FORMER ARSENAL AND France captain Patrick Vieira has insisted he is not the right person to replace Bruce Arena as the United States head coach.
The USA are looking for a new head coach after Arena resigned following the country’s failure to reach the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
A shock 2-1 loss at lowly Trinidad and Tobago, coupled with wins for rivals Panama and Honduras, ended USA’s quest for an eighth consecutive World Cup berth.
New York City boss Vieira has emerged as a possible candidate to replace Arena but the 41-year-old – who won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 with France – dismissed those links.
“It’s always flattering, but I’m not ready,” Vieira said.
“I think when you go to the national team, it’s important to know the league, to know the players, to understand the system and how it works and you need experience. There’s a lot better candidates than myself.
“I really don’t know what people are talking or what people are thinking. But something I can tell you is that I’m not the right person at all.”
Vieira, whose New York are in the MLS play-offs, added: “I don’t think the US should throw everything [out] and start from nothing. They’ve been working for the last few years.
“It’s just about taking the good and the bad and just try to reflect about what went wrong. I don’t think they should throw everything away because that’s not their answer.”
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No Wayne Barnes thankfully !!!
Dont speak so soon. Have the quarter final refs been announced yet? I have a feeling we will win our group and get Barnes as ref for our quarter final which would probably be against Argentina. Winner would probably play England. This is the game I do not want Barnes any where near.
Don’t want Barnes on any game!!! Lol
He’s assistant ref 1 for the French match so he’ll go out of his way to interfere in some way…sans doute..!!!
I’m also glad we’ve avoided Barnes – far too fussy a ref, makes himself central to the match, usually to the detriment of the spectacle. Having said all of that, he’s not the worst.
The worst referee – by some distance – in world rugby right now is Romain Poite. That guy is just bonkers – no consistency at all, and clueless at scrum time. There is no pattern to his refereeing except that it is always unpredictable. We have managed to avoid him for all of our group games (he is an assistant to Joubert in the Romania game, but that shouldn’t prove too bothersome).
No Wayne Barnes!!!! Happy bloody days!!!!! Go wan the Owens!!!! Delighted with Owens in the French game!!!! :)
Not bad at all
barnes wouldn’t be allowed ref an England, and he shouldn’t be allowed ref an irish game
Fantastic! Best ref in the world. Had a dreadful feeling opening the article I’d be reading the name we’ve all come to dread…
Decent refs to be fair. All set up nicely…
What a shocker. Shows how corrupt rugby is these days. Sad stuff.
Huh??
Quite predictable, that the Irish get their favourite referee (i.e. – the only one that doesn’t like to penalise Irish sides). The Irish run rugby in the Northern Hemisphere.
In Owens’ last 2 6N matchs between France and Ireland, he didn’t penalise the Irish in 153 minutes (yes, 153, that’s over 2 and a half hours.)
Ya gotta love our Nige..!! :)
The only dodgy ref is Barnes I’m afraid!!!
Don’t forget… Nigel f*cked us over against the all blacks
Interesting, and odd, to note that there is not one Australian referee taking charge of any of the 40 group matches. Their two guys are assistants and TMO only. By contrast, the two Irish fellas have 6 games between them.
FFR 11 (including 4 for Poite!)
IRFU 6
NZR 6
RFU 6
SARU 8
WRU 3
No referees from Argentina, Australia, Italy or Scotland
Best ref for our biggest game and no Barnes, I’m very happy!