The Philadelphia Union Telegraphed Their Own Downfall
The Union's horrendous 2024 campaign was coming from a mile away based on the lack of investment and poor transfers.
The Philadelphia Union telegraphed their downfall for everyone to see.
That’s what makes the 2024 campaign even more frustrating.
The Union failed to improve their roster in multiple transfer windows. Most of the players who have come in over the last 18 months have not made an impact, or are already gone.
Jay Sugarman, Ernst Tanner and Jim Curtin are all to blame, some more than others, for the downfall, but it’s very clear how the Union got in this spot, and that’s why there’s so much concern about how they get out of this situation.
The quick thing to do is blame Sugarman for lack of investment (very fair) or Curtin for stubborn tactics and the inability to assimilate players into the lineup (also very fair), but it’s a little stunning to me to see Tanner not receive as much, if not more, criticism for the Union’s current situation.
I’m not going to sit here and cast all the blame on the Union’s sporting director, but all the goodwill from previous transfer windows has evaporated.
We all thought Tanner was a genius for manipulating the in-league trade market before the 2023 season with the additions of Andres Perea, Joaquin Torres and Damion Lowe. We thought that would work because of how the Union acquired Julian Carranza from Inter Miami.
Only one of those players made an impact and is still on the roster. Perea and Torres were thought to be difference-makers for the club’s depth, but that simply didn’t happen.
This is where there’s plenty of blame to go around. Curtin should have been more flexible with integrating Perea and Torres throughout the 2023 season.
Instead, the Union stuck to their ways, played out of the 4-4-2 diamond and occasionally went to a 3-5-2 without an alteration in personnel. Perea and Torres had to fit the parameters of the Union’s strict style of play instead of the team adapting to their skill sets.
It’s clear from the Union’s 2024 matches that everyone across the league has figured out how to play against the 4-4-2 diamond. Because the Union were unable to integrate new players into the fold last season, when they needed to bring in tactical flexibility, the club is caught out more often and there’s a lack of personnel to make adjustments.
The other depth reinforcements were supposed to come from finding gems across the world, like Kai Wagner’s rise from the German third division.
Tanner deserves a ton of praise for even finding one diamond in the rough and turning that player into a Best XI-caliber player. But that shouldn’t be the transfer strategy if Sugarman and the ownership was willing to adjust more cash in the transfer market.
The Union do not have to make the biggest signings in every transfer window, but elevating the transfer budget to lure an impact player or two from a big-five European league shouldn’t be out of question.
Instead, Olwethu Makhanya, Markus Anderson, Sanders Ngabo, Jamir Berdecio, Richard Odada and Abasa Aremeyaw were brought in as project players.
None of those players have made an impact on the first team. No one cares about how they are progressing with Philadelphia Union II.
Aremeyaw was the bust of all busts. He lasted as well as Matej Oravec did in Chester. Odada was loaned out to Aalborg and the Danish club did not opt to permanently purchase him following his loan.
Makhanya, Anderson, Ngabo and Berdecio can be seen in the Union II starting lineup, or on the first-team bench with no minutes likely in their futures.
Curtin would rather shift one of his starters into a different position than use a natural replacement in that spot. The latest example of this was Nathan Harriel starting at center back against Inter Miami with Jack Elliott on a red-card suspension. Everyone knew Makhanya didn’t have a sniff at minutes against Miami.
That’s organizational failure.
The Union currently do not have a plan in place if one of their top 13-15 players goes down.
The one player they actually spent money on outside of MLS in the last few transfer windows, Tai Baribo, was relegated to zero minutes until recently.
That’s another organizational failure.
Blame whomever you want on the Baribo signing.
Sugarman for only wanting to invest in a striker from the Austrian Bundesliga, Tanner for not finding a more talented striker, Curtin for not giving Baribo chances. There’s plenty of blame to go around.
Now it’s unfair to say the Union haven’t invested at all because that’s what got us to the current roster situation.
The Union locked up every member of their core, and they were widely praised for retaining Kai Wagner after he became a free agent at the end of the 2023 season.
Wagner was the latest player to voice concerns over the club’s investment after Saturday’s game.
The one thing that stuck in my mind, whether fair or unfair, was why would Wagner come back if he knew the investment in the squad wouldn’t change? It’s not like he’s a new face in the locker room. He knows this is the way it is and he chose to come back.
The highest-paid players on the roster have not shown up for the most part in 2024. I think Wagner is the exception to that rule and that’s why you could argue there’s no problem with him being the one who criticizes the club.
As we’ve seen in the past, no amount of words are going to change the situation.
At this point, we’re tired of words and Curtin’s press-conference catch phrases that fill out a Bingo card within five minutes of a presser.
I don’t think Curtin’s job is at risk. I would compare the situation to what Sporting Kansas City went through recently.
Sporting KC stuck with Peter Vermes despite a very disappointing 2022 campaign. They retooled their roster and rebounded in the standings. They aren’t at an MLS Cup-winning level, but in terms of transfer market investment, that’s probably the best comparison for the Union’s struggles unless there’s a massive uptick in the transfer funds.
It’s hard to suggest that a solution is coming at any time in the future because there’s been no indication of a change. No one is asking for total fundamental change.
The Union can still be a team that puts emphasis on its academy and developing young American players while being near the top of the standings. Hell, we just saw it happen over the last few seasons.
What everyone is asking for is more investment on the transfer side of things. That isn’t a big ask and a roster retooling has to happen.
The Union already committed a ton of money to keeping their stars and now they need to surround them with a better roster so that a massive drop in form does not last over a half or full season again.
Photo Courtesy of Philadelphia Union.
This is an amazing and perfect summation of the frustration that a lot of us have been feeling, Joe. Great work.
Great piece, Joe. The wheels in motion for this downtown didn’t just happen overnight.
When your main strategy is to develop through your academy and fill the senior roster with established senior players who are undervalued, you need to continue to actively move players in and out of your team while generating a positive net transfer spend. Unfortunately for the Union, Covid froze up so many mid-tier teams in Europe from buying players which dried up the demand for players like Wagner, Carranza, etc where it made sense for the U to cash out. So because of their limited salary and transfer budget, the Union had to access the MLS market by using non-cash mechanisms like TAM, GAM and draft picks in order to supplement their existing senior roster.
Further compounding the problem was that they properly compensated players like Gazdag, Elliott, Glesnes and Wagner by giving them all big raises. Without an increase of either transfer or salary spending, these raises (while well intended) turned the Union into a distinctly average team with limited depth (especially in Curtin’s eyes). This dynamic makes it harder to compete with teams like Columbus, LAFC and Cincy who operate under a similar strategy, albeit with a higher budget.