Goodbye Jones

After Subotic and Rossi, it’s nice to see someone coming the other way.

As a commenter noted on Steve Goff’s Insider Blog, Jermaine Jones was rated the 4th best midfield player in the Bundesliga by Kicker. While I agree that he appears to have a discipline problem, I’m pleased for U.S. soccer. He’s a good player and I am hopeful and excited that he will become an asset to the U.S. team.

Posted from  United States

I have to respectfully disagree with my co-blogger, at least on some points.

To pick up on some other comments elsewhere, yes you can say he’s a bit of an arrogant dick, doesn’t do diplomacy and will kindly refuse to discuss Nietzsche and Nivea’s line of skin care products with Jogi Löw. You could give it a positive spin though and simply say that he’s a player with attitude and temperament. Yes, he lacks technical skill, although I think he improved his passing this season. And he does a good job compensating his weaknesses with a great work rate, good positioning and tackling. And finally, for me he is a big game player and I currently don’t see too many of them in Germany’s midfield.

Löw prefers the likes of Rolfes and Hitzelsperger, who are nice guys but so far did not deliver under pressure for Germany and, as far as overall quality is concerned, are certainly not head and shoulders above Jones to be beyond doubt. After Ballack and Frings nearly argued themselves out of the national team, Rolfes and Hitzelsperger aggressively positioned themselves in the German media as being ready to take over at the heart of Germany’s midfield. In the end they didn’t impress. They are the kind of players who miss crucial penalties (see Hitzelsperger vs Lyon in the CL group stage versus Jones vs Porto in the CL round of 16, same season but even bigger stage for Jones).

While I wouldn’t mind seeing Jones as a potential backup/replacement for Frings, he obviously has no future as long as Löw is coaching the team. And even if he would get a call up, he might still be better off playing for the US, but only because Germany has currently a complete set of high quality midfielders in its’ U19-U21 teams, who have the potential and skill to take over and push Jones, Rolfes, Hitzelsperger aside.

P.S.: I certainly like to poke fun at Kuranyi whenever I find the time, but e.g. a player like Stefan Kiessling is in no way an improvement over him and I rate Kuranyi higher. Löw’s unusually tough stance towards Kuranyi’s childish overreaction also proves, that Löw really just looked for an excuse to dump a player he doesn’t like. I presume had Kuranyi not lost his cool earlier but would have bitch slapped Ballack instead of Podolski, Löw would have used this as the excuse to dump him.

Posted from  Germany

Jan, thank you for speaking out on how I feel about the bundestrainer. I don’t get it while Kuranyi is being left out of the national team for what he does while in the case of Podolski…I don’t even want to talk about it.

I had read that the U.S. Soccer Federation had taken note of Jermaine Jones’s switching of allegiance.

This – ‘“I understand from Jermaine Jones’ representatives—and now from public statements by the DFB—of his intention to apply for a change of status under FIFA’s recently revised regulations,” U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati said in a statement. “Once that process is completed, he’ll be eligible for selection to the U.S. national team.”’

Link – http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=ap-jones-us&prov=ap&type=lgns

All the best to Jones in the U.S. national team. He has the right to do so in view of FIFA’s recent revised regulations. For all I know, one day the DFB will rue his absence.

Posted from  Singapore

Well it’s obvious there are players Jogi likes (Hitz, Fritz, Rolfeitz Jansenitz), players who are indispensable (Ballack, Poldi, Frings), and then players who he don’t really like (Jones, Kehl, Kuranyi).

Besides the fact that a player such as Joens does not fit in the one-pass no-foul system in Jogi’s mind, there is also the problem of Jone’s attitude. The Bundestrainer does not need his authority tested even more than it is now and certainly not by someone who he can throw away – which he has.

Look at it this way we got rid of Matthäus in time for EM 96 and we won, we had him and his stupid antics for WM 98 and we lost. There’s more to it than that (Sammer), but it proves team cohesion is really important. We already have Ballack and Poldi to worry about, we don’t need a second-rate relatively old Jones in the meantime.

That being said Rolfes and Hitz are by no means better than Jones. In fact Hitz can hardly be called a DM. Let’s hope one turns up at the U21, but whether Jogi uses him (or Kehl) is another question.

Check out the interview with Jones on the New York Times. It is EXACTLY why we don’t want him and why the US should be wary. He tries to blame all of Germany for his personal failings – real nice guy.

Well he has already done a lot of backpedaling in the German press, stating that he was misquoted/misunderstood and that the NYT journalist asked him three times whether you had to be “blond and blue eyed” to make it in the German NT and he said he denied the question three times.

I wonder whether he is now just trying to cover his tracks and is lying or whether there was some form of miscommunication – that would at least answer the question of some fans concerning his English skills. I would also be disappointed if the NYT journalist actually actively tried to get statements from Jones that suggest his switch was motivated by racist attitudes towards him – as Jones is now suggesting.

Google translate the following as you like, but for the sake of unbutchered original quotes:
http://www.schalke04.de/news_details.html?&tx_ttnews%5btt_news%5d=24072&cHash=f0a2972592

Posted from  Germany

The essence of Jones’ statement from the Schalke website (see previous comment for the link):
1. After talking to the New York Times the journalist agreed to send the article to Jones via e-mail prior to publication, so he could check whether he had expressed himself properly and whether his statements weren’t misinterpreted.

2. While talking about the reasons for being continuously neglected by the national team, the journalist eventually brought up the topic of his skin color. At this point Jones said the exact opposite of what was eventually quoted in the article. That this had nothing to do with racism and that you did not need to be “blond and blue eyed” to play for Germany.

3. All in all there have been several misunderstandings in this conversation. The article says that Jones had signed a contract extension in 2007 running until 2011. In reality he only just recently signed the new contract which runs until 2013.

4. His statement “I don’t have a good feeling about stuff in Germany” was put into a wrong context suggesting he didn’t feel at home or accepted in Germany. This statement was made in the context of his non-selection for the national team and solely referred to his evaluation of his chances to play again in the German team.

5. Jones is sorry if the article lead to conclusions that he felt uncomfortable in Germany. He feels good and comfortable and would have liked to continue playing for the German national team but Jogi Löw had been very clear, that he no longer had a chance,

Posted from  Germany

All right, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. Either way we are better without this kind of stuff.