Principal Philadelphia Union Owner Jay Sugarman and Sporting Director Ernst Tanner met with the media in Monday morning following the firing of long-time and fan-favorite head coach Jim Curtin on Thursday afternoon. The news came as a shock to most, but the words muttered by Ernst Tanner and Jay Sugarman felt all too familiar, sounding like the same old story many fans have heard before. Here’s a few takeaways from Monday’s presser
1) The trust and relationship was broken, and it had been for a while
Ernst revealed that right away in his opening remarks, saying “over the course of the last year, we felt that we are not really aligned in what we are doing here.” when speaking on the decision to move on from Jim Curtin after 10+ years. And that’s not totally surprising. What was surprising, was hearing Ernst say he probably would have fired Curtin earlier this season if the Union were a European team.
“It certainly grew over the course of the season. After having a winning culture, if we would have been over in Europe, I would have taken that decision [firing Curtin] probably earlier. I mean we had a losing streak of over 3 months, which is without an example in the club’s history, and that would have justified it already.”
– Ernst Tanner
2) Disagreements around depth and the lack of using young players to fill those holes is a big reason Jim Curtin is gone
Ernst was asked about the team’s depth during the 2024 season, and if he takes any responsibility for how the squad was built as a whole, saying “We never had the depth discussion over the period where we have been successful.”, and claiming Jim Curtin felt the team’s depth was strong enough to compete once players returned from injury and international duty.
In my mind, as the Sporting Director it’s Ernst’s job to intervene and suggest bolstering the squad if he sees fit. But Tanner then went on to express his feelings that Union might already have the depth they’re looking for, but Curtin just wasn’t utilizing the tools at his disposal properly
“We have a lot of depth in our youth, and we have a lot of depth in our 2nd team as we all know. Our 2nd team has proven that, and if you’re watching these games [MLS NEXT Pro Cup] and you see how much quality and how young they are, then you suddenly need to assume that we have the best talent in the country and probably the most of it.”
-Ernst Tanner
Right after that, Tanner went on to say that disputes have been had regarding whether a bunch of kids from Union II (one of the youngest teams in MLSNP, by the way) are ready to help the first team compete or not, to which he sounded a little unsure of the answer himself. Whether Ernst Tanner thinks they’re ready to play or not, it’s clear Curtin’s decision not to get the kids more playing time was a factor that in-part lead to his sacking.
“We had a little bit of a dispute with our team, particularly with older players, as I’m always hearing the younger 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 it. We would rather try to be sure, and that is a discussion we had for sure, and is one of the reasons we [Jim Curtin] are not aligned.”
-Ernst Tanner
2,300+ plus minutes for Nate Harriel, Jack McGlynn and Quinn Sullivan this year, by the way. The Union were the team with the most minutes played by homegrown players in all of MLS in the 2024 season. Leon Flach would have hit 2,000 minutes if he stayed healthy as well. So I guess my question is, just how many young kids is a head coach expected to use without seeing a drop-off in quality?
There has to be a world where the head coach of the Union can be expected to integrate young homegrown players, and at the same time not have to check Chris Donovan into an MLS Cup Final while LAFC send in Gareth Bale. Union should be able to focus on developing their youth and first team players, while also recognizing that relying on it too much leaves too big of a gap between them, and the number of MLS ready players on their opponent’s roster in any given game.
3) Ernst and Sugarman might not be on the same page regarding Union depth, though
To add another wrench in the “depth” conversation, no more than 3 minutes after Ernst Tanner said he didn’t understand where questions regarding lack of depth were coming from in the first place, Jay Sugarman admited that even though he believed in the group they had this season, he thought they “certainly lacked some depth, and we count on our academy to continue to bring up players who can fill roles and become top players in the future. “
So again – was there or was there not enough depth in this team? Or was Curtin just expected to fill that lack of depth with… Union players that may or may not be MLS ready, in Ernst’s own words.
4) Union FO are sticking to their strategy, and they’re likely not going to change that as long as Ernst Tanner is around
Sugarman explained that the strategy Ernst Tanner brought to Philadelphia is a unique one, one he wouldn’t necessarily have picked himself, and one that’s centered around bringing annual, long-term success as opposed to success in there short-term that can leave holes in the organization down the line. In order to do that, building a $75 million dollar complex down at Subaru Park for the whole organization to operate under is the centerpiece of that plan, and is something Sugarman points to as an rebuttal when he’s accused of being cheap and not funding the project properly.
“One thing I think the fans need to know, is when Ernst came to us and said “For this strategy to really work, it requires us to put everything in one place – our 1st team, our 2nd team, our academy, or staff, our school”. That’s a $75 Million dollar expense, and we said “if that’s what it takes, than we’re going to do”, and that’s what we’re building outside.
This isn’t 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.”
-Jay Sugarman
The one place where I’ll say I agree with Sugarman on this topic is the idea that Union can’t change their strategy from year to year if they want to have long-term, sustained success. That’s probably true, and I might be one of the select few that think teams shouldn’t jeopardize the stability of their future just for a chance at one-time glory.
But at the same time, I think there’s a middle ground somewhere between relying on teenagers to help you take the next step and become the “elite” team you aspire to be in the league, and risking it all for a chance at lifting a trophy one time. There has to be a world where both developing young players and bringing in proven, successful ones can coexist.
5) Firing Jim Curtin feels like it was ultimately an Ernst Tanner decision
This quote says it all, not much more to say on the matter. The decision seems to have come from Ernst Tanner, and backed by Sugarman as the best course of action for the strategy they’ve put in place, which again is all orchestrated by Ernst Tanner and his vision.
“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 6 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 gonna 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”
-Jay Sugarman
Sugarman continued a few moments later, adding that the team didn’t want to stay with the status quo, which would have been the easier decision than parting with Jim Curtin
“The easy choice here would be to just stay with the status quo. I like continuity, I think it’s something we actually benefit from, and I know what Jimmy [Curtin] can do. So that would have been an easy decision. This was the hard decision, and it really comes out of Ernst’s assessment of “What do we have to do to get to that final step, where we not only make it but we win”.
-Jay Sugarman
Sounds to me like Ernst Tanner convinced Jay Sugarman that moving on from Curtin was the best course of action to follow the strategy they’ve put in place for the club, no?
6) Whoever the next Union coach is, they need to do a better job at player development in Ernst Tanner’s eyes
When asked, Ernst Tanner made sure to note that he doesn’t like the notion that the Philadelphia Union are a youth development team only, and spent time talking about the importance of developing all of the players in a squad, which he thinks they need to do a better job of. This answer felt like a direct dig at Jim Curtin and some of the things him and Ernst weren’t “aligned on”.
“I don’t like the narrative that has been created that we are just doing youth player development, that is just not true. We need to develop every player on the squad, and player development is the strongest tool a club has. We have been doing not a bad job on that, but if you look at the last one or two seasons, we are stagnating here and that is also one of the reasons we are not successful.
My experience and my mantra is that winning comes out of good development, but just not young players, they belong to that process. But we need to develop the ones we are having here [in the first team], and that’s something [we need] to do if you watch our games. Our games and the football we played over the season was just not good enough and we can not continue like that, we will lose fans like that. That’s reality, and that has contributed to the decision“
-Ernst Tanner
While I do think Curtin could have done a better job at integrating some guys into the squad over the years (Parea, Baribo, Bueno to name a few), I don’t think we should ignore all the players Curtin has successfully had a hand in developing over the years. Both Aaronson brothers, Mark McKenzie, Jack McGlynn, Nate Harriel, Quinn Sullivan, Kai Wagner, and the list goes on. Not to mention, Curtin is a huge reason Cavan Sullivan signed for the Philadelphia Union first team contract in the first place.
When people are asking for more first team players to get over the hump and WIN, and you’re talking about firing a coach because they didn’t develop players enough, you make it pretty hard to beat the “we care about development first and foremost” allegations that get thrown around.
7) There’s not a whole lot of info on what Ernst might be looking for in a new manager yet
He was asked, but as the parting of Jim Curtin happened just a few days ago, Ernst Tanner says it’s still too early in the process to reveal any meaty details to chew on, though he believes the club will have a few options to consider
“Well this is a little bit early to talk about [the head coaching search], I want to work with our first team coaches. They are all good guys, they are good coaches, fantastic staff. We have a few openings in the future that is clear, and we will need to occupy them. But we also have to follow league protocol, and that requires us to write the positions out, to do the interview process and that will also take some time, but there might be some choices.”
-Ernst Tanner
That being said, Joe Tansey tweeted out after the press conference that Ernst would prefer someone with MLS experience, with a big emphasis on being familiar with Union’s playing style. Not sure who that leaves as an option, honestly. Will likely write a piece on the in the coming days.
8) Ernst cites adding new players in each position group as reason Union fans should be excited about 2025
I had the opportunity to ask Ernst Tanner and Jay Sugarman why fans who dont necessarily care about luxury seating or a $75 Million Dollar sports complex, but had a strong connection to Jim Curtin and ultimately just want to see their club win trophies, should feel excited about the upcoming 2025 season. Here’s Ernst Tanner’s response:
“I want to get back to what really made us successful, in particular in regards to our playing style, the way we are playing. We definitely will have a couple of additions to the team, but we also need to create some flexibility in our CSP Charge as you know.
I think there is a lot of trust in the team we are having, and if you look at the value of our team, during the season in the transfer market, like Jay mentioned, we have always been somewhere in-between 4 and 7 after we sold a couple of players, so there is obviously some value in that team. We certainly underperformed in this season, that’s clear, but we will add on almost every position group a player in order to improve the quality of the roster.
We will bring up players from the 2nd team, that’s also clear, in order to have a roster that’s operating out of 25-26 players. We will not have so many additional competitions as last year and we will probably have a little more time to train and develop and prepare. And with everything together, I think that the future looks really good for us.”
A few things to dissect here. First – when Ernst Tanner talks about “getting back to what really made us successful” it feels like another dig at former Union Coach Jim Curtin and his reluctancy to play the style of Football Ernst Tanner wanted him to play, another sign of things they weren’t “aligned on”.
Outside of that bit – new players coming to the squad is good to hear, that’s what this team needs. New voices, new faces, new styles to add to the squad, though I don’t think we should expect an out of the ordinary type of signing.
The one thing I didn’t like about that answer? It was a question about the fans, and he didn’t reference the fans once. It was my hope to ask a hard question, but one that gave the Front Office an opportunity to address the fans and feed them an ounce of hope going into a foggy off-season, and maybe the most pivotal one in the team’s history. I guess at the end of the day, winning heals all, right?
Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
