The club president’s statement said it all.
In announcing Wednesday the firing of the only technical director that Atlanta United has had, Garth Lagerwey said he believed it was “time for our club to move in a new direction.”
You could make the case it was well past time.
Of club managers, coaches, scouts, executives and decision-makers with a hand on the on-field product, aside from owner Arthur Blank, Carlos Bocanegra was the last remaining link to the club’s brilliant first three seasons, including the unforgettable MLS championship season in 2018.
But also he was the connecting thread to the decisions that have catalyzed Atlanta United’s decline from model franchise to what it is now – a below-average team.
Since finishing second in the Eastern Conference in 2019 – the same year it won the U.S. Open Cup (a tournament of American amateur and professional clubs) and the Campeones Cup (a matchup of the defending MLS and Mexican league champions) – Atlanta United has continued to spend aggressively, but on the field has done little to reward the loyalties of a fan base that has shown up to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in bigger numbers than most clubs in the world.
Starting in 2020, the club finished 12th, fifth, 11th and sixth in the conference. This season, Atlanta United is ninth, barely hanging on for the final playoff spot.
It’s not what was expected in a season when the team aspired to a top-four finish in the conference after strengthening the lineup with multiple acquisitions of veteran international players. Instead, the team compelled the midseason firing of manager Gonzalo Pineda by winning only once in his final 11 regular-season matches. The team’s play has been inconsistent, rife with mistakes and often lacking urgency – the same traits that have characterized its performance in recent seasons.
When the managers, players and even the president changes and the results stay the same – eventually accountability had to fall upon the one constant in the downfall.
It’s an unfortunate moment for Bocanegra, who seems to be a decent person and surely was doing the best he could.
But it’s hard to argue with the results.
Beyond that, it is incumbent upon Lagerwey and Blank to own the club’s descent. It seemed telling when, in a preseason news conference in January, Bocanegra was asked about what supporters’ expectations should be. He began by saying, “High, as usual,” before revealing the club’s ambition to win a title. First, much credit to Bocanegra for having the confidence and willingness to speak so directly to fans. It’d be great if more team leaders spoke with such transparency.
On the other hand, given that the club hadn’t once advanced in the MLS Cup playoffs or finished in the conference’s top four in the previous four seasons, the “as usual” part failed to compute. He may not have intended it, but it came across as resting on faded, dried-out laurels. What the club accomplished in 2019 stopped mattering the day that season ended.
The move by Lagerwey was necessary if for no other reason than the club has to win back its fan base. Who can forget the immediate impression that the club’s supporters made by selling out Bobby Dodd Stadium and then filling up MBS from the inaugural season in 2017 forward?
Atlanta United’s deep pool of supporters has been more central to the club’s identity than any professional sports franchise or college in the state. But the club’s failure to put a competitive product on the field has burned through the goodwill and loyalty of fans and supporters groups.
The club then went ahead and increased prices for season tickets for 2025 and failed to land a striker to replace departed stars Thiago Almada and Giorgos Giakoumakis during the recent transfer window despite having more than $40 million to spend (though efforts were made by Bocanegra).
I spoke Wednesday with Tommy Moos, a co-host of the Atlanta United podcast Scarves and Spikes and moderator of a postgame fan conversation on Twitter Spaces. I asked him his sense of how the average fan feels about the team.
“Depressed,” he said. “Just kind of dead inside.”
Moos said that on top of the losing, the ineffective roster and the season-ticket price hike, fans were not happy about the club’s failure to sign a big-ticket striker during the transfer window despite having money available. They were further aggravated when Lagerwey went on 92.9 The Game after the signing of Russian midfielder Alexey Miranchuk and boasted, “We’re back, baby,” only for the team to lose its next two games (the latter with Miranchuk) without scoring a goal.
“Everyone keeps saying, ‘We’re back, baby’ as a joke now,” Moos said. “It’s kind of tone deaf.”
If talk of season-ticket holders not renewing on a large scale proves true – three season-ticket holders I know shared that they know of many fans who won’t renew – it would leave Blank and Lagerwey with an existential question to wrestle with.
If Atlanta United isn’t winning on the field and can’t boast of its fortress of supporters, then what about it is distinctive?
Lagerwey came to the club in 2022 after having served as general manager and president of soccer with Seattle (winning two MLS Cups) and general manager and senior vice president of soccer operations with Real Salt Lake (winning one MLS Cup).
He inherited Pineda (who himself had come earlier from Seattle) and stuck with him for a season and a half before his dismissal in June. Lagerwey also stayed with Bocanegra, allowing him to lead a philosophical change in player acquisition in which the club shifted from looking for young international players that it could sell for a profit when they blossomed to signing undervalued veteran players in lower-tier leagues. His patience evidently expired Wednesday.
Lagerwey now can refashion the club as he sees fit, starting with a new technical director (a job title common in soccer akin to general manager) and manager.
An aggravated fan base will be waiting for him to act.
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