersfield squad surviving in the Premier League really is an impressive coaching achievement. Winning promotion from the Championship is no easy task either. The analysis of a “winning percentage” is not a great metric. Dortmund 2 is a reserve team. Winning is not always the goal with the reserves with development of the youth players often taking precedence. Managing the squad with the lowest talent level in the Premier league was never going to have a happy ending. I don’t know much about Wagner, but dismissing his coaching achievements as irrelevant is misguided. Hes done some very good things in a short career.
My theory on the Berhalters and Wagners of the world is go do something objective and show me your promise is actualized. SAF won Scotland and Europe with Aberdeen, last non Old Firm coach to win there. Mourinho won Europe with Porto. Leicester won EPL. It’s like we talk down these teams and then a truly special coach wins with them. And then someone tells me that Huddersfield finishing 16th instead of 17th is proof of concept. I want the guy in first. Or if we go value someone who extracted a lot more than that. berhalter wasn’t even the best value guy in MLS: the NYRB coaches were.
Your point on success is valid, but success is always relative. SAF and Mourinho pulled off historic feats that foreshadowed two of the most successful European managers ever. That’s not the target group of coaching candidates we are targeting. Those guys achieved incredible success in very difficult situations. So, we look for coaches who have had success relative to their situations. Wagner is perfectly qualified to coach the national team especially when you consider the past coaches who are part of that coaching fraternity. None have especially glowing CVs.
Hiring is a complex process though. Its a mix of finding someone with tangible past achievements and intangible skills/traits that will translate to future success. Typically its your resume that gets you an interview and your interview that gets you a job. Its not an exact science that we can plug past results into a spreadsheet that will spit out a #1 candidate by some metric (ie: win percentage, etc). A lot of it comes down to whoever is making the hiring decisions gut feeling.