Photo: Paul Rudderow

When the Philadelphia Union’s season ended on October 19th at the hands of a 2-1 defeat to FC Cincinnati at Subaru Park, the outlook regarding the team’s following season varied drastically from the reality we see today.

Sure, their head coach of 10 years had missed the MLS playoffs for the first time since 2017.

Yet, even so, the team advanced to the round of 16 in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in their 4^thstraight year of qualifying for the tournament. The club even finished 4th or better for the second year in a row in the Leagues Cup.

Philadelphia were just one Club Monterey victory away from qualifying for the FIFA Club World Cup – a feat that exhibits the sustained success that the club’s manager attained.

These accomplishments were achieved facing significant adversity – missing players with injury on top of a record number of players missing for International tournaments, such as the 2024 Olympic games and the 2024 European championship.

Moderate successes, even with the club decidedly standing pat in the previous offseason, opting to “run it back” with the same starting XI it had experienced declining levels of success with for the previous two seasons, are to be noted.

And yet, as it stands today, the club gear up for another season with many familiar faces, but the overall feeling around the club is, well, different.

Curtin closed

Almost three weeks after the Union’s 2024 campaign came to a close, reports began to sprout up that Jim Curtin had been relieved of his duties after 10 years at the helm of his hometown club.

What seemed like unfounded rumors at first, quickly began to get the “certified seal” from trusted reporters such as Fabrizio Romano and Tom Bogert.

“We have began stagnating here,” the club’s Sporting Director, Ernst Tanner, stated in a press conference on November 11^th, five days after the announcement that the club would be moving on from its respected leader.

“Long-term success is what we’re investing in, but we’ve still got to win every Saturday, or we need to win enough,” Tanner continued.

In Curtin’s 11 seasons as the club’s manager, he posted a 170 – 90 – 134 record. Much of the first 3 years of his tenure came in dark times for the Union. Yet, it was the club’s patience with the Oreland, PA native that allowed him to turn those dark times into the best years of success the club has seen.

Surely, there is an argument to be made that Curtin had his flaws.

Somewhere betwixt his seeming lack of ability to “adjust” in-game, or his over-reliance on a system that became stale, or his inability to find ways to give players like Tai Baribo a chance, it is clear that Jim, like everyone, wasn’t perfect.

Yet, given the lack of spending within in the first-team, what Jim did with the talent at his disposal was no less than “polishing a turd.”

He turned MLS Superdraft picks like Jack Elliott into “Defender of the Year” caliber players. He brought the most out of role players like Leon Flach, turning them fan favorites. He stuck his neck out in order to aid in the signing of Cavan Sullivan to a professional contract with the club, before the wunderkind took his talents overseas without his home club getting a piece of the transfer fee.

Jim operated in a way that, put very succinctly, meshed with the city. He led by example. He was confident, but not to the point of hubris. And under Jim, the club found success that supporters of the early 2010’s would never have even dreamt of.

Although, professional soccer is results-driven and a “what have you done for me lately” business at the end of the day. No matter the irrationality, disrespect, or lack of self-awareness the decision made by Tanner exuded, the team find themselves at the beginning of a new era.

Ctrl + F “Manager”

From the time the club fired Jim Curtin, to the agreeing of a deal with new manager, Bradley Carnell, nearly two months had transpired.

Rumors of potential replacements from “Ernst Tanner’s elite coaching network” overseas were taken for rides around the international soccer media sphere.

But come to fruition, they did not.

“Well good things take its time as you know, and we had probably close to 100 applications, but we needed to shrink that down to 10,” Ernst stated at Carnell’s introductory press conference.

It doesn’t take a keen observer to feel the urge to scoff at the “100 applications” comment. Indeed.com? LinkedIn? ZipRecruiter? Were these resumes even formatted properly? There was actually interest in this job? Applications? You mean to say that you, as the Sporting Director, weren’t solely reaching out to your “elite network?”

But I digress.

Bradley Carnell does bring good experience to the role. Like Curtin, Carnell is a former player, but spent his entire career abroad, with most of it spent in Germany. He played in the 2002 World Cup with his home country, South Africa.

His managerial experience includes stints with New York Red Bull, the Canadian national team, and St. Louis City SC. He even took St. Louis, an expansion team, to the playoffs in 2023, finishing in a staggering 1^st in the Western conference. He was fired the following season after the club failed to replicate the success of his inaugural season.

His Red Bull-esque tactics will fit right into the over-achieving culture that has been instilled by his predecessor. Maybe a fresh take on the “gegenpressing” style will be a good thing for the Club? That remains to be seen.

Yet, if the goal is winning, and the league keeps improving as a whole, it is fair to question the foresight of Ernst’s decision to fire Curtin and essentially replace him with Curtin’s tactical clone.

The transfer ban

Around the time of Carnell’s introductory press conference, Jonathan Tannenwald of the Inquirer reported that “the Club had been banned by FIFA from registering new players for the next three transfer windows.”

Apparently, the ban stemmed from a $700 sell-on fee that was never paid to Union II product, Jose Riasco’s, youth club Minero de Guayana in Venezuela.

Now, the Union are far from the only Club in MLS, let alone the world, to end up on the transfer ban list for similar reasons. The ban itself doesn’t even pose an issue for the club until the MLS season is underway, as the club is still able to sign players, who in turn are able to take part in preseason matches and friendlies.

Yet, this, accompanied by one single loan signing of center back Ian Glavinovich from Newell’s Young Boys, with a whole host of departures, adds some context, and doesn’t necessarily paint the best picture of the operation behind the scenes.

USMNT call-ups

For the USMNT’s January camp, it was reported that Jack McGlynn, Quinn Sullivan, and Nathan Harriel received call-ups to the US Men’s Senior National Team by new USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino.

Both McGlynn and Harriel made the US U-23 Olympic team that competed in the 2024 Olympic Games in France this past summer. McGlynn had also had one previous appearance for the senior USMNT in 2024.

For both Nathan Harriel and Quinn Sullivan, however, this was their first call up to the senior national team.

Sullivan, in particular, hadn’t been called up to any international squad since his U20 appearances for the USMNT at the CONCACAF Championship.

After the news of the call-ups, it was made known that while the Union would allow McGlynn to attend the USMNT senior camp, it would block Harriel and Sullivan’s call-ups.

McGlynn went ahead with attending the camp, and won “Player of the Match,” in his appearance vs. Venezuela – scoring a worldy of a goal and logging an assist in the 3-1 win. He also saw minutes as a sub in the second game of the camp vs. Costa Rica.

But it’s hard not to feel for Sullivan and Harriel. Sullivan, especially, has been routinely overlooked in USMNT youth tournaments and friendly call-ups. For the Union to block him and Harriel from getting their first international team appearances – a dream these players have had since they started kicking a ball – goes against everything the Philadelphia Union has been founded on and purports itself as to this day.

If the idea for this is that the Union are effectively putting Jack McGlynn in the shop window, then sure. One can see the business rationale behind it.

However, to quote a legend in this town:

“Think about the kids… this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that they may never get back again. To prevent them from playing in a U20 World Cup? I’m sorry. I don’t agree with it.”

Who said that, you may be asking?

Jim Curtin.