Hans says, Backe says: Red Bulls coach refutes reports of imminent departure

Life is never simple when you're following the New York Red Bulls. So it was probably predictable that when reports out of Sweden surfaced that quoted Red Bulls manager Hans Backe as saying he wouldn't be back next year that it would turn out to be more complicated.

When asked about those reports on Friday, Backe told MLSsoccer.com "Don’t trust them too much. Don’t trust them too much."

Of course, that hardly means Backe's future is secured. He's in the final year of a three-year contract and new leadership has already hastily taken over.

It was just the other day that new general manager Jerome de Bontin gave him the one of the weakest job endorsements ever when he said, "Unequivocally, today, we are behind Hans. We are with him till the end of the season. As for the next season? We don't know that."

Whether or not Backe has already decided that he won't be back is probably just window dressing. Anything less than a MLS Cup is probably going to result in his contract not be extended and even a MLS Cup appearances might not be enough to save him.

It's possibly an odd end to what is undeniably the most successful tenure of any Red Bulls/MetroStars coach. But odd is really just par for the course.