Union hire Bradley Carnell as manager with hopes of developing new talent

Nearly two months after firing Jim Curtin, and not long before the preseason starts, the Union finally announced their new manager on Thursday.

Bradley Carnell, a 47-year-old South African with experience with multiple MLS teams, is the new man in charge. He previously coached St. Louis City SC and the New York Red Bulls, and recently had a short stint as an assistant with Canada’s men’s national team. At all those stops, Carnell worked in a high-pressing, defense-first playing style similar to what the Union want — and, in sporting director Ernst Tanner’s opinion, got too far away from in last year’s flop of season.

At a news conference on Thursday at Subaru Park, Tanner said that in his conversations with the team’s ownership, “we were very convinced when we were starting the discussions about the abilities of him — bringing us back on track, bringing us back to a winning team, making [the] most out of our resources,”

Those discussions left Tanner “really convinced that we have the right person sitting in this room,” and that he and Carnell “share the same conviction about the game.”

Carnell agreed, noting how long he and Tanner have known of each other — not just in MLS, but when Carnell played in Germany in the 2000s.

“This place has, no doubt, a great foundation that’s been laid over the last 10-plus years,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to the way that Ernst [wants], the development of this club and the philosophy of this club, getting back to the way that defines us, defines the players, defines the style, defines the community. … I’m not just looking ahead, but also looking back at certain points: to [focus] on the philosophy again a little bit, and make us something different, edgy, and difficult to play against.”

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Carnell’s contract is for two years. He mostly will work with incumbent assistants, particularly Frank Leicht and veteran goalkeeper coach Phil Wheddon, with another hire to come. But more changes could be coming: Director of soccer analysis Dean Costalas left after Curtin’s dismissal, and reserve team coach Marlon LeBlanc is out of contract. First-team assistant Ryan Richter is expected to take LeBlanc’s role, where the players he will coach include LeBlanc’s son, Kellen.

The fourth manager in the Union’s 16-year history is the first to be hired from outside the organization since the club’s inaugural boss, Peter Nowak (2009-12). The two other men who held the role, John Hackworth (2012-14) and Curtin (2014-24), were promoted from assistant roles.

The Union had been pretty quiet since dismissing Curtin on Nov. 7. Other than the team’s end-of-year roster announcement, sporting director Ernst Tanner’s only moves have been re-signing longtime captain Alejandro Bedoya to another one-year deal, re-signing right back Olivier Mbaizo to a multiyear deal, trading a bunch of college draft picks, and acquiring Argentine centerback Ian Glavinovich on loan.

There wasn’t much chatter about the manager job, with only two names making it into public view.

The first was German coach Thomas Letsch, who was well-known to Tanner from past connections in Europe. At one point, Letsch was seen as the front-runner in some quarters, but in other quarters that view was disputed. He ended up taking a higher-profile job, Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg — coincidentally Tanner’s former home — in mid-December after the club fired its manager.

Carnell’s name started floating around as a potential candidate in early December, then faded away. It resurfaced in the middle of the month, then things went quiet again until Thursday.

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“Good things take time,” Tanner said. “We are a club which has a competitive strategy and a certain style of play, and that requires the right knowledge about methodology and the conviction. And there are not too many guys out [there] — a lot of them over in Europe, a lot of them also here in [the] U.S., but most of them are at clubs. So we narrowed it down to very few candidates we were dealing with.”

Tanner admitted he “would not have been shy to bring somebody in from Europe, to be honest, under the preconditions I mentioned.” But once Carnell’s name was on the table, Tanner said, “it is certainly way easier if somebody knows what we are talking about, in terms of our league, and we find the right guy here.”

That much has been true for a lot of teams. If you’re coming to MLS from abroad, you’d better either already know about the league’s Byzantine roster rules or have a front office full of people who do. Carnell knows his way around.

After spending five years as a New York Red Bulls assistant (including an interim stint in charge in late 2020), he was appointed St. Louis’ inaugural manager when the club launched in 2023. His team won the Western Conference regular-season title that year, a rare feat for an expansion team, with a 17-12-5 record.

The campaign crashed to a halt in the playoffs, as St. Louis was toppled by No. 8 seed Sporting Kansas City in the first round — an upset with added ignominy of a brewing in-state rivalry. Carnell got a vote of confidence after the season with a contract extension, but started 2024 with a 3-7-10 record and was fired at the end of June.

In September, Carnell spent a few games helping Canada manager Jesse Marsch, including a friendly against the United States. (Marsch, a close friend of Curtin for decades, surely has a few opinions about the Union’s moves.)

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Tanner obviously expects Carnell to deliver the results he authored in St. Louis but also to give the Union’s major young prospects playing time. The main reason for suddenly dismissing Curtin after 10 years in charge was a disagreement over the big-picture philosophy for the coming season.

“We needed a strong communicator with young people [who can] show the right abilities to work with them, and also, of course, have the awareness for player development of young players in particular,” Tanner said. “I think that we have a fantastic group of young players — and I’ve said it multiple times, probably the best in the country. It takes some time, we all know that, and we all know that we cannot only play with young players, but we need to do our best for that development, and that was one of the most important criteria.”

Those marquee youngsters include — but definitely aren’t limited to — big centerback Neil Pierre, central midfielder CJ Olney, attacking midfielder David Vazquez, and, above all, 15-year-old phenom Cavan Sullivan. The Union have three years to develop Sullivan before he moves to England’s Manchester City, and to get the most out of the attention he’ll bring.

When Carnell was with the Red Bulls, he helped raise three of the team’s top all-time prospects: Caden Clark, 2024 U.S. Olympian John Tolkin, and senior U.S. team star Tyler Adams. All three players got their share of hype, especially Adams. (And he has more than lived up to it, even with his injuries.) But the spotlight on Sullivan, even already, tops them all.

“Working with people, developing players, this is the core of my philosophy, and I feel it’s my duty here,” he said. “I was a 16-year-old too, playing in the pro ranks in South Africa, and somebody gave a chance, somebody gave a shot [to] me. So I’m all for that, and I’m excited about Cavan’s development as well as developing some other youngsters here in camp.”

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