You know perfectly well that they picked Arena because they were changing horses midstream. They needed someone who was already familiar with the players. Meanwhile Klinsmann did well enough with the German national team to win the Bayern job; I agree he is not a good tactician, but if he were really a total fool then why didn't either the DFB or Bayern notice during his interviews with them?
Or, to put it another way, how much do you think Gareth Southgate or Didier Deschamps would really improve this team?
Klinsmann is an excellent bullshit artist and a huge celebrity as someone who was a major German star in his day. He got the Germany job when they were in a rebuilding phase and then parlayed the SF performance at the 2006 WC into the Bayern job. It quickly became clear that Jogi Löw was actually the brains behind the throne and, once found out, has never gotten an offer outside of the US again. (Okay, he was actually hired as an adviser to Toronto FC at one point and was instrumental in bringing in one of their worst coaches - Aron Winter.)
Yes, I think those guys would be better and I don't think I'm going out on a limb in saying so.
In this 2018 cycle, the US had a weak player pool because the cohort of players born in the first half of the 1990s totally sucks with the exception of Yedlin and Wood. (And Brooks, who was developed elsewhere.) Nonetheless, the US could have muddled through with better management. Unfortunately, the USMNT was coached poorly throughout, so the player pool deficiencies couldn't be overcome.
Just because Sunil isn't singularly responsible for the state of the player pool doesn't mean he should get a pass for the things he is singularly responsible for. We know that Gulati had a man-crush on Klinsmann for ages and was trying to hire him as far back as 2006.
Arena wasn't a crazy hire to make at the time and although uninspiring, I thought it was okay when it happened. But he had a very, very basic job - keep it simple & coherent tactically and
man-manage well. He got the tactics badly wrong against T&T and it's increasingly clear that he lost half the locker room.
Let's put it this way. Gulati has hired three managers and you could make a fairly compelling case that Bob Bradley was the best one.
Moving past USMNT manager debates, I want to address what is truly the larger issue here.
Gulati can't help solve the problems of US soccer when he is unable or unwilling acknowledge them. If you really think that the USMNT failed to qualify because of a bad game against T&T, you aren't even close to being prepared to address our issues.
Sunil has a really, really hard time with accountability. Klinsmann got a new contract
before the 2014 WC and then Gulati pulled the trigger way too late. (The 2015 GC was a real canary in the coal mine, IMO.) At the youth national team level, it's just as bad if not worse. Tab Ramos, a good old NJ guy, is the youth technical director. Richie Williams, another good old NJ guy, was placed in charge of the U17s for a second cycle despite abject failure. Our chief scout is so incompetent that he's been running around lying about his efforts to recruit Jonathan Gonzalez. By far our most successful youth coach (Hugo Perez) was pushed out because he clashed with people like Richie and Tab. The management of the past TWO Olympic cycles has been embarrassingly bad. Coaches have been hired far too late in the cycle and they and their teams have been unprepared. In 2012, Porter was hired way too late. In 2016, Herzog clearly didn't have a strong grasp of the player pool.
Sunil can't see this. He can't see why the USMNT actually failed to qualify. That's why his speech was (mostly) self-serving crap, and that's why his delusional comment about the T&T is so concerning coming from a USSF president.
