What Next For Bruce?

It’s no secret that Arena fancies coaching in Europe, and he reiterated that desire on Tuesday, when he faced questions from the visiting Italian media.

Will he go? Where will he go?

If he doesn’t sign on till 2010, I’d suggest the English Premiership (or maybe even the Coca-Cola Championship) would be the perfect place for Arena. It would be a blow to lose him, but if he could be successful across the Atlantic it would improve US soccer’s reputation no end.

Seems like Arena has his job interview pitch already set. About halfway through this interesting (but lengthly) podcast he’s asked about what makes an American coach different. Here’s his response:

“The value an American soccer coach -or, as you would say in Europe, football coach- gains in the United States is that you have an opportunity to witness a variety of sports and top level coaches in those sports and i think you can learn from that. In Europe football coaches learn from football coaches which is a positive as well. However, I broaden my experience as a coach because I get to see coaches react and build teams in different sports and see how they’re successful. I think that is extremely beneficial and that’s something that we have in this country that I don’t think you have in a lot of other places in the world and it’s a tremendous benefit.”

I’ve also heard Arena liken himself to Jose Mourinho, because they both have a background in another sport (Mourinho in basketball, Arena in LaCrosse). Will European clubs be convinced by Bruce’s pitch? I think that in this age of more scientific coaches (the most venerated coaches in the Premiership right now are Mourinho, Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez) there’s definitely a place at the table for Arena.