Union fire longtime manager Jim Curtin

The Oreland native's 10 years in charge made him the longest-tenured manager by far in Union history, and the second-longest-tenured in Major League Soccer through last season.

Jim Curtin, an Oreland native and former Villanova star, had managed the Union for 10 seasons.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Updated Nov. 7, 2024, 11:49 a.m. ET

Published Nov. 7, 2024, 11:15 a.m. ET

The Union have fired manager Jim Curtin, the team announced Thursday.

The Oreland native’s 10 years in charge made him the longest-tenured manager by far in Union history, and the second-longest-tenured in Major League Soccer through this past season. This year ended with the team’s first failure to make the playoffs since 2017.

“We want to extend our heartfelt appreciation to Jim for his passion and dedication to this club over the last 10 seasons,” sporting director Ernst Tanner said in a statement. “He greatly contributed to the success the club has achieved in recent years and for that we are extremely grateful. We thank Jim for the significant impact he made both on the field and in the community.”

But Tanner wasn’t fully complimentary in his remarks.

“Following the 2024 season we recognize the need for change,” he said. “We’ll continue to evaluate our sporting strategy and make necessary changes this offseason to best set the team up for success.”

The dismissal of Curtin, 45, came as a shock to many outsiders. For one thing, he’s been among the most-respected coaches in MLS for many years, whether by young prospects, American veterans, or international signees. That comes as much from his acumen at working with players as his nine years as an MLS player himself, with the Chicago Fire and the former Chivas USA.

The former Villanova star won MLS’s coach of the year award in 2020 and 2022. His career record of 170-134-90 speaks volumes for a team that has always spent among the least on players in the ever-expanding circuit.

“Jim has been a remarkable leader and an integral part of our team’s success during his tenure,” Union principal owner Jay Sugarman said in a statement. “I have had the privilege to watch him grow into one of the top coaches in the league and deliver strong results and memorable moments that will be ingrained in our club’s history. This has been a difficult decision due in part to the immense gratitude and respect we have for him.”

Sugarman also said: “we have no doubt he’ll find great success in his future coaching endeavors,” and the owner had better hope that success doesn’t come against his team. Eastern Conference rival Atlanta United is among the MLS teams with coaching vacancies right now and would give him all the resources he never had with his hometown club.

Quite significantly for the Union’s bank accounts, Curtin was under contract through 2026. That means paying him a buyout, and many fans will ask if that money could have been better spent on buying better players for Curtin to coach.

So why make this move? There has doubtless been annoyance with how this season went. Some fans — and they’ve been plenty loud over the years, if not always numerous — point at Curtin’s track record of failures in big games: three U.S. Open Cup finals, two Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals, and most painfully of all the 2022 MLS Cup final.

But the move might be more about the future than the past. Curtin’s one big Achilles’ heel as a coach has been his reluctance to fully use his roster’s depth, whether in games or over the course of a season. The Union have a huge crop of big-time young prospects coming up the ranks, and some of them will be ready to play next year.

If there was a belief among higher-ups that Curtin wouldn’t play them enough, that might have sparked dissent in Chester.

The best chance to find out whether that’s true will come Monday, when Tanner and Sugarman hold a news conference at Subaru Park. The burden is fully on the two of them now to build their team back into a winner.