NEW YORK – Jason Kreis said he’s troubled by the rumors swirling that suggest he might be on his way out as New York City FC coach, but said it’s something he knew could come with the job.
“It’s difficult, it’s not fun to be in this position to have things like this being thrown around about you, but I know it’s part of the job,” Kreis said after the team held a rare training session at Yankee Stadium on Friday. “It’s certainly going to be part of the job when you’re working for a club like City Football Group and in a city like New York.”
Multiple published reports have said Kreis is possibly on his way out after NYCFC failed to make the playoffs in their inaugural season and could be replaced by Patrick Vieira, the former Arsenal star who heads up Manchester City’s elite development squad. Vieira coached Angelino and Shay Facey, who have had successful loan spells with NYCFC.
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“I understand the pressures of coaching and I understand if you don’t do a good enough job, if you don’t make the playoffs, you don’t win enough you’re going to be under pressure and there’s going to be speculation,” Kreis said. “That’s part and parcel of the job and I get it.”
On Friday, Kreis reiterated his desire to stay with NYCFC for next year and beyond.
“You don’t leave a job like I was in and in a club like I was in to take an opportunity somewhere and only want to do it for one year,” Kreis said. “For me this project is about a third of the way complete. It takes times to build a successful team, a successful club in this league and it takes more time than one year.”
Kreis said building a team from scratch and immediately being competitive in MLS was extremely difficult. Still, he noted that the team has 10 wins heading into the season finale against New England on Sunday (5 pm ET, MLS Live) and that NYCFC were competitive in every game but one – a 5-1 loss in Los Angeles on Aug. 23 – two positives to build on.
“I think it was an extremely difficult challenge that I had not been a part of for seven or eight years prior to that,” Kreis said. “Some of me had forgotten how difficult it would be and other parts of me was a bit naïve and maybe too confident that it would be easier than it was. It was a massive challenge, but I’m still proud of what we did.”
