Ernst Tanner knows Union fans are frustrated, and promises improvement this year

"I think that we have a way better roster, and we can get way more out of it, than we showed in the last season," Tanner said this week. He has put his foot down to try to make that happen.

Union sporting director Ernst Tanner (left) speaking at a news conference at Subaru Park on Thursday where Bradley Carnell was introduced as the team's new manager.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Jan. 3, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET

Union sporting director Ernst Tanner isn’t usually the kind for headline-grabbing quotes. But he served up a pretty good chunk of red meat on Thursday at Bradley Carnell’s introduction as the team’s new manager.

“I can understand that there is a lot of pessimism in our fan base regarding the last season, maybe the last one and a half seasons,” Tanner said, referring to last year’s 12th-place finish and 2023’s exit from the playoffs in the second round. “That was the reason why we changed.”

It wasn’t the only reason he fired Jim Curtin, and it wasn’t exactly why he dismissed Curtin instead of more players than he already has. It certainly would have been a change if Tanner had let go of longtime captain Alejandro Bedoya or veteran right back Olivier Mbaizo, but both players signed new deals.

That left veteran centerback Jack Elliott as the biggest casualty, cast off to free agency. He was quickly snapped up by the Chicago Fire, who hired former U.S. men’s national team manager Gregg Berhalter to fix the perennial underachievers.

Beyond that, Tanner couldn’t really change the roster as much as he might have wanted to. He’d have traded fellow centerback Jakob Glesnes to any team that offered a deal, but MLS’s 29 other clubs all passed on a soon-to-be-31-year-old with slowing legs.

So the biggest move to make was changing the manager, and that happened amid a disagreement over philosophy for the future. In hiring Carnell, Tanner not only brought someone on board who will execute his vision, but he actually hired a manager for the first time in his six-plus seasons in charge.

For all the contract extensions that Curtin deservedly earned from Tanner, that’s still not the same thing as bringing in your own hire — a rite of passage for every front-office leader in every sport.

Putting his foot down

At one point Thursday, Tanner was asked if he solicited opinions from Bedoya or other veterans during the hiring process. Tanner appreciated the question, to borrow the old saying, and didn’t hesitate with his answer.

“I talked with Ale, but about different things,” he said. “To be honest, the coach selection is at the discretion of ownership and the sporting director.”

It would have been a statement at any time, but it was also a reminder of what caused last year’s crash. Curtin and the veterans wanted a shot at atoning for the slide in 2023 after making the 2022 MLS championship game, the Union’s first. They got the shot, then delivered a 9-15-10 regular season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

That gave Tanner the right to put his foot down, and down it went.

“We will do the right things, that’s clear to me,” he said Thursday. “And it’s not about the development of only young people, and about only playing with young people. Everybody in our system needs to earn his spot. That’s how it is.”

He continued with just as much force, even though he didn’t raise his voice.

“But at the same time, if you want to be a winning team, you need to develop something before you can win,” Tanner said. “And you know, as long as we have been cohesive and successful, nobody was complaining about anything. Once we started to play more as individuals and we lost cohesion, then we all of a sudden were not winning again. And that shows us exactly where we need to get back to.”

Returning players can do better

Carnell understands that restoring cohesion is part of his job. Winning should be the biggest part, and developing the Union’s crop of big-time young prospects after that. But his task list also includes getting the veterans to be better, and he believes he can do that.

“There’s definitely development still to be done with seasoned pros,” he said. “So I’m excited to get my feet on the ground and get cracking to work here, because I still feel that even the seasoned, established pros can still grow a little bit.”

A few questions and answers later, Carnell added: “The foundations are strong, and that’s a good platform to work with. Now it’s just about sharpening and filing.”

It should also be about adding some tools to the box, in particular another starting-caliber striker and centerback. Ian Glavinovich, the 21-year-old signed on loan from Newell’s Old Boys in his native Argentina, doesn’t seem to be that player. Nor are Neil Pierre, as marquee a prospect as he is, or Brandan Craig, the Northeast Philadelphia native whose 2025 contract option was declined after multiple loans away.

If Craig’s time with his hometown team is up, it’s a sad turn for a player who had much promise and made the 2023 U.S. Under-20 World Cup team. But he hasn’t developed physically as much as had been hoped for, while Pierre’s rocket-fast rise to prominence has sent him over Craig on the depth chart.

Back to the original point, though. The Union need to sign starters they can then surround with their young prospects and those returning veterans. Tanner said that will happen.

“What I can promise is that we will definitely add some players in addition to the one we did already, that we will utilize all the mechanisms or the possibilities the league gives us according to our new rules,” he said. “But we also trust in what we have, and that’s not only just the players we are bringing up from the second team. I think that we have a way better roster, and we can get way more out of it than we showed in the last season.”

Tanner ought to be right about that, and all the players ought to know it when the preseason starts in just under two weeks.

“It might take a little bit,” Tanner said, “but you can be assured that from the 14th of January, when we are [for] the first time on the pitch, we will get back to work — and work as hard as possible to make that happen.”