For the first time in nearly a decade, the technical director’s office at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground sits vacant.
Gone is Carlos Bocanegra, one of Atlanta United’s first hires. And now, Garth Lagerwey is tasked with hiring not only a head coach, but Bocanegra’s replacement.
Frankly, the news itself isn’t fully surprising — given the team’s continued struggles, the fact that Bocanegra’s contract ran through the end of 2025, and the fact that Lagerwey didn’t give a direct answer when asked if Bocanegra would be involved in the search for a new coach. What is surprising is when it happened: Bocanegra didn’t last the rest of the 2024 season.
And now we’re about to truly see if Lagerwey can leave a positive mark at Atlanta United like he did with Real Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders. Here are some takeaways as Atlanta’s president and CEO met with the media hours after the announcement that the club had parted ways with Bocanegra.
Atlanta United’s next GM will have MLS experience
MLS experience is “critically important” for the general manager role, Lagerwey said, adding that the candidate will be an outside hire.
“It’s such a specialized system with the salary cap, and I think that that’s vitally important,” he said. “Obviously … we’ll cast a wide net. But if I have confidence in any market in terms of what I know, I know the GM market in and around MLS over the last 20 years.”
The head coach and general manager/technical director roles will be separate, he noted, as was the case during his time with RSL and the Sounders.
“You need one person to do on the field, one person to do off the field. That’s the structure I’ve had my whole career,” he said.
Lagerwey’s hoping that a fresh set of eyes can help reboot the club’s fortunes. And it also ensures that the individual in the GM seat aligns fully with his overall vision.
As for Atlanta United’s next head coach…
Unlike his adamance that the GM would be required to have MLS experience, Lagerwey seemed to tab it as a “nice-to-have” for his head coach hire, or at least experience in a league with an MLS-type roster construction system. He did decline to comment on reports that former NYCFC and Strasbourg head coach Patrick Vieira had inquired about the position.
MLS experience or not, a coach not tied to a specific tactical approach is ideal, per Lagerwey.
“The key metric is simply, does a coach have an understanding that we can’t simply come in and turn over all the players based on a rigid coaching philosophy? So we’re looking for someone who’s collaborative, who’s pragmatic, who’s flexible,” he added.
He specifically mentioned Spain as an example of such a league with a salary-cap style system. It could be something, or it could be nothing. Let your imagination run wild.
Carlos Bocanegra and Garth Lagerwey’s visions didn’t match
Lagerwey made sure to note that Atlanta’s struggles didn’t solely rest with Bocanegra.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of hanging the fortunes of the club on any one person,” he said. “We evaluate everybody collectively. And ultimately, any issues with the club ultimately stop with me. So I don’t know that we ever lost confidence. We just wanted to evolve our player model.”
Lagerwey mentioned toward the beginning of his press conference that one of Bocanegra’s “core competencies” was his ability to sign “big players”, specifically naming Giorgos Giakoumakis, Josef Martinez, Miguel Almiron, and Thiago Almada.
That said, the primary MO will be prime-aged players, not necessarily big players, and while it’s possible for someone to check both boxes, it was clear that Bocanegra and Lagerwey’s fundamental visions weren’t going to co-exist long-term.
“I really felt like we were on a path where we weren’t capable of winning championships. We had to undo a bunch of things in order to set us up with a different foundation to go forward and be successful long term,” he said.
“For the first time for me, truly in two years, we have the ability now to truly go forward. We have cleared the decks. We have incredible possibilities. We can now bring our resources to bear.”
Whether or not those possibilities end up fully realized, though, remains to be seen.
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Reading between the lines, it sounded like the new GM/TD will be more GM, focused on the intricacies of MLS’ roster and cap rules and less TD – identifying players. That would suggest that the new coach may have a greater hand working with the analytics and scouting departments to select players.
You don’t need MLS experience to be able to identify good players, but you probably do need it to understand the MLS rules.
But maybe I’m reading too much into it.
Someone please bring up a list of possible coaching candidates with experience in Spain. I’d do it but have no idea how to start or quantify that list.
Marcelo might have an opinion on that. I am as my name implies on this topic.
Former Barcelona manager and star midfielder Xavi Hernandez Crues is available after “retiring” from coaching the Qatari team Al Sadd SC. He’s in his 40s and uses a tiki-taka Spanish-style football in the vein of Cruyff and Guardiola. This English-language article from the DSS of Barcelona fandom does a good job of breaking down the kind of manager he was becoming around this time a year ago: https://www.barcablaugranes.com/2023/8/18/23836550/xavi-explains-man-management-style-reveals-two-biggest-coaching-influences
Rafa Benitez is also available after leaving Celta Vigo last Spring. Here’s a breakdown from his time at Everton a few seasons ago: https://www.coachesvoice.com/cv/rafa-benitez-newcastle-everton/
There is former Velez Sarsfield and Cadiz CF manager Mauricio Pellegrino. Abram and Almada both played for him at Velez Sarsfield so our club should have a decent understanding of what it was like when he was down there both from the players and the scouts who went to scout these players. https://www.coachesvoice.com/cv/mauricio-pellegrino-leganes-barcelona-la-liga/
Pellegrino’s successor at Velez Sarsfield was Alexander Medina. Medina left about one year later for Granada. He has extensive experience in Argentina before one managerial opportunity in Spain that ended after a rough 2023-2024 season. https://www.nacsport.com/blog/en-gb/Analysis/5-south-american-football-coaches
I would think Rafa Benitez, the only one big enough for the mission. Pallegrino didn´t do too well at top level, not yet, I think, (and he is Argentinian). And how about Marcelo Gallardo? He could be really good for you.
I personally would love Gallardo, but I thought he went back to River Plate.
rafa’s last 5 or 6 years have been really sketchy imo. and i wonder if he would be interested in coming to the US. same with xavi, although i think he would be an interesting hire. agree with you on pellegrino…he seems not cut out for the manager role.
gallardo is back with river so he’s off the table, but he would have been an interesting hire imo.
i would still be high on vieira, at least for a serious interview with garth to gauge the fit.
I detest Benitez. I would seriously consider dropping my tickets if he became the one.
We’re back, baby!
I feel like GL had an inside track on the expected 2nd DP (probably on loan) when he said that, and it fell apart at the last minute.
That or he was referencing the above, wherein AUFC is essentially looking to go back to 2017: new manager, new TD, a big heap of cash to spend, and looking to move forward with a big splash. If we don’t turn over about 1/3-1/2 of the roster this offseason I’d be surprised. I mean, at the very least we have 5 players going out of contract that I don’t think we retain.
I think the lead-up to 2017 is an interesting comparison in terms of having a signed core of players that can be added on to by the new manager.
McCarty is retiring, Rios’s loan runs out, Ibarra and Sosa are up for options, Westberg is a free agent, and we have 7 other players on options for 2025 (Guzan, Thiare, Hernandez, Wolff, Morales, Fortune, and Centeno).
2025 is also a final guarantee year for Abram, Lennon, Silva, Williams, Mosquera, Cohen, Matthew Edwards, and the remaining dead money we have for Etienne.
Last season, the club deadline to exercise options for all clubs except conference finalists was December 1st.
The Expansion Draft for San Diego will likely be either later in December or at the beginning of January. If the Expansion Draft rules are the same as in 2022 for St. Louis, we will be able to protect 12 players in addition to all homegrown players and Generation Adidas players. Depending upon when the Expansion Draft will be, we may or may not have to protect Hibbert as a part of it.
Considering we don’t have to protect Cobb, Fortune, Edwards, Brennan, Morales, Wolff, Gordon, Torres, and Centeno, the protected and unprotected players become a bit clearer.
Protected:
Unprotected:
San Diego can only select one player from each club and only has 5 selections. Which of the unprotected players would you add to the 4 open protected spots? Some context for free agents or players with declined contracts is that San Diego would have the right to make an exclusive bona fide offer that the player does not have to accept. If the offer is rejected, they are released to join whichever team they want.
If we bring Rios back on another loan or purchase his contract, that will probably be after the Expansion Draft to give ourselves more flexibility.
Last winter’s MLS transfer window opened on January 31st so we could see another late-January or early February start in 2025 with a new TD and Manager, and hopefully lots of rumors and excitement about new players.
I can’t imagine them leaving Cohen unprotected, so he will probably take one of the remaining protected spots. They will probably also protect Silva and Muyumba. I also still think Firmino has something to give to the team’s future.
Those are the four who seem like obvious protects.
My guess is Muyumba and Cohen are safe. The rest depend on moves by San Diego, our FO, and players (namely if Guz decides to retire). Based on SD roster so far, we may not need to protect Thiare and Silva, but Abram probably will need to take a slot.
Gotta think we would protect at least one of the goalkeepers, probably Cohen.
I put Hibbert on the protected list. I get what y’all mean about Cohen. The real question is which (if any) of our keepers do we think San Diego would be interested in more than any of our other players.
And then they panicked and almost gave too much money to the fall back option.
The team was about to sign a second DP during the summer window and he failed his physical when in Atlanta. Sometimes the chips don’t fall your way.
I hadn’t heard it was because he failed the physical. Was that the reason?
Yeah. And it wasn’t anyone from the social media rumor mill.
Confidential inside source? Just curious, not casting aspersions.
Yes
This is more or less all the right things to say. Whether there will be the actions to match followed by good results, I guess we’ll find out.
I will claim ignorance to the past and assume this is a new franchise with 50 mil to spend