Photo: Ron Soliman

Jim Curtin became Philadelphia Union’s interim manager on June 10, 2014, when the club fired John Hackworth.

The next day, I wrote my second-ever post on PSP, summarizing Hackworth’s legacy and looking ahead to what would come next.

I don’t think anyone thought it would be more than ten years before the Union fired another manager… but here we are.

Yesterday, the club parted ways with Curtin, a shocking move that left observers around the league stunned, many supporters furious, and an incredible cloud of uncertainty over what would come next.

It’s a seismic development for a franchise that’s spent most of the last half-decade as a model of consistency at the top of MLS.

Looking back at the Curtin era

Curtin’s tenure as a whole is — to use one of his favorite expressions — a tale of two halves.

Just 34 years old when he became interim manager, it took the Oreland native a while to find his feet. In his first 4.5 seasons, he guided the team to just two playoff appearances (no wins), and dropped three U.S. Open Cup finals. At the end of 2018, I suggested that the Union had hit the ceiling of what Curtin could accomplish.

Boy, was I wrong.

Over the next five seasons, Curtin’s Union became one of MLS’s powerhouses. He successfully blended longtime stalwarts, shrewd acquisitions, and talented Homegrowns into a gritty side that always made it difficult for the opposition. The litany of accolades from this run is well-known: a Supporters’ Shield, an Eastern Conference title, five playoff appearances, three Concacaf Champions Cup appearances — and two Coach of the Year awards for Curtin. That run totally turned around a franchise that spent most of its first decade vacillating between moribund and forgettable.

For all that success, though, trophies were hard to come by. Curtin’s Union had a bad habit of losing in the biggest games. In this five-year stretch the Union played in seven finals, semifinals, and conference finals. They won just one of those games. And they failed to turn their most dominant regular seasons into titles, crashing out in their first playoff game in 2020 and suffering the most heart-wrenching defeat in club history in the 2022 MLS Cup.

Curtin’s strength was his man management. The Union built a strong club culture that helped a team without high-paid stars become more than the sum of his parts. Curtin is a genuinely likable guy, and he set a standard that grew beyond the locker room and into the wider club. As a Philly native, his knowledge of the area helped raise the club’s profile as results improved on the field.

(On a personal level, I should say that Jim was always professional with me, and I appreciated his thoughtfulness in dealing with the media. That matters much less to me than the uniformly positive things I heard about Curtin the person from everyone around the club.)

It is a testament to Curtin’s tenacity, interpersonal skills, and ability to grow that he overcame a rocky start to become the second-longest tenured manager in MLS.

How’d we get here?

Curtin’s firing on Wednesday came as quite a surprise to the fan base. Even after a down season in 2024, it was assumed that Curtin had the equity to see out at least another season. Ownership and sporting director Ernst Tanner saw it differently.

I think there are four interrelated dynamics at play here, based on my knowledge of the team and various media reports over the last 24 hours.

1. The 2024 collapse. This past season was a huge step backwards for the Union after so many years of sustained success. Did Curtin and the front office analyze the failure the same way? Curtin seemingly believed that he did not have a roster that was deep enough to survive injuries and midseason departures. But it’s reasonable to think that the front office viewed Curtin’s selections as suspect. Per Joe Tansey, Curtin’s push to bring back aging club captain Alejandro Bedoya last offseason and his reliance on older players during the season led to tensions with the front office and ownership group. By the end of the season, it was a frustrated and demoralized club.
2. Ernst Tanner’s signings. Throughout his tenure, Curtin was not shy to nail players to the bench if they didn’t perform up to his standards in practice. In recent years, that increasingly happened with players the sporting director signed to play big roles in the team. Neither Joaquin Torres nor Andres Perea, signed in 2023, made any real impact for the Union; Perea signed a big contract and lasted barely half a season before going out on loan. The Union spent real money that summer to sign Tai Baribo, who promptly spent a year chained to the bench behind Chris Donovan. When he got his chance, he promptly scored 16 goals in 26 games (all competitions). Other signings were forced into action and revealed themselves to be well below par, like goalkeeper Oliver Semmle. It is reasonable to conclude that the sporting director and the manager were no longer seeing eye-to-eye about new pieces for the squad.
3. Spending frustrations. It is no secret that Curtin — quite reasonably — had become frustrated with ownership’s failure to invest in the Union, who carried the second-smallest payroll in MLS at the end of 2024. While ownership has publicly claimed that it would be willing to spend more on players, it’s obvious that it has no present intent to keep pace with even MLS’s mid-tier spenders. There may have been a mutual sense that this situation was untenable; frankly, Curtin deserves a chance to show what he can do with a better squad.
4. What comes next. The Union are likely entering into a rebuild. That will mean moving on some franchise stalwarts and giving opportunities to younger and lesser-used players, including the next wave of Homegrowns. Jonathan Tannenwald suggests that Curtin’s historic reluctance to use his depth pieces may have led the front office to believe that a new manager is needed for this next era. (It’s hard to know what the pipeline’s crown jewel, Cavan Sullivan, must think, as Curtin played a decisive role in keeping the youngster with the Union.)

Any one of these dynamics seems navigable, but together I see a picture of a front office and manager no longer in sync. That’s a recipe for disaster, and a parting of the ways would make sense — even if, on the merits, Curtin did not deserve to be fired.

Uncharted waters

So, for the first time in more than ten years, the Union are looking for a new head coach.

For the first time since the franchise’s founding, I think they’ll hire from outside the club — even though Marlon LeBlanc has done good work with Union II and would be a solid option. Tanner has been here for over six years without getting the chance to bring in his own coaching staff. It seems likely that the new coach will be “a guy you’ve never heard of who used to work with Tanner in Germany.”

Of course, that shouldn’t stop us from wild speculation! Maybe old friend Danny Cruz wants to move up from managing Louisville City. Or, aim bigger: Erik Ten Hag is available after doing an outstanding job running Manchester United into the ground, which earned him my admiration.

My personal favorite option, of course: hire me. As in 2014, I remain available and ready to serve!

I’ve been in retirement since my double-winning season in 2013.

Whichever way Tanner goes, it’s tough to understate what a change this will be.

After an era of unprecedented success and stability, the good ship Union is heading into uncharted waters.