Will the Red Bulls Have a Coach by the New Year?

In the last two-ish months we've continually marveled at how quickly the Red Bulls moved on from their 2012. Ten player cuts, head coach fired less than 24 hour after the season ended, etc. You know the story. To rehash it all again would be old hat.

But there is one glaring hole in this whole rebuilding process, and it's the lack of a head coach. Midfield depth can come quickly (and sometimes easily and cheaply). A head coach is a bit of a bigger decision and while it's not out of the question the Red Bulls have narrowed down their choices, it seems increasingly unlikely it'll come before Andy Roxburgh's New Year's deadline. While Dax McCarty might be optimistic, camp is going to be starting soon and the Desert Diamond Cup kicks off in mid-February. Something's gotta give.

All of this is likely complicated by the fact that Gary McAllister has been a maybe-he-will, maybe-he-won't figure to the team. It was a foregone conclusion McAllister would be hired to the vacant head coach position, then it wasn't, then it was again, but they still haven't signed him up yet.

Either the "internal struggles" Ives Galarcep talked about at the beginning of the month are real and serious enough to get Roxburgh and Houllier to reconsider "their guy" or they're waiting until after the holidays to avoid a Chivas USA-like communications snafu. Neither are necessarily bad reasons. But only one is a good one.

Either way, the team has a grand total of two days to announce their coach. These kinds of things don't happen over the weekend and they won't do it New Year's Eve to keep casual fans from reacting with a "Oh, hey, the Red Bulls hired a new coach while I was out picking up booze?" So they have Thursday and Friday.

Looks like Roxburgh's going to be late on his own deadline.