U.S. Soccer officially parted ways with Jurgen Klinsmann after five years with the national team on Monday. Former national team coach Bruce Arena, 65, is expected to be named as Klinsmann’s replacement as early as Tuesday, according to USA TODAY Sports’ Martin Rogers.

Arena coached the USMNT from 1998 to 2006, leading the national team to a World Cup quarterfinal in 2002. He was fired after a disappointing showing in 2006. If Arena is indeed the man to replace Klinsmann, it’s a safe hire. He knows the system and knows what it takes to qualify out of the already-underway Hex.

But if this is going to work, U.S. Soccer and Arena can’t pretend that his questionable quote from 2013 didn’t happen.

After Klinsmann named a World Cup qualifying roster that included dual nationals Jermaine Jones and Terrence Boyd, Arena offered this criticism to ESPN The Magazine.

“Players on the national team should be–and this is my own feeling–they should be Americans. If they’re all born in other countries, I don’t think we can say we are making progress.”

Arena will almost certainly be asked to address that sentiment, as he should, because it’s an opinion that won’t sit well within the dressing room. The 2014 World Cup roster included seven dual-national players. In the most recent World Cup qualifying roster, Klinsmann named eight foreign-born players. This remains a major foundation for the national team’s talent pool, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It should be the goal for every country to field the best eligible players for its national team.

While it may have seemed like Klinsmann added new emphasis on recruiting dual nationals (one of his tenure’s few high points), U.S. Soccer has long depended on foreign-born talent. Arena’s 2002 World Cup roster had five foreign-born players, and that squad went on to the best USMNT World Cup finish since the 1930s. Arena saying the national team was made up of players “all born in other countries” greatly exaggerated the team’s makeup, which really wasn’t all that different from his coaching days.

These comments could also pose a problem on a personal level for the USMNT players. When Arena questions the American commitment of say John Brooks, who was born in Berlin to an American serviceman and German mother, it sends the wrong message. It says that Brooks doesn’t have the same pride to wear the U.S. Soccer crest as Michael Bradley when, in reality, children from American military families deserve the basic respect of not having their motives for playing on the U.S. national team questioned. USWNT legend Abby Wambach faced criticism for nearly the same uninformed take. It was a bad look when Arena said it as a former coach. It becomes an even bigger deal if he has to coach the same players he previously questioned.

In the years since Arena’s 2013 statement, he’s been asked to address his thoughts on foreign-born players. Two years ago, he essentially doubled down on what he said to ESPN The Magazine.

Via The New York Times:

“I believe an American should be coaching the national team. I think the majority of the national team should come out of Major League Soccer. The people that run our governing body think we need to copy what everyone else does, when in reality, our solutions will ultimately come from our culture.”

Then, this year, the opinion became more nuanced. He wanted the foreign-born players to truly have pride in playing for the U.S.

https://twitter.com/AndrewDasNYT/status/799708475295154177/

These comments won’t disappear, and Arena can’t pretend that it will. Arena needs dual-national talent if the USMNT has any hope of rallying to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. His comments don’t reflect a good start to a coaching tenure, but it’s something that can be fixed.

It just can’t be ignored.