Jurgen Klinsmann Does Not Appear To Be Going To Everton, Sadly

Things aren’t going so well for Roberto Martinez at Everton, who may not last to the end of the season. One rumored name to replace him is embattled USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

While the prospect may delight a large segment of the U.S. Soccer supporting populace, ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle doused a bucket of water on the rumor.

Everton have been a top eight-ish club going forward in 2015-16, scoring 52 goals. The trouble is they’ve been a relegation-bound team at the back end, allowing 43 goals. They sit in 14th place with just 39 points from 31 matches.

The knock on Martinez is that he’s a lot of charm and talk about positive, attacking soccer, without the tactical adeptness to organize a defense and grind out results.

What’s not clear is why Everton would sack Martinez to hire Klinsmann, who is basically Martinez without the experience or the track record of success. Money will be pouring into the EPL with its new TV deal. Even bottom-tier clubs will be in the market for good players. A mid-table club like Everton taking a flier on Klinsmann would be risking potential disaster.

Klinsmann spent one season as a club-level manager at Bayern Munich. It went poorly. Here was former Germany captain Philipp Lahm’s assessment.

"“We practiced little more than fitness. Tactical things were neglected. The players had to get together before [the games] to discuss how we wanted to play. After six or eight weeks, all players knew it wouldn’t work with Klinsmann. The rest of the season was damage limitation.”"

The USMNT rescued 2018 World Cup qualifying (and Klinsmann’s job) with a 4-0 win over Guatemala. Though a boatload of questions remain about the team and his future.