“We have been stagnating here.”
Philadelphia Union owner Jay Sugarman and sporting director Ernst Tanner touched on many topics and shared a few revealing tidbits about their decision to part company with longtime head coach and native son Jim Curtin in a Monday morning press conference at Subaru Park.
But those five words from Tanner might just be the most important of the lot.
“Over the course of the last year, we felt we are not aligned in what we are doing here,” the veteran German executive said of Curtin’s departure, which both men indicated was Tanner’s call first and foremost. “We had a discussion about expectations before we extended his contract [in July 2023]. Unfortunately, things did not turn out how we talked.
“I mean, we had a losing streak of over almost three months, which is without an example in the club’s history. And that would have justified it already,” he later added. “There were some glimpses of hope in Leagues Cup, but at the end of the year it didn’t turn out and it’s better to take the decision now, as if we would hope for an improvement during the next season and then we had to do it, then we would be without a coach for a period of time.”
End of an era
A local product who worked his way up the Union’s coaching ladder from young academy sides to the first team after calling time on a nine-year MLS playing career, Curtin held the post since June 2014, making him the second-longest-tenured head coach in the league and the de facto face of the club.
Following Tanner’s arrival in 2018, the duo crafted a rugged, pressing-centric system to build Philly from also-rans into perennial contenders, winning the Union’s first and heretofore only major title (the 2020 Supporters’ Shield), reaping millions of dollars in outbound transfers and making deep runs in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs and Concacaf Champions Cup. The failure to qualify for this year’s postseason was a galling setback, however, and ultimately exacerbated a growing divide in their outlook.
“We are absolutely committed to our core principles. But that doesn't mean we can't respond to things that present themselves,” said Sugarman. “Long-term success is what we're investing in, but we've still got to win every Saturday, or we need to win enough. So that balance between youth development, player development at the senior level and winning is a tough balance. It's not easy. No coach will tell you it's easy. But this is what we have laid out over the last six years as our strength, what we can do uniquely well, and I think we can continue to do that.
“Jim was a great coach for us, I'm going to say it again and again. But when Ernst says, ‘what do we need to do to get to the next level? And these are the things we need to do,’ we need to pay attention to that.”
Youth vs. experience
Philly’s ability to nurture top prospects like Mark McKenzie and brothers Brenden and Paxten Aaronson and compete in MLS without splashing out big amounts on salaries and transfer fees made them a role model for many of their counterparts around the league.
It’s harder to tell whether they’re making optimal use of their respected youth operation of late, with an increasingly apparent difference of perspective between decision-makers about whether recent crops of rising talent are ready to step in at the first-team level. Curtin seemed to hold reservations, often relying heavily on established regulars with limited squad rotation and use of substitutions on matchdays.
His successor – and it’s still very early in that hiring process, according to Tanner, with decisions on their incumbent staff members still ongoing – will almost certainly be expected to blood more youngsters, more often.
“I don't like that narrative which has been created that we are just doing youth player development. That's just not true," said Tanner. "We need to develop every player on the squad, and player development is the strongest tool a club has, and we have been doing, not a bad job on that. But if you look at the last one or two seasons, we have been stagnating here, and that is also one of the reasons why we are not successful.
“We have a lot of depth in our youth, and we have a lot of depth in our second team; as we all know, our second team has proven that,” he noted, a reference to the talented Union II side highlighted by teen phenom Cavan Sullivan that just narrowly lost the MLS NEXT Pro final to North Texas SC. “If you were watching these games and you see how much quality and how young they are, then you certainly need to assume that we have the best talent in the country, and probably most of it. And that's what also is something that we need to discuss, and bring them on.
“They train with us. But … we had a little bit a dispute with our team, in particular with all the players, as I'm always hearing, ‘the young ones are not ready to play.’ And I tell you, I don't know if they are ready to play because we didn't try. So you would rather try to be sure. And that is a discussion we had for sure, and that is also one of the reasons why we are not aligned.”
"Not a conventional strategy"
Both he and Sugarman pushed back against perceptions that they are unwilling to spend on the top-end signings required to keep pace with a growing MLS elite paced by the likes of Inter Miami, LAFC and FC Cincinnati. They believe their Moneyball-esque model has already borne fruit and can continue to do so, both on the pitch and in the transfer market.
“We count on our academy to continue to bring up players who can fill roles and become those top players in the future. So we're not going to change that strategy. But I have told Ernst, and you've heard us say it before, if we need more pieces, they are available. The one thing I think the fans need to know is when Ernst came to us and said, this strategy, to really work, requires us to put everything in one place: our first team, our second team, our academy, our staff, our school – that's a $75 million expense,” said Sugarman, alluding to the ongoing physical infrastructure projects underway next door to their stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania.
“And we said, if that's what it takes, then we're going to do that, and that's what we're building outside. So this is not a question of we have a strategy and we aren't willing to fund it. This is, we have a different strategy, and it's not a conventional strategy. It's not the easiest strategy to execute, and it's not the flashiest strategy, but when we brought Ernst aboard, that was the strategy we wanted to bet on.”
