Charlie Davies reported that Berhalter was hired because he was the best available manager. USSF can say that because (his words not mine) the salary that USSF was willing to offer would not exceed a comparable salary of the women’s manager.
So there were a lot of hard passes on the opportunity. If you believe Charlie Davies.
In other media it’s been eluded to that even Berhalter initially passed on the job because they would not meet his salary demands and he had a better offer in LigaMX.
As for player input on a coach, it’s not unusual in the international game, especially in places like Africa where players aren’t always willing to fly home 6 times a year for someone they don’t like or respect.
In reality, the manager of an international team is pretty irrelevant given today’s tactics and athleticism. They can lose you games but never win them. Berhalter by his own admission often goes days without a full day in the office.
In my opinion, this whole thing is a cluster and between the team politics and world politics in the marketing of the team and meaningless competitions to manage the politics of CONCACAF, I’ve really lost interest.
