With the Red Bulls’ season ending after Wednesday’s loss in the Eastern Conference semifinals — 2-1 to Houston, 4-3 on aggregate — there are conflicted stories about coach Mike Petke’s contractual status. Turns out both are wrong.
ESPN had stated earlier in the day the rookie coach was on a one-year make-good contract, and when Red Bull Head of Global Soccer Gerard Houllier went on Kicktv and said Petke was on a three-year deal, the natural assumption was that he had inked an extension. That’s not the case.
“I don’t know where that came from,’’ Petke told the Post after Sunday’s elimination defeat. “I haven’t signed a thing.’’
Actually, Petke is still on the original deal he signed back in January when sporting director Andy Roxburgh offered him the job. It’s a two-year contract, and it hasn’t been extended.
“Mike has a two-year contract,’’ managing director Jerome de Bontin told the Post. “He has another year on his contract.’’
That said, after Petke led the Red Bulls to the Supporters Shield (the league’s best record) — the first meaningful silverware in club history — in his rookie campaign, they would do well to extend him. Roxburgh is impressed with the 37-year-old Long Island native, and de Bontin gushed over the work Petke has done, including molding the Red Bulls into what he still views as a championship team.
“We had many European guests tonight in the skyboxes,’’ de Bontin said. “And Gerard himself was asking “Why don’t you call yourself champions?” This notion of winning the regular season and not being champions is hard to understand for Europeans. Yes, satisfaction is we are champions. We were the best team in the regular season.
“Playoffs are playoffs. I wish we had gone further but … looking at who was there, and the way they celebrated the Shield last week, and the communion that we now have between the fans, the coach and the players, plenty of things we did not have before, so there is satisfaction. We have plenty to build on. We are much further along now than we were a year ago.’’