What Next For Bruce?

May 18th, 2006 | by: Daryl |

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.

USA World Cup Team Blog RSS Feed

http://ecuador.worldcupblog.org/ Trent

I think it would be nice for Il Bruce to catch on with one of the better teams in the Championship. One with a nice shot at promotion, but that could ease him into the spotlight. There will be a lot of eye-rolling in England no matter where he lands, so the less up-front pressure the better. From his perspective, however, it’s probably, the bigger the club the better.
chuck

If your manager has gotten you on the verge of promotion into the EPL, then I’m not sure how many teams would be willing to make a change…
eric

I agree with Chuck not likely to get a promotion team or even one that was close unless that coach leaves for a beeter position. I can see him getting a Championship spot but unless the USA wins the Cup I do not see him getting into the Premiership.
littleguy

I think Bruce can work in the Premiership or Coca Cola leagues. In fact, I think it’s the only places he can really get any respect-he just wouldn’t be taken seriously by the arrogant Germans, French, Dutch or Italians. Perhaps he could make a go in the Japan league as well but that’s not really better than the MLS. I’m not sure why anyone would exclude the possiblity that Bruce could not be hired to coach a lower level Premiership team, he is certainly good enough-he has succeeded at every level he’s coached at, especially international WC competition.