On Tuesday evening, Atlanta United’s social media team launched a new video series called Table Talks. It starred Carlos Bocanegra, the club’s vice president and technical director, in a casual interview-style show in an Atlanta restaurant with a few of the club’s players.
“(I) just want to have a proper conversation and get into it,” Bocanegra said in the video. “Ask you guys about your journey in football and how you came here and how you arrived at Atlanta United.”
Less than 24 hours after the video was posted on YouTube, Atlanta United announced Bocanegra had been relieved of his duties.
The decision to part ways with one of the club’s chief soccer decision makers now, rather than at season’s end, signaled a heightened sense of urgency on behalf of Garth Lagerwey, chief executive officer, to change the club’s course once and for all.
Bocanegra’s contract was set to expire at the end of 2025 but he was not expected to continue in his role beyond this season. Lagerwey had not said that publicly but after he fired head coach Gonzalo Pineda in June, it felt like changes within the front office, including terminating Bocanegra’s contract, were a matter of when and not if.
On Wednesday, Lagerwey explained his decision to move on from Bocanegra, one of the club’s most important decision-makers for nearly a decade. According to Lagerwey, it was imperative to have a new general manager in place this offseason in order to target and sign Atlanta’s two open designated player spots.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of hanging the fortunes of the club on any one person,” Lagerwey said. “I think we evaluate everybody collectively, and ultimately, any issues with the club stop with me. So I don’t know if we ever lost confidence (in Bocanegra). We just wanted to evolve our player model.”
Bocanegra is interviewed in September 2021 (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
That was Lagerwey’s first hint that the decision to part ways with Bocanegra was rooted in a difference of ideology. And when Lagerwey added that the club’s philosophy will also be redeveloped under new leadership, it was evident why Bocanegra’s time at the club had come to an end.
“We thought that a change in leadership at the head coach and GM positions were the best way to do that,” Lagerwey said on Wednesday.
In June when he fired Pineda, Lagerwey set the table for how he would evaluate the current state of Atlanta United. If the team improved under a new coach, in this case interim manager Rob Valentino, perhaps the player models and recruiting strategies weren’t the issue.
“If you believe we have a good team,” Lagerwey told reporters three months ago, “then with a new voice or a new start, that team should start accruing points at a higher level. And again, if it doesn’t, then we need to spend more time really evaluating what are the root causes of that.”
Despite a few bursts of positive plays, Atlanta United has not taken a step forward since Pineda was let go. The first team is void of an identifiable personality and they have been beaten consistently in both league and cup competitions. That points directly to the type of player that Bocanegra has acquired.
Change was needed in Atlanta. And Lagerwey, one of the most successful sporting directors in MLS history, now has the freedom to reshape Atlanta United as its CEO.
By removing Bocanegra in September rather than December, Lagerwey has sent a message to potential candidates that the role is open. It allows those individuals to ponder a potential relocation and begin to have conversations with their current employers. In the meantime, Lagerwey will take over Bocanegra’s responsibilities.
September is also a key month for a corporation’s strategic planning initiatives. By setting the table now for sweeping changes in the winter, Atlanta United can begin to make decisions this fall that align with their goals and vision for the future.
Bocanegra wasn’t perhaps the right fit for Lagerwey’s big-business approach to running a sports organization. Bocanegra and Darren Eales, Atlanta United’s previous president, relied on relationships with player agents and a substantial amount of capital to build Atlanta’s rosters. They signed some expensive players and won trophies in a short amount of time but, as successful as they were from 2017 to 2019, Eales and Bocanegra didn’t set up Atlanta United for long-term success in a league that has its unique idiosyncrasies.
“There was definitely a start-up mentality here,” Lagerwey told The Athletic in 2023. “There was literally a start-up boom and a start-up bust. What we’re trying to do right now is just level things out and say, ‘How do we operate this company now in a sustainable manner going forward so that we stay out of those cycles?’”
Lagerwey told reporters that his evaluation of Bocanegra and the entire sporting department spanned the last five seasons. It wasn’t a decision based on the last 18 months, he added, although mediocre results in Atlanta have become the norm.
“Look, I think that the results have not been up to our standard for the last, you know, five years,” he said this week. “(Bocanegra) really did a tremendous job for the organization over many years. And ultimately, as we evolved our player model, we went into more of an analytics-based player evaluation process. We just felt that we were going to need to evolve.
When Eales left the club in the summer of 2022 to become CEO at Newcastle United, Atlanta United became Bocanegra’s club for a brief period. Without a president or CEO in place, Bocanegra’s recruiting strategies and player profile models, along with the scouting department he oversaw, were responsible for improving an underperforming team on the field.
Since then, many players have come and gone, including four of the most expensive MLS signings in the league’s history (Thiago Almada, Pity Martinez, Ezequiel Barco and most recently Aleksei Miranchuk). Despite an appetite for spending big, the improvements on match day never happened. Atlanta United has finished in the top five of the Eastern Conference just once since 2019.
Thiago Almada has left Atlanta (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
No trophies have been won since the U.S. Open Cup title that same year, and two head coaches that Bocanegra headhunted have been fired since 2022.
The lone star above the Atlanta United badge came in 2018 under manager Tata Martino, now head coach at Inter Miami. Martino’s high-flying style of play turned casual soccer fans in Atlanta into die-hard supporters of the club. His influence and Bocanegra’s vision, though, didn’t align.
Martino and Bocanegra had a falling out during that championship season. Martino’s exit soon after, along with a number of key players in the subsequent years, established a new culture at the club.
“I came to Atlanta United simply to win championships. It’s nothing less than that,” said Lagerwey. “And you know, I really felt like we were on a path where we weren’t capable of winning championships, and so we had to undo a bunch of things in order to set us up with a with a different foundation to go forward and be successful long-term, because at the end of the day, making the playoffs isn’t our goal.”
Lagerwey told reporters on Wednesday that the search for Bocanegra’s replacement will begin immediately, noting that MLS experience, or experience with a similar salary-cap system, is important.
“I am happy and excited about the ability now to pick a general manager and pick a head coach and to have a lot of flexibility,” Lagerwey said.
There are candidates who immediately come to mind but whose current roles will make Lagerwey’s job a bit more challenging. Seattle Sounders general manager Craig Waibel has a close history with Lagerwey having replaced Lagerwey as general manager twice, at both Real Salt Lake and Seattle.
Minnesota United’s sporting director Khaled El-Ahmad, hired in 2023, was interviewed by Lagerwey in 2021 for the open sporting director position in Seattle. At that time, El-Ahmad was working as a scout for City Football Group.
If Lagerwey were to target either El-Ahmad or Waibel as Bocanegra’s replacement, both candidates would need permission from their owners to interview to avoid tampering accusations. Contract buyouts would also have to take place. The same would apply to Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson, who also worked alongside Lagerwey in Seattle to great success. With changes already occurring inside Inter Miami’s front office, a lateral move to Atlanta with added influence could be attractive for Henderson.
Lagerwey was emphatic when asked if he would consider hiring a head coach who could double as the club’s sporting director. Most recently, Bruce Arena and Greg Vanney held those roles with the New England Revolution and the LA Galaxy, respectively.
“We will not do a dual role,” said Lagerwey on Wednesday. “We believe very strongly in the separation of church and state. 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. So it’ll definitely be two people. We will definitely be hiring a GM.”
Fox Sports reported last month that Atlanta United had spoken with former France World Cup winner Patrick Vieira for the head coach vacancy. On Wednesday, Lagerwey would not confirm or deny that report. Vieira would be a big-name hire, as would former U.S. men’s national team manager Gregg Berhalter.
Berhalter left the USMNT after a disappointing Copa America (John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
During his five seasons as head coach of the Columbus Crew (2013-2018), Berhalter served as both coach and sporting director and was quite successful in establishing a play style and player profile for the club. Berhalter lives in Chicago and will no doubt be among the chief candidates who could potentially serve as both head coach and GM for the Fire. Chicago parted ways with sporting director Georg Heitz in August.
Meanwhile, Bocanegra’s body of work will make him a viable candidate for a similar position in MLS, if that’s what he chooses to pursue. Bocanegra landed some of the biggest signings in league history during his time in Atlanta and three trophies were won under his leadership. He also helped launch an expansion club in a market that few believed would embrace professional soccer. In June 2023, he interviewed with his former club in Scotland, Rangers, for a director of football role. Perhaps a role with U.S. Soccer in Atlanta might be next.
Despite Lagerwey’s authority in Atlanta, he had been methodical as an agent of change. Until now, that is. It appears that Lagerwey has finally been given carte blanche to make the changes he deems necessary.
“For the first time, we get a clean slate,” Lagerwey said. “We have an ability to kind of relaunch the franchise, and we’re really excited about that.”
(Top photo: Brad Guzan and Stian Gregersen at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA, in July. Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)