Red Bulls part ways with John Harkes

The New York Red Bulls have bid farewell to assistant coach John Harkes, choosing not to retain the former U.S. national team captain on the staff of new Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio. Currently in Colombia looking at players, Osorio could not be reached for comment. Phone messages left for Harkes were not returned.

Harkes was notified last week that he would not be retained. Assistant coaches Richie Williams and Des McAleenan are both good candidates to return.

Harkes spoke to SBI in December about his coaching future and stated his desire to be a head coach in MLS. At the time, Harkes revealed that he was considering some overseas options as well as MLS options.

Comments

[adam]

Hey Ives,

I hope the early AM posts are here to stay. Keep up the good work!

[andrew]

i'd love to see him in some role where it all began in DC, Harkes is a valuable guy and really was one of the key people in the return of the American soccer program.

[Daryl]

Would be great for Harkes to get a head coaches job. But one of the problems with working in a small league like MLS is that there are so few head coaches jobs available.

[Come back John]

We'd welcome you back to United John.

[Matt]

Ya, wouldn't mind seeing him back with DCU.

Always seemed like a quality assistant.

I hear Chicago needs a coach. Haha. Can we add him to the growing shortlist?

[Sean]

Seriously - can we trade the Arena-to-Chicago rumor (which Goff is reporting he's denied) for a Harkes-to-Chicago rumor?

Harkes seems like a guy MLS would want to give a shot to. But what do I know? I'll just be happy if the new coach is (1) not a recycled MLS name (Gansler et al), and (2) someone who has done some coaching, somewhere, at some level previously. Meaning, I really respect what Chris Armas has done over his career, but let's just leave him outta this discussion.

[Dannyc58 (from work!)]

Thanks yet again Ives. This has been an amazing opening week for you.

What gives though, thought you left the Herald News?

[Ives]

I have resigned Danny but I still have some time left at the Herald. As you can see though, my main focus is now this website.

[Zungazan]

Ouch, first bad move by Osorio... Harkesy was one of the best, if not the best soccer player this country has ever produced. He's played in the WC and EPL... He's also an MLS original from the NY/NJ area. How could he not be useful for Red Bull?

[RK]

Nah, stay away from DCU...

[EssEff]

Brilliant!

[kpugs]

That punk never followed through on his promise to have a beer with us, and now he never will. I don't see him heading back to DC Scum, but he'll catch on somewhere.

[Aljarov]

damn, they're really cleaning house down in Jersey......

[John Kelliher]

RBNY has walked Bruce, and now John Harkes out the door….two very successful people who should have been given more then a year to right the ship. You think Juan Carlos Osorio is going to magically turn things around within a year in this league? This is a BAD move in my opinion. You think things cant get any worse? Wait until a year from now when they are looking for another coach.

[Eugene]

What the heck is going on behind the scenes to have players and coaches leave even before the combine, let alone pre-season?

Every one of these decisions to let players or coaches go will come sharply back into focus if NY fails to perform in '08. I think deGrandpre and Osorio are just raising the stakes for themselves by creating all this turnover before the season even starts.

I hope this doesn't come back to bite us. As a NY fan, I'm tired of getting bitten every year by bad decisions made by the previous regime.