Carlos Bocanegra and Atlanta United have parted ways. The club announced the news on Wednesday morning.
“We are deeply appreciative of Carlos’s dedication and success over the last nine years with Atlanta United. However, I believe it’s time for our club to move in a new direction,” Atlanta United president and CEO Garth Lagerwey said. “While we will continue to fight for a playoff spot down the final stretch of the season, this gives us a clean slate and a runway to properly assess all vacancies in our sporting operation ahead of what will be an extremely important offseason for our club.”
Lagerwey will serve as the club’s interim technical director for the time being.
Bocanegra was a member of the club since essentially Day 1, being hired in 2015. While his tenure featured some highs, in recent years he had been the target of criticism among the Atlanta United fanbase as the club struggled to maintain the heights it enjoyed in 2017 and 2018. Now, as Lagerwey mentioned in his statement, Atlanta now has a clean slate, and it will be interesting to see who he brings into the TD role.
Scarves and Spikes will provide more coverage on this developing story in the coming days. This is a watershed moment for the club.
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I feel better about my ticket renewal
I wonder if this is why we were dragging our feet on hiring a coach.. Lagerway may have had a pretty good idea that Boca was on his way out, but didn’t want go through the transfer window without a TD.. and wanted the new TD in charge of the new coach hire?Just a thought.
90% of the story never makes it out, and that’s typical of everything you see in business. 2,000 people laid off due to economic pressures. Yes, but not exactly. There’s a good chance the writing was already on the wall, and Boca already knew, and the scouting department was aware, and and and. Trying to break it down could be a fun experiment, but without source info it’s just speculation.
Trust the process, let it play out. If it doesn’t, it’ll get fixed.
For those folks on the Boca fence, trying to determine if this is a good move, please think back to 2019-2020 – Boca single-handedly dismantled our cup-winning team. Im sure there were a couple of valid reasons on certain players, BUT on others there were lots of questions on the motives behind trading/selling certain players. Add in our most recent miserable summer window and there is a glaring common denominator throughout our last 4 years of poor results – this cannot be denied.
IMO, this is great news for us to make a fresh start on a bona fide rebuild with different leadership at the helm. I am cautiously optimistic, because our FO Leadership is unproven at this point – so they should be on a short leash to prove they can build a solid product on the field – this is unknown at this time, so only time will tell.
Yes, we are a selling club…but that doesn’t mean we are absolved from performing at a high level. Last time i checked, STH didnt get a cut of the profits from player sales….as a matter of fact, we all know tix prices increased yet again this season – on a false sense of accomplishment and quite the bait-n-switch.
I wish Boca the best and i hope he learned from his mistakes at AU, but as a FM and STH, I am finally truly excited about our future as a club. Lets hope GL really does know what the hell he is doing!
This is so excellent, Atlantistas!
There is no question that this was the most important thing to change, before Atlanta could be a real club again. I am glad to see this happening!
This is not about individual players, but about a vision for a team. You started with a fantastic one, and it´s time to find a new, improved vision.
I have kept distance, because I was sounding repetitive, and I know now that US fans prefer to stay optimist regardless of the conditions. There was nothing that could be done about Atlanta with the F.O. they had. Nothing.
It doesn´t mean things will work out now, but it means they finally CAN go back to being good, and this is essential.
Dear Atlantistas: look at what happens when you have talent recruiting from a good, quality source of players, and you have the coaching talento to manage this quality you bring in. I have been watching Miami, as you know. Or course, there is Messi. But just look at the fantastic hires! Diego Gomez. Yannick Bright. Avilez. Ramirez. Redondo. Cremaschi, Ruiz, Fray. Matias Rojas. Luiz Suarez!! So much talent that now Tata has to choose who gets to play. All of this happened under this Tata tenure, with a very good footballing diretor doing what Bocanegra could not. (Though Miami had a terrible roster before Tata came along, so, it was not the F.O, really)
This is actually very much where Atlanta was all the way back in 2018. Miami is doing what you started, successfully. Atlanta now has to find a new vision, a new start, and a new world class coach.
Let´s hope for the best, which I usually do.
I still feel meh. But it does feel good to know that these comment sections will no longer be filled with #BocaOut every day.
or the instagram posts, or the FB posts, or the…
I know it was an easy outlet for the emotional commenters, and it may be the right move, but I still think there is more than a TD here that needs to be fixed in order to get back to where we were. I wouldn’t expect the games on the 14th or 18th to change because of this. But it’s a pillar that needed to be replaced to rebuild the foundation.
Well, yes. We still need a coach and some better players, too.
Congratulations, Atlantistas! Finally hope!
Know any good coaches in Spain?
Well,
Jagoba Arrasate, doing well with Osasuna
Diego Martinez, was good with Sevilla, and then never really fit the other clubs, I think. But I think I would either try someone in Argentina, or Colombia, with good access to the South American talent pool. And I really think coaches from Portugal are underrated.
I’ll bet no one is more shocked than Zontar.
Sorry, had to do that.
Good riddance.
A step in the right direction.
iykyk
Not surprising given the last window’s swing and miss. I doubt this will reduce the negativity around the club but it’s not unexpected.
I’ve been skeptical that this was a problem. I know there are a lot of #bocaout people out there, especially after a team loss, but do we really think him being out is going to solve anything?
This feels very much like “i hate this job, i’m going to quit as soon as I find something new.” Then you find something new expecting it to be better but find it’s no better and possibly worse. You expect the other side to be greener but it may not be. Only time will tell, and this may just be the necessary step in trying to right the boat, but I remain skeptical.
We’ve done reviews, I forget if it was already on here or if it was back on the old dss site, looking at the players transferred in and out over the years, and trying to keep in mind who was likely the main factor in deciding on those players.
If I remember correctly, Boca was a great salesman, in convincing players to come here, and there was some talk that maybe with Garth coming in that Boca’s weaknesses may have been given to other people. That said, I’m pretty sure the results showed that players Boca was responsible for, other than basically Almada, were for the most part meh at best and atrocious at worst. That and some of the other snafus, like his handling of Ibarra, Escobar, LGP, Gressel, etc. paint him in a really bad light.
Like yes we can absolutely do worse. But he is a major reason this team has done so poorly for the past 4-5 years, and for his lack of prior experience and his poor results, it’s honestly dumb luck that he wasn’t fired a few years ago, and he absolutely needs to go if we want to see this team improve.
Fair. I just hate the knee jerk reaction most people have to losses and the bad seasons because it’s easy to point the finger but it’s hard to truly find the issue. I agree there were some bad signings in the past (you win some, you lose some) but I do wonder how much of the Gressel, Escobar, and even Josef situation was due to him. May never know unless we ask the source. Still, we’ve see what bad signings and salary spending can do, looks like some of that has been righted and will continue to be post this season when others fall off the salary table, but the jury is still out if this move improves anything or not. Time will tell.
Oh I agree completely. I did not jump on the bocaout or pinedaout trains until much later, and I kinda waffled on both.
I think the thing that convinced me on this was that in one said review we actually pulled the full list of players in and out every year, and it was significantly more in the bad pile than it was in the good pile for the years he was in charge of player acquisition. Like, not at all a “win some lose some”, but like he was objectively bad at deciding which players to get. I’ll see if I can find that old comment thread. And again, part of that could be blamed on not having any sort of analytics at the time, but not having an analytics department doesn’t really excuse the huge hole the team has found itself in, especially when he could’ve, you know, hired an analytics department.
In addition, I don’t blame him for all of the good players out situations (I don’t even think Josef’s situation is his) but I will point specifically to situations where players spoke on their way out, and expressly blamed Boca. I don’t remember for sure on all of these, but I know for sure that Ibarra and Escobar call him out for his handling of their contract situations, something along the lines of saying they wanted to stay and wanting to work around staying, and then out of nowhere Boca just kicks them out without so much as a chance to say goodbye to their teammates. I’m pretty sure LGP and Gressel also called him out for botching contract negotations.
I remember the Ibarra one, he wasn’t keen on being transferred to Toronto as the mistake wasn’t his to be moved. But it all falls on the contract side of things and yeah, I feel like that was what happened with LGP & Gressel.
I think Gressel just wanted more money, which for some reason they never wanted to give it to him
I mean I’d want more money too if I was the best assister in the league
You sure? I was under the impression he wanted to get back to Ohio because he was from there.
Interesting. I took Boca at his word on Nagbe wanting to go home. If this is true (and I have no reason to disbelieve you), that is a reason by itself to have fired him.
Nah, he wanted to be closer to his family in Ohio
Sounds like it was also “just” Nagbe’s opinion. But obviously we should take just Antzhort’s opinion over just Nagbe’s opinion. I mean, presuming Antzhort has any kind of not just his opinion sources like say an article with quotes from the player, prior pattern and history, etc. Sounds like at least schyoo’s opinion is aligned with what the player has said. Probably just a big conspiracy…
https://www.socceramerica.com/darlington-nagbe-on-coming-home-to-ohio-reuniting/
Yeah, I don’t think so…the pattern was clear and consistent. Really no need for tinfoiling this but if you are, seems disingenuous to label the views supported by facts as just an opinion.
Regardless, in hindsight, we can see Nagbe made the right choice. He got paid, got to be nearer family and enjoys winning.
https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-united-tried-keep-nagbe/iS9ggzdgI7xYzKC6hoBpDO/
We will never know
Ok, I couldn’t find the post of transfer history, but Five Stripe Final basically is doing it in their Bocaout special. I might make another post of it in the near future, as FSF is reminding me of just how bad Boca (and Eales) screwed this team up.
This is going off of wikipedia, so some data may be incorrect or missing. But like holy crap, I had forgotten how angry we all were about 2020, and rightfully so. We literally threw away the core of our team and replaced it with garbage.
2020:
12th place, down from 2nd in 2019
Transfers In:
Lennon, Walkes, Meza, Castillo, Jahn, Mulraney, Rossetto, JJ Williams, Damm, Cubo, Moreno, Castro, Erik Lopez
Transfers Out:
Parkhurst (retired), Nagbe, LGP, Gressel, Villalba, Vazquez (forgot about this mess), Pity, Pogba, Meram, Kratz, Luiz Fernando, Shea, Ambrose, Goslin, Okonkwo, Jose Hernandez, Pereira, FdB (coach)
2021:
5th place
Transfers In:
Ambrose, Lisandro Lopez (quickly retired for family), Sosa, Ibarra, Gutman, DeJohn, Franco, Sedjic, Araujo, Hernandez, Rocco Rios Novo, Heinze (coach), Pineda (coach)
Transfers Out:
Larentowicz (retired), Escobar, Gallagher, Remedi, Meza, Castro, Jahn, JJ Williams, Wyke, Carleton, Kunga, Moore, Gurr, Heinze (coach)
2022:
11th place
Eales leaves about halfway through this year, everyone and their mom gets long term injuries
Transfers In:
Alonso, Almada, Dwyer, Cisneros, Purata, Castanheira, Garces, Shuttleworth, Gudino
Transfers Out:
Barco, Kann, Cubo, Walkes, Bello, Damm, Mo Adams, Bauer, Lundgaard
2023:
6th place
Note that these transfers, basically Giakoumakis afterward for in and Josef for out, are now being more influenced by Garth
Transfers In:
Etienne, Westberg, Diop, Abram, Giakoumakis, Berry, Muyumba, Thiare, Saba, Silva
Transfers Out:
Campbell, Cisneros, RRN, DeJohn (retired), Gudino, Castanheira, Washington, Ambrose (retired), Hyndman, Franco, Dwyer, Josef, Moreno, Araujo, Gutman, Erik Lopez, Conway, Ibarra, McFadden
I’m sure there are worse technical directors than Boca out there we could hire. I’m also sure there are a lot more who are better at the job than he was.
Hopefully we get one of the latter.
He needed to go…4 years of poor results warrants termination in any role….
Agreed.
Do we think firing a below average technical director who the fans all hated and who had failed to build a competitive roster in five years will solve anything?
Well, it certainly can’t hurt.
Keeping him and expecting improvement would be insane. A new TD/GM isn’t the only thing we need, but it was definitely one of the things we need.
I will direct y’all back to Jason Longshore’s interview with Garth and Dimitrios last week. Garth effusively praises Dimitrios and then suggests that they do a follow-up conversation with Head of Analytics Arjun Balaraman as the other important voice he wants to highlight in the roster rebuild. He left a gaping hole by not mentioning Carlos Bocanegra as one of those important executives and staff members in the future of the club’s roster strategy.
We didn’t expect this news to come this quickly.
agreed. i think most expected the announcement to come after the season, especially since, 1) garth didn’t do it during the transfer window, and 2) i believe boca’s contract was up in december anyway.
no surprise it happened, just on the timing.
The recent transfer window might have been Boca’s last chance to keep his job.
I have to wonder if Garth’s “we’re so back” comment was in part based upon some assurance he had from Boca that we were gonna be able to get X player. Garth’s not stupid, so I doubt that was just mindless cheerleading. You’d expect that from a marketing communications intern, but not the club CEO.
Obviously, we didn’t get any additional players after Garth’s statement, so that might have been the final straw.
I am just speculating, but if nothing else that scenario would make sense, at least to me.
Yeah, I wonder if Bergwijn seemed more likely to happen when he said that. If we had landed that transfer, I think I’d almost agree with the hype.
If I’m on the right track with that (big “if”), then Boca made Garth look stupid. You generally can’t keep your job long when you’re responsible for the boss publicly embarrassing themselves.
May not fix everything, but it’s still definitely the right move. Now… call me a cynic or whatever, but is it possible Garth is deflecting the recent criticism he’s been getting?
I think we all imagined Boca’s time was coming, just probably not before the end of the year if at all. It may be harsh of me but Garth really lost me at the “we’re back, baby” snafu… I don’t think I’m the only one. Does letting Boca go now relieve him some from the hot seat he’s found himself in early on with the fans?
I think Garth’s heat and Boca’s dismissal are both a result of failing to sign the striker we clearly wanted to.
Garth still has about 3 years, maybe a 2 years if they don’t bring in a new technical director and he ends up taking to the full blame if the next head coach fails as well.
I don’t think it alters the hot seat. I think it gives him the ability to shape the front office and team in a way that reflects his vision, philosophy, and methodology with plenty of time to prepare ahead of the winter window and in tandem with the hiring of a new head coach.
This quote from Garth, I think, answers your question: “While we will continue to fight for a playoff spot down the final stretch of the season, this gives us a clean slate and a runway to properly assess all vacancies in our sporting operation ahead of what will be an extremely important offseason for our club.”
Don’t be surprised if we see a significant shift in our front office with Garth, Dimitrios, and Arjun at the core of the sporting operations and strategy side of it. We’ll see what happens in our Scouting Department like whether Jonathan Spector remains the Head of International Player Recruitment & Development.
Bring back Eales so the front office can be EGAD. In seriousness, there are several executives out there with way more experience that we can hopefully recruit.
I know this is a joke, but the last thing we need is a return to marketing over understanding the roster rules.
Porque no los dos?
I wonder who had more input on coaching hires: Boca or Trainey McTrainface? Both should take the blame for not finding someone who could carry-on the style TaTa built. That’s what they sold the fans on and then hire DeBoer, who wasn’t known for that style. We’ve never recovered from that.
Said as much above, but maybe Boca was *sure* we were gonna get X player (or maybe also a coach) and told Garth so. Garth went all-in, thinking we’d soon have another big announcement to make on a player acquisition.
Didn’t happen, and Garth has about a dozen eggs on his face. That might have been the final straw, Boca’s collection of incriminating Polaroids be damned.
#bocaout
If I could post gifs, I found multiple of “ding dong the witch is dead” that are quite fitting.
Now if they can bring a high level coach and TD, there will be a lot of grace given for the upcoming re-rebuild.
Nothing like a cool, crisp September morning with a dash of BOCAOUT.
Jokes aside, I feel a sense of relief knowing that at least one part of the FO isn’t inhibiting us anymore. As thatintownguy said, we’re back, baby!
There it is, #bocaout. I wonder if the missed opportunities with the mountain of transfer money and open DP slot was the final straw. Lagerwey was quite critical of the roster/cap situation when he arrived, so I don’t think he was all that impressed with Boca’s work before Lagerwey arrived. While it was disappointing, we didn’t add more talent in the summer window for this season, it might’ve been a blessing in disguise. We can get a coach and perhaps new TD (or Garth making the calls) and roll into 2025 ready to go. Of course, 2025 needs to be great for Lagerwey to stay in the fans’ good graces at this point.
At least we got 2018 out of Bocanegra. We’ll always have that.
We’re back, baby!
This was definitely a long time coming for a lot of Atlanta fans