If you came here looking for my criticism of the Philadelphia Union's loss to the New England Revolution, you can go ahead read my post from two weeks ago about the loss to SKC and switch out the team names because my feeling is about the same. I do want to write about the state of the Union as a team, and as an organization.
Now it's no surprise that people want Jim Curtin fired because of the team's performance over the last few weeks. The thing I don't understand is.... Why? Let's say that the claim is 100% justified and that Curtin is let go. What do you think the front office will do? Pry Arsene Wenger out of the hands of Arsenal by paying him $8 million vs. the $6.8 he makes right now? Nope. The Union will try to offer the job to anyone who is remotely qualified and is willing work for under $70k(guestimated number). That is a near certainity. After Curtin's strong run last summer, he was able to negotiate his salary up to $104k(read on wikipedia). That is the mantra of Nick Sakiewicz. Since his days at the Metro-Stars, he has been very parsimonious when it comes to expenditures, and I get that the Union are not owned by a big conglomerate and that we're a team that we will have to be the Eibar to the FC Barcelona of the Seattle Sounders and LA Galaxy in MLS. For this to work, Sak must make smart and calculated decisions with personnel, especially players: a thing for which he has no track record. If not, the Union will fall further behind in an increasingly competitive Major League Soccer. Sak has no proper experience in either playing or successfully operating a soccer team. I can count his professional appearances with one hand.(Which is two professional appearances) Do you remember the chant that the Sons of Ben do every time the Red Bulls roll into town "(19) years.... no cup!" Do you know who was in charge of that team up until it was sold to Red Bull? That is right, our best friend Nick Sakiewicz. I'm not saying he's a bad guy, but his best position on the Board of Directors should be deciding which shade of Navy Blue the Union jerseys be.(To which he will choose the cheapest one) We can only pray that Jeffrey Lurie comes banging on the doors of PPL Park with a check for $180 million, which is exactly twice what the Union were worth in 2013 according to Forbes magazine. Or we can hope that Sak comes to his senses and hires a general manager. I would be fine with either to be honest. I think the fan base is right in calling for the Board to hire a General Manager because I haven't seen any real fruits of the Renee Meulensteen experiment.
I would like to make this clear, it's clear that Sackiewicz is a fan of soccer; he has great passion and interest in it. However, his expertise lies more in the business side of the team(marketing, advertising, and making sure the team is avoiding red tape). His performance indicates that he is not good at the human resource management aspect of the team, aka the numerous failed acquisitions (Valdes, M'bolhi, and Adu). Although, you have to give him credit for bringing Maurice Edu in, who I think has been the best signing for this franchise by far.
Now you are wondering what can you do? Well, not much. Of course you can try to organize a boycott and force the Union FO to make changes, but that is really difficult. I believe that the sleeping giant in this story are our favorite supporters group, the Sons of Ben. I remember hearing the quote "you will really see the Sons of Ben flexing their muscle here and showing what they can do" in an interview once, and I think they could force changes. Either by going straight to the board of directors and demanding changes, or by organizing an ownership group change by asking a bunch of wealthy Philadelphians(just my personal preference) who would be willing to make this team competitive to invest in this club. I know it sounds a little far-fetched, but hey so did an MLS club in Philadelphia ten years ago.
Now, about this whole Jim Curtin issue. I know what everybody is thinking, Curtin clearly looks out of sorts. He doesn't know what he is doing. Well, no freaking crap. Did you expect him to turn around this team in a span of one year and learn how to be a manager? No, that's way to steep of a demand for a guy that has no real experience in being a manager. All I'm saying is that we finally have a no non-sense guy who understands what we go through as fans. Let's not throw this away be demanding a change every two years. Do we really wanna be known as the Toronto FC of the United States? The thing I have to criticize us Philadelphians for is our lack of patience every time we deal with youth and inexperience, we demand results right away. We don't do well with growing pains. We flipped s*** at Todd Bowles because he didn't perform as the Eagles D-Coordinator. What did he do? Go to the Cardinals, perform well in Arizona and now he has a head coaching job. Look, all I'm saying is that you have a guy who knows what Philadelphia fans are about, and understands the trouble of being a fan in this town. Allow him to learn how to do his job, this team won't turn into the next dominant MLS franchise over night, but allow him to do his thing and develop as a manger, let him make mistakes and criticize him at times when he does so just so he knows that we're holding him accountable. Another NFL reference, Mike McCarthy was 8-8 his first season as a head coach in the NFL, but ultimately won the Superbowl, and it took Einstein 10 years to perfect his theory or relatively. And Ben Olson won just three games two years with DC United but took the team to the playoffs last year and to back-to-back Champions League appearances. We have potential, at least as far as the manager position is concerned, let's not allow our patented impatience get in the way of success.
Other than that, I hope the Union can pull off a tie against Columbus this Saturday. DOOP!
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