Apathy looms large as Philadelphia Union start new campaign

The Philadelphia Union are set to kickstart the 2025 campaign down south against Orlando City SC Saturday night with a new coach, a locker room full of Academy graduates and a handful of new signings. While some fans have expressed excitement for the new season under a new coach, large factions of the fanbase are anticipating more of the same: a lack of depth and high-dollar impact players.

The club has essentially double-downed on their frugal approach to roster building despite the rest of league continuing to spend more and more each off-season. Sure, the Union ownership group loosened the strings on their purses ever so slightly with the reported signing of Uruguayan striker Bruno Damiani for a new club-record fee of roughly $3.4 million. But compared to the league at-large, the sums of money that principal owner Jay Sugarman and the rest of the ownership are routinely capable (or willing) to invest in the first team roster remains at the bottom of the league.

See fellow Eastern Conference foe Atlanta United and their new league record transfer fee paid earlier this off-season. Or read up on another Eastern Conference opponent in FC Cincinnati and their ambitious off-season investments. The examples of clubs around the league that are unafraid to splash the cash are abundant.

The club has also decided to limit the available options off the bench once again to start this new season by handing first-team contracts to Union II standouts and Academy grads in place of filling the roster with more experienced and effective players. The combination of relying on untested Academy products to round out the roster while remaining reluctant to go above and beyond money wise in the transfer market have become the ‘norm’ for soccer fans in the Philadelphia area.

Another pillar of the club over the years? Selling Homegrown talents overseas which historically has seemingly been a net-positive. Until recently, with the club trading left-footed midfielder Jack McGlynn to another MLS club and not to Europe (another glaringly obvious source of apathy among the fans).

And surely, that philosophy has worked in the past at times. But that success could also be described as lightning in a bottle amidst years of existing as a small-market club in a massive sports market.

As former coach Jim Curtin once described, the team became a victim of their own success and expectations were then skewed. The moneyball tactics became stale. The Union struggled. They missed the playoffs for the first time in six years. And perhaps in a moment of personal vindication and panic, Sporting Director Ernst Tanner ousted Curtin in hopes of rinsing and refreshing for 2025.

But despite a new coach in Bradley Carnell, a new class of Academy players added to the fold, and a club record signing on the way, the question remains: is it enough?

Carnell will lean into the helter skelter Red Bull style of play that Tanner holds as the gold-standard. And a handful of younger players with untested skills at the MLS level could thrive in this system. The style of play relies more heavily on grit and hustle as opposed to technical skills and precision passing. So if you were to sprinkle in a few high quality players along with the Homegrowns, the Union could catch lightning in a bottle once again.

However, from first glance, this off-season hasn’t addressed the major issue that handicapped the team in 2024. Players were outspoken about the club’s inability to bring in high dollar players. Those same outspoken players are still on the roster: keeper Andre Blake, defender Kai Wagner, and the oldest player and most experienced in Ale Bedoya. It could be a challenge for Carnell to gain buy-in from those pivotal voices inside the locker room.

So while yes, the club has reportedly spent a new club record to bring in a much needed third striker to the roster, depth in other positions is lacking.

Danley Jean-Jacques would replace Leon Flach in the lineup. Newcomer Jovan Lukic from the Serbian Superliga would serve as a replacement to former fan favorite and club legend Jose “El Brujo” Martinez. Ian Glavinovich replaces a longstanding fixture along the backline in Jack Elliott. And Damiani would be the replacement for Julian Carranza to provide Carnell with three strikers to find the back of the net.

All in all, there have been minimal additions to address the issue of depth concerns last season. It is possible that Danley and Lukic can add a level of dynamic play that the Union midfield lacked last year following the sale of Martinez. It’s also possible that Glavinovich can be a more consistent center back for a backline that struggled mightily in 2024. However, these are all unknowns.

For now, Carnell and the leaders within the club should be harvesting all the energy and spark that a crop of Academy players can inject into a club’s culture. Players like Cavan Sullivan, CJ Olney, David Vazquez, and Frankie Westfiled among other Union II standouts could be the shot in the arm the club needs to fully embrace a new chapter for the club and its fans.

But first, they’ll need to break through a foggy layer of apathy that seems to have layered over some large segments of the fanbase and neutrals alike. Saturday in Orlando will be their first step in hopes of not only securing some crucial road points in the table, but also winning back some fans on the edge.