There is no good time to fire Gregg Berhalter

Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty ImagesI hate talking about firing coaches. I’m naturally a trigger-shy person and I value continuity. And, as a result, I tend to view the culture of short leashes in soccer around the world as a tradition of cynical self-sabbotage. But this reluctance towards discussing firings goes beyond a valuation of continuity. I naturally want to give people the benefit of the doubt and talking about firing someone feels mean-spirited and cruel, even when I think they should be fired. When it became clear that Arsene Wenger should leave Arsenal, I shut up and sulked for a year, mostly keeping my opinions to myself. Hell, when I wrote an article explaining why Klinsmann should be fired after losing to Mexico in Columbus, it took me almost 1300 words to say that I thought he should be sacked. And that was only after painstakingly breaking down how the many good things Klinsmann was doing had slipped away. I really, really don’t like talking about this sort of thing.

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