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theathletic.com/1894345/2020/06/25/minnesota-united-cuts-furloughs-youth-academy-staff-amid-structural-rethink/#If you don't subscribe here is the raw story:
Minnesota United cuts, furloughs youth academy staff amid structural rethink By Jeff Rueter and Paul Tenorio Jun 25, 2020
On Wednesday, The Athletic reported that Minnesota United had furloughed or cut multiple employees, becoming the latest one of several MLS teams who have had to reduce staff numbers due to financial hardships during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
One area that was hit particularly hard in the cuts is Minnesota’s youth academy, per several sources. All five remaining full-time academy staff were impacted on Wednesday, with four people — including academy director Tim Carter — having their positions cut and a fifth being placed on furlough.
Minnesota United chief soccer officer Manny Lagos confirmed there were cuts in the academy and told The Athletic Thursday that the club still plans to operate in the new MLS academy league, but also said the club is rethinking its approach to youth development.
“We anticipate participating in the MLS vision,” Lagos said. “I would say we’re excited about that. We have to make sure we also really take into account the things that are important to Minnesota soccer and development in this state. We can’t put a square peg in a round hole. We have to think about what Minnesota is, our climate, our population, our density in the Twin Cities and how can we use it to our advantage.”
Sources said the league still has a policy that requires all clubs to have a player development program. The Athletic previously reported MLS teams will be required to field under-15 and under-17 teams in the new youth league, though the competition will also include U-13, U-14 and U-19 levels. In past years, other MLS clubs have investigated breaking away from the U.S. Soccer Development Academy to set their own programs, according to sources, but received pushback from the league. It is likely Minnesota would have faced similar hurdles if they intended to break too far from the newly-formed MLS league.
Lagos, however, said the club simply wants to take advantage of the flexibility the new MLS-driven model will afford teams.
“We have an expectation that in the next iteration of youth development we have to learn from the past to get better, get more players into the first team and more assets to go into the global market and generate revenue for the club,” Lagos said. “We have to use this as an opportunity to make the most of this phase and get it right, with what’s within our control, and maximize the resources we have going into it, to generate revenue to make a sustainable business within the youth space.”
One former employee whose position was cut on Wednesday spoke to The Athletic on the condition of anonymity. The former employee said the academy staff members were texted by a club administrator on Wednesday morning, setting up a time for a call with Lagos. The calls were one-on-one and had a human resources employee on the line as well. The employees were told the cuts were “all COVID-related,” per the employee, “but we know that’s probably not true.”
“This was talked about before COVID hit,” the former employee said. “(Minnesota owner) Dr. (Bill) McGuire had come up with every idea possible: we were going to cut these two teams, we were going to merge into this team. He had the idea early in the year, before COVID, to cut the academy. He was going to bring it up in an owners meeting to see what they’d say.”
Before the Development Academy program was shut down in April, Minnesota was one of two MLS programs which required its participants to pay annual fees. Lagos said all teams over the under-15 level were fully-funded. Since joining MLS for the 2017 season, Lagos had described the club’s academy build-out as “gradual.” Citing their $100 million expansion fee and the privately funded construction of Allianz Field as significant investments, he pushed back against the “pay-to-play” descriptor.
On Thursday, Lagos said the club has been working on a different approach to the academy for four or five months, but declined to go into specifics about what those changes would look like.
‘It’s hard for me to discuss too much of the specifics because at some point that will be our message to the community,” Lagos said. “We’ve been working closely with soccer leaders in Minnesota to build toward what we want to do and have a plan that allows us to collaborate with every single soccer club in the cities. It’s what we do with Minnesota United, but also helping impact key areas of development and clubs we think have aspirations for higher development. How can we help impact them producing higher-level players in age groups that filter up to us? Big conceptual things like the environment of the club, coaching education of the club, financial assistance for each club. (There are) key metrics where we feel we can make an impact on those clubs, but also filter up to our elite programs.”
This isn’t the first time the club has made clear that it’s looking to change its model. In an August interview, Lagos said the Loons had to “take a long look” at how to grow the academy and run a program which both fit the Minnesota player pool and the team’s resources. To date, the team has produced one homegrown player: goalkeeper Fred Emmings, who signed his first pro contract in January at age 15.
It’s possible that the major sporting department shakeup after the 2019 season set the stage for Wednesday’s moves. Less than two weeks after losing their MLS Cup playoff debut at home against the Los Angeles Galaxy, head coach Adrian Heath was given additional control over the roster, while then-assistant coach Mark Watson took over as technical director. The move also saw Lagos (formerly the sporting director) become the chief soccer officer — focusing less on the first-team roster and more on the youth development pathway and a long-awaited USL affiliate.
The CSO role seemed to share a lot of duties with the workload of Carter, who joined the club in 2016 as the inaugural academy director. Carter brought over a decade of experience at fellow DA program Shattuck-Saint Mary’s and often coached older age groups. At the time of the team’s decisions, Carter was also listed on the team website as the U-17 coach.
However, the academy staff often felt left out of the loop from Lagos and the rest of the first-team staff.
“That relationship is non-existent,” the former employee said about Lagos and Carter. “Other than forced meetings, there was no relationship there. … I’ve never seen Tim and Adrian (Heath) or any of the coaches talk, other than (goalkeeper coach) Stew(art Kerr) when he was discussing Fred (Emmings).”
Lagos praised Carter on Thursday when asked specifically if the team felt a change in leadership was needed in the academy.
“I think Tim is a pioneer in terms of all of the growth of academies over the last 15 years in the U.S. and certainly a lot of positives of what the U.S. Soccer Development Academy was,” Lagos said. “The growth of that academy I think is synonymous with Tim and the work he’s put in and people like him dedicated to developing elite college players as well as pro players. We cannot be more thankful to the legacy he left coming here, getting us up and running and what he’s done in Minnesota with the academy. At the same time, as we looked at how we wanted to come out of this, we felt it was the right time. Taking everything into account, the realities of the last three months and how it was going to look going out of this…it was not an easy decision, but the club felt this was an opportunity, as we do look to recalibrate our plan, to look to make a move and make a change with Tim.”
Among the academy staff, a system change seemed imminent because the design of the program did not allow for a clear path to the Loons’ first team. The lack of a U-19 age group meant that players would be phased out before finishing high school. And without a USL affiliate team, players had few opportunities to continue their development before getting tested at the MLS level. Since the DA folded, the club’s highest-touted academy player — Patrick Weah, who also plays for Wayzata High School and is George Weah’s nephew and Tim Weah’s cousin — committed to Saint Louis University.
As Minnesota looks to adapt to the new hierarchy — one driven by its league, MLS — it seems set on streamlining investment to maximize the return. What that looks like remains to be seen, but this week’s layoffs indicate major changes are coming for the Loons.
