Gregg Berhalter needs to stay in his lane after suggesting Christian Pulisic can move on to other clubs after Chelsea like he was talking about an MLS club.
For whatever reason, international managers think they are in the right to talk about Chelsea managers and the decisions on the players they share. Both Didier Deschamps and Roberto Martinez did so earlier in the season in regards to Olivier Giroud and Michy Batshuayi. But there is, of course, a reason why Frank Lampard is Chelsea manger and those two are just international managers.
That being said, at least they had a leg to stand on. Neither France nor Belgium are small international teams. Both had playing careers with Deschamps playing at the highest level and Chelsea before they were quite at that level. Martinez had the more successful club coaching career, though again, not at Chelsea. Regardless, the two can at least point to some sort of portfolio when criticizing how Frank Lampard uses their players.
Gregg Berhalter did not criticize Lampard over Christian Pulisic like the US media did. Instead, he praised how Pulisic had done at Chelsea while saying if he continues like that, he can play for Bayern Munich, Barcelona, or Real Madrid. Frankly, Berhalter needs to stay in his lane.
This is not to say that Chelsea is at the level of Bayern, Real Madrid, or what Barcelona likes to think it still is. But Berhalter’s comments were incredibly dismissive of Chelsea as a big club. Why can’t Pulisic stay in London and reach those same heights? Lampard is not building a squad to filter their way off to something bigger. He is building a squad to be bigger.
Back to Berhalter who is already trying to wedge a gap between Chelsea and Pulisic. This is Berhalter, a guy who had a fine career for an American at the time. A guy flopped out of Europe, did okay in MLS overall, and then got the national team job because only English speakers were interviewed and his brother happened to work high up in the US soccer federation hierarchy. The guy that thinks he can take Pep Guardiola’s tactics and implement them in a national team set up.
Simply put, if Deschamps and Martinez were wrong but had a leg to stand on, Berhalter is already on the ground and digging a hole. Pulisic can achieve just as much staying and fighting for a spot at Chelsea as anywhere else. To be trying to pawn him off after a year is ridiculous.
Not to mention the genuine obliviousness the US media as a whole has shown Pulisic’s time at Chelsea. He came as a promising winger who did not really contribute to goals often. Lampard did not put him in right away and challenged him to fight for a spot. The American did because there are no guarantees at this level. And then over the course of a season with Lampard, Pulisic developed by leaps and bounds. This is not the same Pulisic that left Dortmund. This Pulisic is vastly superior. Ignoring that is part of why Berhalter feels okay trying to send Pulisic off elsewhere.
Berhalter, and any international manager, needs to go about their job and let the clubs that actually pay the players go about theirs. They do not know better, they do not have a divine insight, and they need to stay in their lanes.