Q&A with Atlanta United’s Garth Lagerwey: What is future of Bocanegra and Pineda?

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a five-part series of interviews with Atlanta United President Garth Lagerwey.

Atlanta United President Garth Lagerwey spent almost an hour talking exclusively to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last weekend before the team’s Decision Day match in Cincinnati.

As hotel staff scurried about preparing for a wedding in an adjacent room, Lagerwey, wearing shorts and an Atlanta United jacket, Lagerwey covered a range of topics, from the MLS rules changes, to if the team is considering starting a women’s franchise, to the futures of key members of the team, including Vice President Carlos Bocanegra, whose guaranteed contract is up after the 2025 season, and manager Gonzalo Pineda, whose guaranteed contract is up after 2024. There are option on both contracts.

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Questions and answers have been paraphrased for clarity and/or brevity.

Q: Carlos’ contract extension, I think, ends after the 2025 season. And typically with a player, if they’re going in with one or two years left, and you’re considering a renegotiation, do you do it during this offseason or the beginning of next year?

A: I’ll tell you what I know. In Seattle and in Salt Lake, let’s just stick to Seattle, its recent history. I always negotiated my new contract in the last year, even the last month.

It’s one of those. I think you could look at it either way. And there are pros and cons to both. But suffice to say, I don’t think we’re on a rush to judgment, one way or the other.

So, given my personal experience where the (Seattle) Alliance Council voted to retain me and then Atlanta eventually hired me. I guess I’m not too bothered, is what I would say, about ... where I would have come in, Doug, and say, I want people who want to be here. But likewise, I will support anybody who sees their career growth or trajectory in another place.

And I don’t view it as a for or against the culture of Atlanta United. I want everybody to succeed. And it’s really important to me that every person that works for me feels supported and that they believe I will support them as a person and not just as a person who does ‘X’ for Atlanta United.

I think when you look at the world that way, then you get less concerned about contracts and say, ‘Hey, you know, whatever, wherever we are in that process, we’ll evaluate. Not only will we evaluate, but we’ll share feedback.’ That’s a really big cultural component to the way we work, so there won’t be this thing like, ‘Oh my gosh, we haven’t talked about this for two years and now you’re going to render a verdict.’ It’s very much a dialogue along the way and open communication. Hey, this is good and this is an area of improvement, and hopefully as a leader, then I’m giving the folks who work for me, not just Carlos, but everybody, the tools to get better. Because ultimately, if we get better, I think a lot of people wind up staying. And if we don’t, then it’ll be more challenging.

Q: I do need to point out that you’ve said in sports, it’s based upon wins and losses. The preseason goal was to finish fourth.

A: Yep, team did not finish fourth.

Q: That’s why I’m bringing up Carlos’ contract and then Pineda’s. Is he under any scrutiny?

A: Look, again, let’s be open and transparent. We set two goals, publicly. So we want to finish top four, said we want to advance out of Leagues Cup. We haven’t reached either one of those.

But what I would say is, why did we do it, right? Because once we get fully operational, the goal is going to be to win, right? Like we just knew that we had some handicaps this year. We were sub-optimally constituted. And so we wanted to have some of what we thought were achievable goals for where we were on our path.

But ultimately, those are just, those are symbolic, right? Like, because if you finish fourth that would probably be an indicator that you’re going the right direction, for you advanced out of Leagues Cup. That’s a tournament, it’s really important to us long term. We think that grows our fan base. If you advance, that’s symbolic progress, right? So what’s another symbol of progress? If you win playoff series, something we haven’t done since 2019, that’s a symbol of progress, right?

And so, again, you want to look at the season in totality, and you want to let the season play out. And you want to say, All right, we’re getting to the meat end of the bone, and when the chips are down, can we do it? Or can we not do it?

That’s ultimately what we’re going to look at. And then we’re going to reflect on the totality of it, and see where we are, and then we’ll make our decisions if we need to.

Look, you see my career, right? I mean, I’ve made the playoffs with five different coaches. My belief is building the right organization, and you can have a lot of different people succeed within the organization. Hopefully, what I’m good at is building organizations. And so I’m going to give everybody a chance. It’s certainly a lot easier for me if people stay because then there’s continuity, and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Ultimately, it comes back to me anyway, right? I mean, if it succeeds, I’ll be praised. And if it doesn’t, then I’ll be criticized, right?

And so it’s just a question of is everybody rowing in the right direction, in the same direction? And I think culturally, I think we’re at a decent place that way. But again, we have to prove that we’re making progress.

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Atlanta United’s 2023 MLS schedule

Feb. 25 Atlanta United 2, San Jose Earthquakes 1

March 4 Atlanta United 1, Toronto FC 1

March 11 Atlanta United 3, Charlotte FC 0

March 18 Atlanta United 5, Portland 1

March 25 Columbus 6, Atlanta United 1

April 1 Atlanta United 1, New York Red Bulls 0

April 8 Atlanta United 1, New York City FC 1

April 15 Atlanta United 2, Toronto FC 2

April 23 Atlanta United 2, Chicago 1

April 29 Nashville SC 3, Atlanta United 1

May 6 Inter Miami CF 2, Atlanta United 1