SAN JOSE — Dave Kaval has a four-inch thick bound book on his desk that might have the answers to the Earthquakes’ problems.

The binder has a list of candidates from around the world for the team’s general manager job.

Kaval, the Quakes’ president, said they are looking in Latin America as well as Europe for the replacement of John Doyle, who was fired in late August after leading San Jose since 2007.

After failing to make the playoffs for the past four years, the Earthquakes are undergoing perhaps their most important offseason since re-entering Major League Soccer as an expansion team in 2008. They are working to reshape the roster after finishing ninth in the 10-team Western Conference.

The roster needs include a target forward, a creative offensive-minded player, a left back and a young central defender. That’s for starters.

Finding the right general manager will be the most crucial decision San Jose makes because Kaval said the Quakes want someone who can rebuild the team from scratch. The Quakes are willing to pay top dollar for the project. Kaval said the new hire might become the league’s highest-paid GM.

The team has hired sports executive search firm Nolan Partners to help find the best candidate to ensure they get it right. Kaval also won’t rush the hiring, saying a decision might not come until early January.

In the meantime, technical director Chris Leitch and coach Dominic Kinnear have been preparing for the various drafts that will be held next month after the season ends.

Kaval talked about the offseason Thursday at Avaya Stadium before the U.S. women’s national team defeated Romania 8-1. Here is an edited version of the interview:

Question: Do you need the GM in place before the MLS waiver draft next month?

Answer: Many of the MLS-related things we have the experience in the building right now to do that. I want to make sure we don’t trip ourselves up on this process and cut it short because of a decision like that. Right now the plan is to have the position hired by the end of the year but if it slipped a week or two — it’s such a long-term decision you have to do that.

Q: You say this is a global search. Can you be more specific?

A: We already have some second-round candidates that we interviewed. Some of them we might hire, including Chris Leitch. We also want to make sure we have candidates from Central and South America. So much of our league are players from those regions. I don’t want to be too Europe focused and U.S. focused.

We want to really take the time to cast a wide net to get options. So at the end of the day, we can say, “We are going to choose between the best possible candidate from Mexico or Central America versus a great candidate from Europe and we’re going to make a strategic decision to go one way or the other.” Either one would probably be fine but we can match that up with where we want to take the organization.

Q: You’ve discovered that much interest for the job?

A: Yes — and people who are very experienced — the highest level of sporting directors in the world. People I was generally surprised. It is an unbelievable project to take a hold of, to come in and really have the ability to build it from scratch. Some of these guys love that, it’s their life’s dream.

We’ve been high profile with the process and we’re willing to pay, it’s going to be one of the highest paid GMs in the league, if not the highest.

Q: Why is such an investment so important?

A: In our league, there hasn’t been enough investment in this area. Teams have just been spending on players without thinking, “Hey we need to create an infrastructure to be thoughtful about how we source players and how we take care of these assets and what countries are the best players to come from.” You need the executive staff. That brainpower is important.

Q: So this job has generated worldwide interest?

A: There has been so much inbound interest because it’s not all that often you don’t just hire someone you know or an insider. We’ve had people within our league, people in the U.S., Mexico, Europe. I did three Skype interviews recently with people in Europe.

Q: MLS’ reputation has grown.

A: I don’t think three years ago some of these people would have done it. The higher profile signings, where America is going as a soccer nation. They feel it’s similar to Spain when Johan Cruyff (of the Netherlands) went to FC Barcelona and he planted the seed, which has unbelievable results 20 years later. People in Holland and Belgium — and I’ve talked to a lot of people from those countries — they see a similar opportunity in the United States.

Q: What’s the basic criteria?

A: They have to find good designated players and TAM (targeted allocation money) players. They have to hit. You can’t have players who don’t produce at high salary ranges. It’s not fair to the head coach, it’s not fair to the fans. It just doesn’t work out. You’ve got to be going three for four.

The other thing we want someone who has a real style of play. That’s something we lacked in the past where we can say, “This is who we are as a club. This is our DNA, this is our ethos. We’re going to play like Barcelona, we’re going to play like Scotland.” So we can really educate our fan base about what that is. Then you see all the player decisions are connected to that. That is what I heard from so many of the people that I talked to, how important that is in creating a successful sporting operations in football.

Q: Is this something Dominic Kinnear can help create?

A: Of course. Dom is an excellent head coach. He has a great track record. He played in Mexico, for instance, people forget that. He played around the world, he’s played on the national team. He brings a lot to the table. If we have the complementary pieces together and he has the ability to shape these players into the tactical situations we bring up we can be very successful.

Q: Has he acknowledged in his two years here that the team hasn’t found its identity?

A: Everyone knows that. If you talk to Chris, Dom and me, that’s been the problem, it never really clicked that way. Sometimes when you have a team, like the Goonies in 2012, the team started playing that way. Sometimes you just get something happening. More often than not what you need to do is come top down with the philosophy and ethos.

Q: This past season seemed to highlight the problems because on paper the Earthquakes had a decent roster.

A: We had a lot of talent. We just could not get it to play the way we needed to. We were spending money. We were top 10 in the league in spending. That’s why we decided to go a different direction, bring in some new ideas. We’re being very deliberate about it because it is a critical inflection point for the organization.

Q: Is Chris Leitch in the plans even if you hire another GM?

A: One hundred percent. He’s a great fit for the organization. He’s going to be one of the finalists. Regardless he’s going to be part of this organization. He brings great expertise in the youth development, performance, analytics, understand the (salary) cap.

Q: Will there be any major international signings before the GM is hired?

A: Chris and Dom are still working our list of players of areas of need: target forward, creative player, left back. We still want to make some moves in this window. We’re not giving up on that. We’re still operating the business with the staff we have in place. But by the same token, we want to make sure when the new person comes in they can implement their plan.

But Chris has done a really nice job of articulating and creating a process on the players’ side that we haven’t had in the past. We have meetings every other day going through the different positions. Today, we’re going to talk about the left backs, here are the different ones and we need to take a trip to this country to see these three players.

We need to sign lots of players. We don’t need to just sign two or three designated players. We need a young center back and there are other positions that need filling.

Q: What’s the latest on Alberto Quintero’s chances of returning?

A: We don’t know yet. We need to see if an arrangement can be made for another year. The thing is, there are four guys that could replace him if we lost him. We’re ready. You have to be that way. You don’t want out yourself in a position where you are forced to sign the player too much because you don’t have an alternative.

Q: Avaya Stadium had the U.S. women’s national back this week for the second time, and will be playing host to the women’s College Cup, Dec. 2-4. Is there a National Women’s Soccer League expansion team for San Jose on the horizon?

A: Our biggest issue is that we don’t have the infrastructure: there is no the locker room and no training facility. We need the academy complex done before we can support a USL pro team or a women’s team. We’re building that complex with those training capabilities in mind.

We’re in Week 20 in a 60-week process. Next summer they could certify the EIR (environmental impact report).

For a women’s team, we want to make sure if we do it we do it right. Not only is this team put together well but the league itself is solid. In two years if we get locker rooms and a nice grass field to train on we can all work toward having a team.