Stewart bolts after indifferent tenure
When Earnie Stewart was introduced to the masses in Philadelphia in December 2015, the sound in the press room at Talen Energy Stadium wasn’t so much that of suited front-office types applauding as of a page being turned.
This was a new era. Stewart would reign over soccer operations in a newly minted title. If a personnel decision was made, Stewart had the final voice in the process. If a player arrived or departed, he did so with Stewart’s imprimatur. Whether he was judge or jury, Stewart would always determine when court was dismissed.
But as Stewart bids farewell to Philadelphia, introduced as the general manager of the U.S. men’s national team Wednesday, a similar haze remains unbroken. After two and a half seasons of Stewart, how to quantify his accomplishments in Chester is a conundrum, and the frustration of the process speaks volumes of the on-field indifference of his tenure.
The Union that Stewart leaves behind for the greener pastures of U.S. Soccer is better off than when he arrived, fresh off a successful stint with Dutch club AZ Alkmaar. But how much of that is attributable to the 49-year-old is debatable, in precisely the equivocal way that he had sought to dispel.
On the field, results haven’t met expectations. The Union of 2016 skidded into the playoffs on an eight-game winless run and were banished in a Wild Card game in Toronto. The next year, the Union posted an identical record and finished eighth. They sit seventh as we approach the midpoint of 2018. They’ve yet to escape the purgatorial grasp of the East’s red line, and the cabinet remains bare of playoff wins, much less trophies.
Yet Stewart would argue, often to the infuriation of the fan base that endured four consecutive playoff-free seasons before his arrival, that such changes don’t happen overnight. That leaves his legacy in the intangible and out of his control. But even on those issues, allocating credit solely to Stewart is fraught.
The Union’s roster, though not competitive with the league’s opulent titans, has improved. But the two main facets of that growth are beyond Stewart’s purview. Bethlehem Steel, which has aided development of young players on the fringe of the lineup with regular USL minutes, was inaugurated by Nick Sakiewicz in the dying days of his regime. YSC Academy, which has churned out five Homegrowns playing regularly, is the brainchild of Richie Graham, who has pumped his blood, sweat and at least eight figures of investment capital into it. First-team regulars like Auston Trusty have played under the Union umbrella for nearly a decade; it’s difficult to discern the sole fingerprints of Stewart in their success.
Then there’s the first team, where Stewart was supposed to have the biggest impact. His Moneyball philosophy and European rolodex promised to
help the Union consistently punch above its financial weight. But he’s whiffed more often than not. The list has been enumerated before — Anderson, Roland Alberg, Giliano Wijnaldum, Jay Simpson, David Accam — acquisitions that have not delivered the needed return within a spendthrift ethos to level the fiscal difference with the top tier.
Stewart doesn’t pass any of these criteria with flying colors, instead settling for shades of gray. Yes, the apparatus that developed Derrick Jones, Trusty and Anthony Fontana was in place before him. But Stewart both prioritized youth minutes to help them take the final steps to becoming regulars and fostered an identity that made them eschew college and embark on an start as pros, which wasn’t always the case prior (cough, Zack Steffen, cough). At the very least, Stewart accelerated their ascent. Stewart didn’t land a blockbuster signing. But his most promising, Borek Dockal, is only 13 games in. Other signings, like Alejandro Bedoya, were in motion before his arrival.
The Union haven’t won a playoff game because they haven’t matched the pace of growth in the East. But from the chaos of the previous administration, the Union have consistently built in absolute terms year on year. He’s poured the foundation, goes the cliché, and now it’s up to the remaining brain trust to find someone to build the house.
Where Stewart doesn’t pass quite so comfortably is on fan sentiment. The Union that he inherited occupied a wide open space in the Philadelphia sporting landscape. The Phillies were about to bottom out in their rebuild, ditto the Process-ing Sixers. The Flyers were in aging-rostered purgatory, and the Eagles were, if you can cast your mind back that far, not yet Super Bowl champs. The Union, on the back of two straight Open Cup final berths, had the chance to seize the open air of the summer landscape. They failed, left behind by fellow Philly franchises building exciting and youthful identities. As crowds have dwindled into the lower quartile of MLS, the Union are no closer to relevance at home than league-wide. Against that
stagnancy, Stewart doesn’t leave Chester with the graduation season pomp and circumstance, of Philly seeing one of its own rising up the ranks, but a more aloof parting.
Where Stewart has inarguably excelled — and where U.S. soccer perhaps needs the most help — was in articulating guidelines. From designated players to equipment managers, everyone with the Union has come to understand their roles more fully. Stewart fleshed out what the Union wanted to be and how they wanted to play. Elucidating those tenets streamlined decision-making, and while the execution has often been lacking, the design he bequeaths isn’t.
As Stewart is fond of saying, though, the results tell an unforgiving tale. The standings leave no room for buzzwords, for curve-grading, for caveats. On that account, the Union haven’t fulfilled the optimism Stewart instilled three years ago. One day, the team might, and credit could be retroactively tagged to Stewart’s legacy. But that depends on who replaces him, on the players that follow the ones Stewart signed, maybe even on the coach that eventually succeeds Jim Curtin, who Stewart so championed through good times and bad.
That uncertainty is both acclaim and indictment of Stewart’s tenue.