The big news this week out of Chester was that Bradley Carnell is out as head coach of the Philadelphia Union but perhaps the even bigger news was what wasn’t initially mentioned in the announcement of Carnell’s departure or the removing of the interim tag for Sporting Director Jon Scheer. Scheer’s promotion effectively means the Ernst Tanner era has effectively come to an end.

In the email today:

1. 📰 Curtain Closing on Tanner Era

While the likelihood of Bradley Carnell departing as head coach was increasing by the game in recent weeks, the question mark around Ernst Tanner’s future remained the bigger question within the Philadelphia Union universe.

The Tanner question was effectively answered on Wednesday with the announcement of Jon Scheer’s promotion to Sporting Director after holding the seat in an interim basis during Tanner’s suspension.

June 1 marks the end of Tanner’s suspension, which came as the result of a second investigation into his conduct as the club’s Sporting Director.

Philadelphia Union chair and majority owner Jay Sugarman met with the media in a press conference on Thursday and touched briefly on Tanner.

“We've always known that Ernst was going to leave at the end of this contract year, so we think now is the right time to create the certainty we need to move forward,” Sugarman said.

When pressed on what role Ernst would return to, if any, through the rest of his contract, Sugarman said it’s a wait and see.

“We're going to have conversations with him once we get all the information from the league and from the specialists who are working with him,” Sugarman said, noting that reports he’s heard are that Tanner is taking the restorative process “incredibly seriously.”

Tanner will depart the Union with a complicated legacy having scored a number of massive wins finding undervalued talent in the transfer market and selling a number of players overseas while shaping a team that won two Supporters’ Shields and made an MLS Cup final. But his failure to get the team over the hump of its first MLS Cup and the reports of his workplace conduct may overshadow the “success” Sugarman repeatedly touted in Thursday’s press conference.

Sugarman used the term “clear the decks” in referencing the two major decisions this week but Sugarman of course still remains the majority owner and both Scheer and the interim head coach were hired under Tanner’s leadership. The team was put together almost exclusively by Tanner (Andre Blake, Oliver Mbaizo, Quinn Sullivan and Alejandro Bedoya are the holdovers) with support from his successor, who joined the first team in 2021 as director of scouting.

2. 🔈From Bethlehem Captain to First Team Skipper

For the second time in Philadelphia Union’s history, a former local star player has been tapped to take over as the interim head coach of the team.

Like Jim Curtin, an Oreland, Pa. native and former Villanova standout, before him, Southampton, Pa. native and former La Salle standout Ryan Richter has been promoted to first team head coach following the departure of Bradley Carnell.

Unlike Curtin, however, Richter also played both for the Philadelphia Union and Philadelphia Union II, serving as the first captain of the Bethlehem Steel when they launched in the USL Championship in 2016.

Richter returned to the organization after a stint with New York Cosmos in 2016-2017 to work in the Philadelphia Union Academy and was hired in 2022 as a first team assistant under Curtin. He returned to Union II last season as head coach. Union U18 head coach Chris Harmon, another local native (Downingtown, Pa.) and standout (FC Delco), will fill the Union II role as the interim.

New Sporting Director Jon Scheer said Thursday that they will be conducting a global search for the head coaching job. With the club on a break until July 22, it’s unclear how many games Richter will get before a new coach is hired but he will also be a candidate for the position.

“Ryan's been with us a long time, he knows our playing principles,” Scheer said. “He's been our U2 coach for the last two years, and I think he can step in and really do a great job for us.”

3.💧Water Cooler: Carnell Firing Reaction

4. ⭕️ Social Post of the Day: Circle of Life

5. 🔗 Link Roundup

• Evan Konigsberg’s story on the Carnell and Scheer news.

• Five players with local ties were officially named to the USMNT for the World Cup.

• The Free Kick coverage of the news.

• Kevin Kinkead shares news and notes from yesterday’s presser.

• Olwethu Makhanya was named to the South Africa team after making the preliminary roster.

• Check out the latest headlines in World Soccer News.

Thanks for reading! Have an item or suggestion for the newsletter? Want to become a sponsor? Email [email protected].

Want to support this newsletter? Upgrade your account 
for $1 per month or $10 per year.