Quakes 'absolutely' expect Dominic Kinnear to return in 2017

While the Quakes are virtually guaranteed to miss the postseason for a fourth consecutive year, the team does not intend to part ways with second-year manager Dominic Kinnear.

Club president David Kaval told ESPN FC that he "absolutely expects Kinnear to return next season."

"I love [Kinnear], he's a great coach, and he brings a ton to the table," Kaval said. "I think he's one of the better coaches in the entire league. His history speaks for itself. I see him as our coach for a long time.

"I think we need to get more support around him in terms of players and infrastructure so he can be more effective. That's really the focus of finding a sporting director or GM who can bring in some fresh ideas, new connections and a philosophy about how we play, and an identity so we can take this team to another level."

The Earthquakes parted ways with general manager John Doyle, who had been in the position since 2008, last month. Doyle's sacking came after the Quakes' "style of play got kind of boring," Kaval said.

In an effort to fill the vacant position, Kaval said he'd recently gone on tour in search of a new general manager for the club, having traveled through France, Belgium, Denmark and the United Kingdom, according to the report.

He interviewed "12 to 14 candidates," the report said, and is grouping prospective candidates into four categories: international candidates with experience working as sporting directors; domestic candidates who have worked as general managers or as front office staff in the past, including the likes of the team's current technical director Chris Leitch; agents; and sports executives from outside the footballing world.

Kaval said his intrigue currently lies in some of the international candidates he sat with.

"Don't underestimate that the league in the last three years has changed tremendously," the president said. "The amount of spending, the mechanisms, all of the different things, we're in a really different era, and I think the international relationships are going to become more and more important. That's why for me the international candidates are so interesting."

The amount of spending throughout the league has evolved, and quite rapidly, but not for San Jose, have are fortunate to have an owner with deep enough pockets to be spending.

Now in their second season at the newly christened Avaya Stadium, Quakes management have gone on record saying that they're open to signing Designated Players, however, they remain near the bottom of the table in terms of spending, and are still lacking the sophisticated infrastructure several other organizations have been functioning with for years.

Historically speaking, Kinnear's teams have not played the most beautiful football, but they have been more than effective — he has appeared in four MLS Cup Finals and won two MLS Cups during his tenure as a manager in Major League Soccer.