Inter Miami has a head coach in place, but that is reportedly not stopping the team from exploring other options.
Phil Neville held talks with Inter Miami about becoming its head coaching, according to multiple reports in England. Neville is currently the head coach of England’s women’s national team, but it has been expected for some time that he will vacate the role this summer.
Neville, 43, has plenty of ties to Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham. The two were teammates at Manchester United and with England’s national team during their playing careers, and are currently a part of the ownership group of English fourth-division side Salford City.
Inter Miami declined to comment on the reports on Wednesday, citing club policy to not address rumors.
The Herons currently have a head coach in Diego Alonso, of course, but his future appears to be in limbo. Alonso reportedly had an end-of-season meeting with Inter Miami brass after the 2020 campaign, and came away from it thinking he had been fired. He began to inform staff and players of that, but the team later came out and publicly said there had been a “miscommunication” of sorts and that the Uruguayan remained in charge of the South Florida side.
Alonso, 45, endured a rough first season in MLS last year. He coached Inter Miami to a disappointing 7-13-3 record, only reaching the playoffs on the final day of the campaign by winning their game and getting some outside results to go their way. The Herons were eliminated from the postseason in their next match, a 3-0 road loss to fellow expansion side Nashville SC.
Inter Miami parted ways with sporting director Paul McDonough in December following the frustrating inaugural season.
this nigga is trash
Well…he does speak spanish from his time at valencia right?…in all seriousness, i don’t see him as a guy who would take the league seriously…not a fan of the choice…
Phil Neville is a joke. His appointment would give those critics of MLS much ammunition.
The impatience of sports management. I have no opinion one way or another about whether Alonso is a good coach. But it seems rather unfair to him to call his season disappointing. First, it’s an expansion team and it is not unusual for an expansion team to not make the playoffs, yet they did, if barely. Second, it was a very unusual season which was abbreviated then had a lot of games crammed into a short window of playing time. Finally, he didn’t get some major players until relatively late. That combined with the COVID crisis left managers little time to practice and integrate new players into a team. Neville may be a good hire; he certainly is high profile. But it does seem like they aren’t giving Alonso much of a chance.
I agree, generally I think sports franchises are too quick to fire coaches. You can argue it is easier to replace the coach than the players, so management simply takes the easy route to quell fans’ frustrations.
Tjhat is not to say that the quality of the coach does not matter, but I think coaches are too often simply the easily defined goat.