The Vancouver Whitecaps shocked MLS when they announced they parted ways with head coach Vanni Sartini.
The popular and eccentric head coach leaves the club with three Canadian Championships, two playoff appearances and a record of 57W-51L-39D across all competitions. Sartini was met with pressure heading into the 2024 MLS Cup playoffs after a bad run of form. Despite winning the wild-card round with a 5-0 blowout over the Portland Timbers and taking LAFC to three games in round one, it wasn’t enough to save his job.
Sartini leaves the Whitecaps with a 1.48 points per game record, the highest by any coach in their MLS era.
No timeline for Whitecaps next head coach
Whitecaps CEO and Sporting Director Axel Schuster met with the media at the club’s training facility at UBC on Monday afternoon. When asked about the process for finding Sartini’s successor, Schuster stated that it had only just begun.
“I have no timeline because I haven’t prepared for this scenario… I want to hold myself to certain standards in this business,” he said.
He also stated that the next head coach must accept what the club currently has to offer
“We need a coach the moment we start to train… but I think urgency is never a good advisor, so I don’t want to be driven by urgency,” he said. “We want to hire the right coach. And we want to be very careful and we have to be careful as we have something really good here.”
For Schuster, whoever the next head coach is, experience in MLS won’t matter. However,
“It’s not a key criteria to have MLS experience,” he said. “If you have no MLS experience, you have to prove to me that you’re flexible and that you have worked in more than one environment.”
Schuster shows ambition but wants to keep the culture.
Schuster stated that Sartini’s firing had nothing to do with his skills as a head coach. After a long time of thinking, he believed the club needed a new voice to take the next step.
“That’s our business,” said Schuster. “Everything you have achieved last week doesn’t matter for next week. It’s unfortunately like that. That’s something for the history books. We can always come together and celebrate those most amazing moments, but it’s always about the next game or the next season’s challenge.”
2024 was an underwhelming year for the club, especially considering the big crowds and the 50th anniversary. 2025 looks to be an even bigger one and potentially the final year of an MLS Cup contention window as numerous players are at their peak and/or have contracts expiring. Striker Brian White and midfielders Pedro Vite and Sebastian Berhalter are among the players with contracts expiring.
With Sartini gone, Schuster stated he doesn’t want a big change.
“We need to find someone to fit with the culture here,” he said.
Schuster also said that the remaining assistant coaches (Michael D’Agostino, Youssef Dahha, Brendan Shaw, and Andrew Foster) will still be around but the new head coach will be allowed to pick his own staff.
Basically, Schuster is looking for a coach who can take the Whitecaps to new heights. At the same time, he wants a coach who won’t change much from before. Now, that is an interesting ask.
Whitecaps gambling big
This whole thing is like going to the casino with a ton of money. You won that money earlier but want more, so you gamble it all to hopefully hit the jackpot.
That’s what the Whitecaps are doing with getting rid of Sartini. Whoever succeeds him must be an upgrade. As mentioned 2025 is a big year and could potentially be the last dance for the main core.
Vancouver has been notorious for their slow starts in recent years. (2024 was an exception.) So getting a new head coach to implement his ideas and tactics and gel with the players must happen fast.
It was eyebrow-raising to hear that Schuster and his staff had just started the search. It is also concerning. The MLS Superdraft is on December 15 and players report back in early January. Not to mention the deadline to pick up options is this Wednesday. To say a new head coach must be found quickly is an understatement.
When asked about names, Schuster didn’t want to comment, which is fair. (He was asked about recently fired Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin.)
Or maybe Schuster was bluffing and he already has a few names in mind. Who knows?
Sartini will be missed for his epic press conference quotes, his energy and his passion for coaching and the sport. Too bad we will never see him take off his shirt and run across the pitch after the Whitecaps win the MLS Cup. But nothing lasts forever.
Vancouver will have to move on without him and by doing so, are taking a huge risk. But like any big risk, there is a massive reward. Only time will tell if this was the right decision.
