In May, Garth Lagerwey told the AJC’s Doug Roberson that “the solution to (Atlanta United’s) issues is not to have four coaches in four years.”
Five months after that interview, that’s the exact scenario they find themselves in.
On Sunday, one day after ending the worst season in club history, Ronny Deila was fired. The Norwegian’s position became untenable after Atlanta massively failed to meet the expectations set for it at the beginning of the season.
Now, Lagerwey and Chris Henderson must get this next hire absolutely right. Failure to do so could set the club back even more — and may cost one or both men their jobs. Lagerwey, on the job since November 2022, is quickly losing the faith of the fanbase. Henderson arrived in January, so while he may have a little more leeway, that could just as easily shrink.
Here are some likely, and maybe a few unlikely, candidates that Atlanta United could pursue this time around.
Gio Savarese
It’s important to note that Gio Savarese’s contract with the Portland Timbers before his firing in 2023 ran through the end of this season. He’s spent the past two years with MLS Season Pass as a studio analyst on both the English and Spanish side, with “The Gio Hour” becoming a weekly part of MLS 360.
Now, after having been paid for the remainder of his Timbers contract, the Venezuelan is almost sure to seek a return to the technical area. Despite missing the playoffs in 2022 and en route to doing so again in 2023 before his dismissal, he oversaw a Portland side that made the MLS Cup final twice. In Atlanta, he’ll benefit from the almost unlimited resources of Arthur Blank, certainly more than Merritt Paulson had in PDX.
Jim Curtin
He’s already persona non grata in Atlanta circles due to the Union’s, well, unpopular style of football during his time with the club. For that, he’d get less rope than others on this list, but he’s had a track record of success. In Philadelphia, Curtin didn’t have the most free-spending owner in Jay Sugarman, with Curtin’s frustration over the relative lack of investment in the roster presumably contributing to his firing. That obviously won’t be an issue in Atlanta.
Of course, you can’t talk about Curtin without mentioning the number of young players from the Union’s academy that received plenty of first-team experience, whether or not that was out of necessity due to the club’s reduced spending. He’d be the first Atlanta United manager with proven success in that area.
The problem is, he turned Atlanta down last year and the New England Revolution this year. While it’s doubtful he’ll change his mind, he might be worth calling again.
Tata Martino
At worst, this would be a move that would reignite a fanbase disenchanted with the club’s direction, but to a greater extent than the return of Miguel Almiron. At best, bringing back the one coach under which the club has had sustained success would restore the club to elite status. While Martino notably left on less than cordial terms with former Atlanta technical director Carlos Bocanegra, he enjoyed a good relationship with Henderson at Inter Miami. And he’s keen to return to MLS after walking away from Miami after its playoff series against Atlanta to tend to a personal issue in his native Argentina.
A rejuvenated, refreshed Martino could be the cure for Atlanta’s troubles, but will Lagerwey and Henderson agree?
Peter Vermes
After several seasons of underperformance, Vermes’s time ran out at Sporting Kansas City earlier this year. That’s not to downplay the tremendous work he did with a small-market club: an MLS Cup in 2013, three U.S. Open Cups, and a USOC runner-up finish in 2024.
Vermes could thrive in a bigger market, but would his no-nonsense, old-school approach be the best fit for Atlanta United’s overall culture? That said, his contract with SKC ran through 2028, so he may not be ready for a return to the touchline just yet. One other note: he also served as SKC’s technical director until January 2024, and while he wouldn’t be serving in a dual role here, he’d likely want more say in roster construction than the average coach.
Patrick Vieira
If you’ll recall, Vieira was reportedly a finalist for the job after Gonzalo Pineda was sacked, before Atlanta went with another former NYCFC coach.
The former Arsenal great is currently at Genoa, which is winless through six to start the Serie A campaign heading into Sunday’s match vs. Parma. If he’s shown the door in the notorously pressure-cooker environment of calcio, a return to MLS may not be out of the question, where he thrived in two-and-a-half seasons with the Pigeons. He’s certainly worth reaching out to again either way.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
While we’re on the subject of Premier League greats, Solskjaer, who served as Manchester United boss just over a decade after ending an 11-year career with the club, has expressed a keenness to coach in MLS someday. In fact, he reportedly expressed interest in Charlotte FC before they ultimately hired Dean Smith. With Charlotte’s rival down I-85 — owned by a billionaire not nearly as meddlesome (maybe to a fault) as David Tepper — having an open head coaching role, it could bring in another Norwegian. (He’s a fan of Stian Gregersen, too.)
The downside: Solskjaer’s stubbornness appeared to ultimately do him in Manchester. Would he be willing to be tactically flexible while getting up to speed on MLS’s byzantine roster rules?
Rob Valentino
There was no question that Atlanta United players loved playing for Valentino: “FEA” became a rallying cry through their dramatic upset of Inter Miami in last year’s playoffs before losing to Orlando City in the conference semifinals. Lagerwey, not wanting to “take chances,” opted to turn to Deila instead of taking the interim tag off Valentino. Could he change his mind and determine that hiring Valentino is a chance worth taking?
Ben Pirmann
This would be an interesting move, but you can’t deny the success that Pirmann has had at each of his stops. After being named interim head coach at Memphis 901 in 2020 before getting the job permanently, he quickly turned them into one of the top teams in the USL Championship, being named the league’s coach of the year in 2022. He then joined the Charleston Battery to replace longtime head coach Mike Anhaueser, leading the club to a USL Championship final a year after missing the playoffs. In 2024, they fell to expansion side Rhode Island FC — partly owned by Michael Parkhurst — in the Eastern Conference final. This year, they’re second in the East table.
Pirmann very well could get a job in MLS someday if he wanted it, but it likely won’t be in Atlanta.
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I would love Pirmann (or Danny Cruz) because I think this team needs a complete reset culture-wise that is centered on passion and ambition.
Tata is a bandaid for the ineptitude in the FO, which is why he’ll be the choice for manager. In two years, this same article will be republished with slightly different names but the same problems.
I don’t pay too close attention to who would be good or bad coaches. The idea of Tata coming back sounds good on paper, but will it translate as well as we expect? Same with Rob. I think he did well with what he had to work with, which was scraps, but is he ready to lead a world class team? Not sure.
I want someone who will be a leader, who will help build a team that works together, not just into a system. Cohesiveness is key.
This is not a world class team.
Meanwhile, across the pond….
Reporter: “Oi! Sam! You fancy a post in the MLS??”
Big Sam: “Hmmm…(gum chomping)…States aye?…(gum chomping)…might do?”
Just hire a coach before we re-make the roster, please.
my main thing is if FO was going to fire Deila, why didn’t they just go ahead and fire him once we were officially eliminated from the playoff race. Seems like a waste of time to hold off firing him and delay the new head coach search.
My feeling as well. The hope is an announcement will come very soon as they have been planning and preparing behind the scenes for some time, and we can immediately get to working with the new coach on identifying who on this team fits what we want to do moving forward and what profile player do we want to bring in during the offseason.
I really hope they are close to hiring someone soon.
as long as we have someone in place before the end of the playoffs, Atlanta should be in good position going into the winter transfer window.
I’m not saying I agree with this plan, but if they felt that was too soon after getting the new players to see how the team would improve, they might’ve wanted to see if even after getting eliminated there was evidence of the team starting to trend back upwards as new players integrated. That obviously hasn’t been the case, and they probably could’ve even pulled the trigger a few games ago even with that plan.
I’m curious if there was anything in his contract that made it better for us to wait till the end of the season.
I wonder if there are any trends in being a successful manger in MLS like former player, US national, European coach, etc.
of the list, only Tata would generate the necessary excitement – Valentino is a distant second, and would not want the rest.
We need his recruiting and scouting ability in our next coaching hire
AJC is reporting that Tata might be interested in the job! Probably means he hasn’t even considered it, but would love to have him and his ability to create a team.
Maybe if he builds us another solid team our FO won’t burn it all to the ground in less than a year.
Yeah I kinda dislike all the options on this list other than Tata and maybe Valentino. Even then, Valentino kinda feels like settling for good enough, though to be fair we could use more of that from the FO (thinking in particular of all the academy CBs)
I’d be amazed if we somehow did it, but Wilfried Nancy is one of the few MLS coaches I’d be totally on board with getting.
Yes to offense, no to cynicism. That’s all I ask.
With Tata we know he’ll be gone in 2 years so we have all that time to find his replacement.
That’s a great take actually, haha…
Pull back Josef for his last 2 years, build back the brand and the hype through a WC cycle, then bring in the long term coach and players after Tata’s 2 years (but start looking for those pieces now). If you can’t find a better option ASAP, what is the harm? We have never been worse, and there is not much room to get worse. Build off something we know can work. Get the Benz rocking again! While not ideal, something like that would mend a lot of fences, get everyone beyond the nostalgia and close that door fully, and get us ready for ATLUTD 4.0 (or whatever version we are up to now).
None of these options would get me excited to start the season. So many interesting options will be available after the World Cup. I think we are in for another mediocre predictable uninspired season. I’m depressed.
Personally to me, no coach will get me excited or make me unexcited. It’s the moves with the roster that I care about. Regardless, they won’t do much either.
Ultimately, I’ll be excited for the first few games of the season because hope springs eternal. And then they will either lose the hope or not based on results the first few games.
Agree with the roster moves, 100%. I just strongly believe (and know others don’t), that a coach and their style should be established before choosing players to keep or to bring in.
Whoever l whoever it is, I’d like to see a shift from possession to press and counter. We do not have that clinical finisher who can convert those limited chances that a possession oriented team is going to produce. ELL is not the guy we thought he’d be in Deila’s offense but might do better when we press a team into turnovers in the attacking 3rd.
Roster moves this off-season will now be a little more interesting.
Probably the most puzzling thing about the way Deila ran this offense. Pretty much all of our forwards except for Miranchuk are built for speed, flying into open space, which lends itself to counters or at least fast aggressive possession. Not really for tight touches (slow possession vs set defenses) or aerial balls (crossing), which seem to be the things Deila tried to do. High pressing would’ve been good except for Miranchuk being the weak link in a press, and with Gregersen injured all of our defenders were too slow to cover the space.
I guess to be fair it seems like Deila kind of tried to switch to counters for a bit around early summer/late spring, but he had no idea how to get our passers in the back to give anything remotely accurate.
I couldn’t agree more on Miranchuk being the limiting piece. It’s odd to say because he was our most productive attacker in terms of G+A, but his limitation supporting the press was obvious. He also wasn’t a real threat in on the ball in transition. His pace is just not there to do either of those (and he never really seemed to commit to the press, if he couldn’t just stick a foot in without moving, there wasn’t much there). Solid technical ability and vision, but too slow to bend defenses in a meaningful way. Miranchuk also seems like the most obvious candidate of our DPs to move out since he’s the cheapest when you factor transfer+salary. ELL would be a big transfer fee loss, and I don’t see Miggy finding anyone paying close to his salary elsewhere.
Forgetting Tata’s time here previously, the rest of the roster seems pretty well set up for him or another coach in the Biesla mindset. We have speed and workrate at the wings (assuming Miggy is still a wing) and striker. Maybe Miggy slides centrally where his slightly diminished pace is less of a factor than it is at wing. We go get another wing. I wouldn’t be terribly upset if we moved Saba out. Not sure the logistics of that with his contract expiring. He really struggled this year, but maybe with better direction we get a good 2026 out of him.
We have an obvious starting slot to fill at RB. Maybe LB depending on the new coach’s view of Amador. I’m not sure I’d expect anyone else that was in the starting IX late this season to move out this winter, but I guess we’ll see. Muyumba isn’t a starter but commands a lot of cap space and should be moved out.
Ange Postoclogue music in coming.
i would actually take Big Ange. i think his style could actually work in MLS, but the fact of a roster very similar to swiss cheese remains a problem…regardless of who the next manager is.
If the team was serious about pulling out all the stops, would love a Marco Rose or Bruno Lage type hire but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Of the options above, Pirmann is probably the one I would disapprove of least. Demichelis is available if we want a similar coach with a bigger profile.
Jurgen Klopp, he’s already working in MLS now!
If Klopp wanted to test himself with a shitty MLS team, he’d just take over RBNY. He already works there (sort of).