For the Union to save their season, they must first decide what they want to be

Only six months ago, the Union were still among the standard-bearers in MLS. From 2019 through the first half of 2024, they tallied the most regular-season points in the league; and though they fell off that year, they rebounded in style last year by winning the Supporters’ Shield.

Nothing in that time was a mirage. It all happened. A team that perennially has among the league’s lowest player payrolls, and whose stadium generates far less revenue than much of the rest of the circuit, could boast of being one of American soccer’s best stories.

But now the magic is gone. The Union (1-10-4, 7 points) entered the World Cup break as the league’s only team with one win, and the only one with 10 losses. The last was Sunday’s 6-4 circus at Inter Miami, where Lionel Messi and friends make a payroll nearly five times Philadelphia’s.

Nor does the problem feel excusable as one nightmare season. The two most expensive signings in team history, strikers Bruno Damiani and Ezekiel Alladoh, have two goals in just under 2,000 combined minutes on the field this year. And the defense has lost its trademark stinginess, with many blown leads.

At least teen phenom Cavan Sullivan is finally a regular starter, and he is fulfilling his promise. But he can’t win games alone. And in the big picture, he isn’t the top American name in fans’ hearts anymore. He has fallen to fourth at best in the Q ratings, behind Red Bull New York’s Adri Mehmeti and Julian Hall and Real Salt Lake’s Zavier Gozo.

The other marquee Union prospect right now, striker Malik Jakupović, isn’t even on the chart since he doesn’t play much for the first team.

» READ MORE: Union fall in high-scoring affair with Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami

Sure, Nathan Harriel and Frankie Westfield are homegrowns who do start, and Quinn Sullivan would be a regular starter too if he wasn’t out with a torn ACL. But it feels like a Union organization that prides itself on being “a developmental club” — a phrase said to this reporter often by team staff — is perceived by fans as falling behind.

It’s natural for fans to blame manager Bradley Carnell first, and many have. They did so again Sunday night, in social media posts to the team and this reporter.

The question the Union must answer, though, isn’t whether Carnell should go — even though five other teams have changed managers this year. (Four were fired, and a fifth left partly of his own volition.) It’s much bigger than that.

What do the Union really want to be?

Is it enough to be a “developmental club” and accept the results, since there’s no relegation to punish losers like other soccer leagues have?

» READ MORE: The Union have the lowest payroll in MLS for the first time in their history

The players certainly want to win, and Carnell does too. But when “developmental” is said before “trophy-chasing,” that gets heard.

Then there’s the matter of suspended sporting director Ernst Tanner. The Union’s leadership is perceived by some fans as wanting to restore him to his job. If that happens, will the team be accused of condoning his “violations of MLS policies and standards of professional conduct required of league and club leadership,” as the league’s announcement of the suspension said?

There are no doubt lawyers involved in Tanner’s situation. And none of this is to criticize interim sporting director Jon Scheer. Still, there would be ways to signal if the club really didn’t want someone around who did what Tanner was “substantiated” to have done, using the league’s terminology.

Over the last few days, Carnell laid the tensions of that situation bare. Three times, he said things on the record that were simply remarkable to hear.

» READ MORE: Yes, the Union are struggling. But how much is their payroll play to blame?

The first came in his postgame news conference after the 1-1 tie vs. Columbus in the last home game before the break. After the Miami game, he suggested, “then we reset and reshuffle the pack.”

What would a “reshuffle” entail, at least in his opinion? That question was asked in his news conference this past Friday.

“I think there’s a lot of clarity, right?” he said to start his answer. “There’s a lot of clarity internally, externally, there’s a lot of things happening.”

Alas, the rest of his words didn’t give much clarity to fans.

“We’ve got players, hopefully now plural, representing us in the World Cup, and what does that do?” Carnell continued, alluding to Danley Jean Jacques and Olwethu Makhanya. “Then a lot of certain moving parts, right? I’m just talking of alluding to that: player personnel, you know, who could be potentially, in, out, moving, not moving.”

» READ MORE: The Union’s Danley Jean Jacques officially makes Haiti’s World Cup team

That meant the summer transfer window, which opens July 13 — just after the World Cup quarterfinals, and three days before the MLS season resumes.

“Whenever there’s a window, there’s obviously options to assess,” he said. “Hopefully, in due time, [we’ll] come out and make some of those announcements, or think about what we need and where we’re going, and where the road takes us.”

As true as his words may have been, they did not seem to outsiders to communicate much urgency.

The second moment came a few minutes earlier in the same news conference. Answering a question about the team’s training plans for the World Cup break, Carnell made an unprompted allusion to Tanner’s suspension.

» READ MORE: The World Cup may not be a game-changer for the city that hosts the Philly area’s pro soccer team

“On the first of June, there might be some announcements with regards to the whole process and the whole saga, the last seven months [of] what’s been going on,” he said, referring to the date Tanner’s suspension ends. “Maybe there will be some clarity there, too. So hopefully, that will guide us in the right direction as well.”

Almost no one in the Union organization or MLS headquarters has wanted to talk publicly about Tanner’s suspension, beyond prepared statements at appointed times.

No one directly asked Carnell why he felt moved to bring it up. But the fact that he did was enough on its own.

The third moment came during Sunday’s game, from Fox play-by-play broadcaster Nate Bukaty.

» READ MORE: FIFA promised a $1 million gift to Philly to spur ‘legacy’ initiatives. The city is still waiting.

“Bradley Carnell told us that he believes, in hindsight, the Union bit off more than they could chew — that was the phrase he used — by going so young this year,” he said.

This was as close as anyone has come to admitting that the Union have done something wrong this year. There’s a difference between saying things aren’t going well, as Carnell has done plenty (in fairness to him), and saying the organization actually made a mistake in how this team was built.

He struck a more optimistic tone after Sunday’s game, when asked what he wants to see during the World Cup break.

“I hope we can show what the philosophy can do,” Carnell said after Sunday’s game. “I think we can compete against really good teams and frustrate good teams, but we need the killer edge and the killer mentality.”

» READ MORE: Inside Lincoln Financial Field’s transformation into ‘Philadelphia Stadium’ for the World Cup

So we end by returning to the overall question. It’s not what the Union will do to change their situation, it’s how much they want to do something in the first place. Carnell has dropped enough hints that they do. Now fans will wait for action.

It would require ownership to be willing to pay three times: Carnell’s buyout on a contract that ends after this year, the rest of Jim Curtin’s remaining buyout, and the next boss’s salary.

Will there be new signings? Perhaps, but what matters more is whether they’ll be proven talents. As bad as the Union’s record is, the league is so forgiving that a strong second half can absolutely get the team to the playoffs.

But it will require players who can actually win those games, by scoring goals and keeping them out at the other end.

» READ MORE: Ventnor City's B.J. Callaghan could be MLS's coach of the year. Could the USMNT come next?

The Union have roster spots and two Designated Player spots open to use, if they want to. But want is the key word, as it has been throughout this analysis.

Many fans don’t know what the Union want right now. It’s hard to blame those who think that’s this team’s biggest problem.

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