An Atlanta United season that began with trophy aspirations has become one of transition.
That theme continued Wednesday morning, as the club announced the departure of vice president and technical director Carlos Bocanegra. The former US men's national team captain had been with the Five Stripes since their inaugural 2017 season.
Bocanegra's exit comes three months after the club let go of head coach Gonzalo Pineda, symbolizing what club president and CEO Garth Lagerwey characterized as a new era.
"I don't think it's a matter of hanging the fortunes of the club on any one person," Lagerwey told reporters on Wednesday. "I think we evaluate everybody collectively and ultimately any issues with the club stop with me. So I don't know that we ever lost confidence [in Bocanegra].
"We just wanted to evolve our player model. And, again, we really wanted to take a look at 2025 and have people in place that were going to be able to take maximum advantage of the salary cap flexibility, the two Designated Player spots that are open and really try to evolve things like the club philosophy going forward. And ultimately we thought that a change in leadership at the head coach and GM positions were the best way to do that."
Transfer movement
Atlanta also created flexibility earlier this summer via major outbound transfers.
World Cup-winning midfielder Thiago Almada secured a league-record move to Botafogo (reported $21 million + add-ons) and Greek international striker Giorgos Giakoumakis moved to LIGA MX's Cruz Azul (reported $10 million).
Homegrown left back Caleb Wiley also joined Chelsea for a reported $11 million, creating resources Lagerwey believes will make Atlanta's head coach and general manager jobs attractive for prospective candidates.
"The potential here, it's astronomical," Lagerwey said. "I think we have the best facilities in the league. We certainly have the best stadium in the league. And so it's all here for us. It's just a matter of taking advantage of it.
"And so all I see here is the same as when I was hired. I see incredible opportunity. And what we didn't have was the flexibility. We had to unmake a number of decisions to put ourselves in a position to finally move forward and we've been able to do that."
Relaunch coming
Lagerwey said the head coaching search is underway, with interim manager Rob Valentino among the candidates for the permanent role. As for Bocanegra's replacement, Atlanta prefer a candidate with prior MLS experience.
Both hires will be geared towards restoring the club's juggernaut status.
"The evaluation was about the body of work," Lagerwey said. "It's the body of work not just over the last 18 months I've been here, but over the last five years. And ultimately we decided that despite some incredible successes – I mean, Carlos was a founding member of this organization. He's the one who set the bar so high, winning not just the 2018 MLS Cup, the Campeones Cup and the Open Cup, so he really did a tremendous job for the organization over many years.
"Ultimately, as we evolved our player model and we went into more of an analytics-based player evaluation process, we just felt that we were going to evolve and, again, wanted to preserve our flexibility going into 2025 and really look at it and say, 'Hey, for the first time we get a clean slate.' We have an ability to kind of relaunch the franchise and we're really excited about that opportunity."
Full focus
Despite signs of a rebuild, Lagerwey hasn't written off the 2024 season.
With seven matches remaining, Atlanta hold the final Audi MLS Cup Playoffs spot in the Eastern Conference and could receive a boost from new DP attacker Alexey Miranchuk.
"It's been painful; I'm not going to claim it wasn't bumpy along the way," Lagerwey said. "I'm not going to claim that this year hasn't been a disappointment. But we can also still salvage this year. We've got seven games left, we've got four home games, we're in the last playoff spot. We can do this.
"... We think we have a real good possibility of making the playoffs this year. That remains the goal. And then building off that, again, two DP spots, new GM, potentially a new coach and we think that gives us the maximum flexibility and the maximum possibility of turning this thing around."
