LOS ANGELES – Whether you call them coaches, managers, or bosses, few jobs in world football have higher turnover than the position atop a team’s technical staff.
Over the years MLS has developed a reputation as a place with a bit more job security for coaches than other leagues around the world. Despite 16 of the league’s 24 current managers being appointed after January 1, 2017, that reputation persists, according to LAFC boss Bob Bradley.
“There are a lot of people who would say that MLS is more forgiving than most leagues,” said Bradley on Tuesday following his side’s training session at LAFC’s performance center.
The LAFC boss — who started his professional coaching career in MLS but has since coached around the world, including becoming the first American manager in the Premier League — did not tip his hand about whether he was one of those individuals who’d consider MLS forgiving for coaches but did offer his thoughts on the advantages of thinking long term.
“There are some organizations when they hire a coach they have a very good idea of how that coach works and when they know they’ve hired a very good coach, then they build on that and there is stability: San Antonio Spurs, Pittsburgh Steelers, obviously for many years, Man United,” said Bradley.
“The best organizations in all sports, are the ones that they have a real sense when they have a coach, they have an identity as a club, they have a way of playing, and then they bring in a coach that fits that, and then they know that that coach, over time, that his work will pay off.”
Following his Earthquakes being on the bad end of a 5-0 drubbing at home to Bradley’s LAFC last weekend, San Jose coach Matias Almeyda asked for patience as his project takes shape in the Bay Area.
Exactly one week later, Bradley’s side will visit a manager that has seen another MLS club through nearly a decade of ups and downs.
D.C. United’s Ben Olsen is the second-longest-serving manager in the league — after Peter Vermes who got the Kansas City job one year before Olsen was appointed during the 2010 season.
“When I see a young guy like Benny mature and stay in a club where he was also a very good player, that’s always nice to see,” said Bradley of his touchline counterpart for Saturday’s match at Audi Field (3 pm ET | FOX in US; MLS LIVE on DAZN).
“It’s important when you look at this from an MLS standpoint to still recognize that, yeah, in so many places around the world, you lose two games and the vultures are flying over the stadium.”
But Bradley, who is 20 years Olsen’s senior, offered some insight into what it takes to be a manager in today’s game in any league.
“I don’t spend two seconds ever thinking about what anybody is saying, writing, thinking. You enjoy every day on the job, every day of trying to make the team better, and then when they decide they’ve had enough, then you leave. You’ll never get anywhere has a coach if you’re worried about all that, if it shows. If you stand in front of a team and you look like you’re afraid of all that, if you look like you’re scared, if you look like the wind is blowing and you’re being affected, then you’re in trouble.”
And while it appears coaches will continue to be hired and fired on an often impulsive basis by clubs around the world at an increasing pace, Bradley accepts that it’s part of the gig.
“As coaches, you just live with that. You are not part of the decision making process.”
