TFC's new consultant believes in attacking football and says the club could have its new coach by Christmas.
It’s still unclear just exactly how successful the Juergen Klinsmann experiment will be for Toronto FC. Is there any meat to this thing or is it just a pr move by MLSE to deflect recent criticism?
I'm willing to withhold judgement until we see what happens when next season unfolds. I can tell you this, however: After spending a couple of hours with him Monday morning in Newport Beach, California, it’s obvious the man has a passion for everything he gets involved in and his soccer knowledge knows no bounds.
He'll talk soccer all day long if he gets the chance. I think he would have spent the entire day with us chatting soccer philosophy, the World Cup fiasco, the strangeness of MLS and more. He's a friendly, earnest and likeable man.
None of this means diddly if he can't help sort it out in Toronto, of course. But there is one other thing: For whatever reason, he left a much better impression on me than the day he was introduced to the Toronto media last month.
To me, it was unclear that day just what Juergen Klinsmann was ready to do, what he knew about MLS and what he knew about Toronto FC. But on this morning, he was well equipped to talk about specific players and coaches around the league, salary cap issues and all those crazy roster restrictions that still leave me scratching my head. Or maybe he's just a quick learner. Actually, he is just that since he speaks Italian, French and Spanish as well as English and German. At any rate, here's what we learned that you might want to know: The new coach is coming soon. His guess is it will happen before Christmas. It better.
On the Designated Player topic, it’s his belief that the No. 1 criteria is leadership. Klinsmann believes another DP might be a good move in Toronto but the best candidate would be someone with a track record as a consummate pro who would set the tone on the field and in the locker room.
On the style of play, he believes in attacking football (no surprise there given his background) and is pushing Toronto FC to try and find a way to take that approach.
On accountability, he says he will not run and hide but will face the music if it all goes sour next year even though he can't be fired since he hasn't been hired. He'll be here watching and will take whatever darts are fired his way. But I suppose that's easy to say when there are no consequences other than a hit to his reputation.
None of us know what this will all look like when the dust settles in a few months, but many of us are wishing MLSE had thought of this approach five years ago. Or maybe none of this matters. As he told me, get the right players and everything else takes care of itself. Maybe he hasn't told Earl Cochrane, Jim Brennan and Nick Dasovic anything they don't already know.
In six months time, maybe you'll all be ready to worship Juergen Klinsmann. Or maybe you'd rather forget he ever existed.
Watch the full interview on Soccercentral Saturday.
