RSL “very deep” in coach hire process, but Fall says he misspoke on timeframe

Real Salt Lake general manager Elliot Fall said on ESPN 700 today that Real Salt Lake is “very deep” in the process of hiring a new head coach, stressing he misspoke in giving a timeframe.

The timeframe had previously come from a report by ESPN reporter Jeff Carlisle, with the short end of the timeframe coming on Friday.

Quotes follow from Fall’s interview on ESPN 700. A link is above, and he does touch on more than just the hiring process, so it could well be worth a listen.

We’re very deep in the process and continue to work our way through it. I will say, I probably misspoke a little bit in giving a timeframe, especially a tight timeframe like that. I think what I probably should have illustrated was a bit more of what the external process was, in terms of interviewing people and identifying finalists.

That’s what we’ve been doing, and we’re getting close to wrapping that up. It is about making a decision at that point, having some internal discussions — some more internal discussions — and dialogue about who that right person is. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that we get the right person and make the right decision and not rush to make that decision. We’re going to continue to do that.

It is taking time, and maybe in some respects taking a little more time than we initially planned on, but that’s just the way it is. I think a lot of that is a testament to the candidates, but also a real testament to Pablo (Mastroeni) and the job that he’s done so far and the job that he continues to do, day-in and day-out, getting our team ready and charging ahead and continuing on this playoff push.”

I don’t want to put a timeline on it. I don’t want to say it’ll be by a certain date. But it’ll be when it’s time, and when that right decision can be made, and what that right decision is.

We’ve identified finalists. We’ve interviewed, as I’ve said several times, we’ve interviewed a dozen candidates or more and narrowed that down to a list of finalists. Not going to go too much deeper than that, but we have some fantastic candidates and people we think could do an excellent job.