Rumor mill spits out Pekerman as new US coach

After months of hearing how Juergen Klinsmann was destined to be the U.S. national team coach comes the latest rumor circulating regarding Jose Pekerman's rise to the top of Sunil Gulati's list.

If you will believe La Opinion, which is not always a wise decision, Gulati is set to hire Pekerman. According to the story, Pekerman is taking over and Fernando Clavijo will serve has his lead assistant/translator.

.

According to La Opinion, a source revealed U.S. Soccer's best kept secret. That makes sense right? After keeping things so close to the vest for months, Gulati will spill the beans to a Mexican newspaper. Totally believable. The paper claimed its news was confirmed by Gulati's response to a question regarding Pekerman. "We will see at the Women's Gold Cup final," Gulati said when asked if he had finished a deal with Pekerman. That sounds like its a done deal, right?

What's worse than this flimsy form of journalism? When a second news source runs with it. The folks at Team Talk did just that, adding fuel to the fire by re-hashing La Opinion's story. I give it about 12 hours before the geniuses in the UK turn this into a full-blown story.

Does a move toward hiring Pekerman make sense? It certainly does if there is truth to the rumors that Gulati has grown tired of his negotiations with Klinsmann, who is demanding a king's ransom that has been reported to be as high as $2.5 million a year. Hopefully Gulati's decision doesn't wind up being about money, especially considering the bags of cash currently sitting in the U.S. Soccer coffers.

I would feel a little better about this latest rumor if it came from an established U.S. media source, such as Grant Wahl at SI or Steve Goff at the Washington Post, or even a newspaper in Argentina. I will adjust the coaching search odds accordingly. Aren't you wishing you had taken Pekerman when he was still 30-1? And yes, I'm letting a story I just wrote off as fiction affect my point spread but hey, better to be safe than sorry right? Every once in a while the crap thrown at the wall does stick.

Klinsmann- 3-1

Jose Pekerman- 8-1

Carlos Quieroz- 12-1

Gerard Houllier- 25-1

Bob Bradley- 30-1

Field 50-1

Comments

[Carey]

Steve Goff scooped this in a chat at the start of October. It's in his opening notes and then he discusses it in response to a question. Despite Klinsman's all around genius, I think Pekerman is a fabulous coach for this cycle as our national team job involves more player development than almost any other major job and lots of great players have developed wonderfully under Jose's eye.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/09/27/DI2006092700747.html