Union

In Hindsight, Maybe Selling and Trading Your Best Players Every Season is Not a Sustainable Winning Strategy

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 23rd, 2026 · 2:58 PM EDT

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The Union lost again:

Final.#DOOP | @PennMedicine pic.twitter.com/YGAZRVs2RQ

— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) March 21, 2026

They’re 0-5 in MLS play and 30th out of 30 teams. They have zero points, three goals, and a -6 differential through 14.7% of the season.

The good news is that it can’t get any worse. They are dead last, so they can’t go from 30th to 31st. The bad news is that there’s nothing to suggest they’re going to get much better, other than allowing time for all of these new guys to get acclimated and settled and figure out how to play in this league and within the Union’s Red Bull structure.

Observing this thing at surface level, it would appear as though transferring Kai Wagner and trading Jakob Glesnes and Tai Baribo while allowing Mikael Uhre to walk was not a great plan. Mind you, we knew exactly what they were doing, which was selling high in order to replenish the cupboard with young Moneyball players. It’s very easy to criticize the Union by saying, “well maybe you should not get rid of your best players if you want to win!“

But the goofy thing is that they did exactly that last season. They let Jack Elliott walk, traded Daniel Gazdag, traded Jack McGlynn, and Leon Flach went back to Europe (108 starts in four seasons). They added some young pieces and went on to win the Supporters’ Shield, going from 37 points to 66 points and the second trophy in club history.

So it’s hard to sit here and say they shouldn’t do the thing they just did, which resulted in enormous success, though the caveat follows:

2025: get value for players that don't fit the system.

This is my least favorite things about the clubs mentality. We are very much system above talent. It makes me worry about the next crop of kids coming up and not being allowed to play ball.

— Kevin (@Wevy19) March 23, 2026

The system thing is important to note, because McGlynn definitely did not fit. He was a slow, possession type of player with a brilliant left foot who absolutely was not the guy for a Red Bull pressing setup. So they flipped him knowing they were gonna go to a 4-2-2-2 type of shape with a double pivot in the central midfield.

Gazdag, however, did play pretty well until he was flipped to Columbus after a few games, but this was the franchise’s leading goal scorer we were talking about, and even he was expendable.

Point being, more than anything, Glesnes didn’t have to go, nor did Baribo. They weren’t positional mismatches. In fact, Glesnes had one of his best seasons ever while Baribo led the team in goals despite getting stuck in Israel halfway through the season. Wagner, however, deserved to move on and play in a bigger league.

One thing that’s beginning to seem obvious is that the churn is happening so quickly now that these new guys are being thrown right into the fire. Baribo was very slow to get started. Gazdag needed time to get going. Danley Jean Jacques and Olwethu Makhanya had acclimating periods in 2023 and 2024 before the Shield-winning season. Now you’ve got a new left back, new center back, new strikers, promoted academy prospects, all these dudes trying to figure it out at a higher competition level while Bradley Carnell tries to get it sorted without Quinn Sullivan, who remains injured.

It worked out last year, which is looking like just as much of an aberration as Jim Curtin’s 2024. And the thing about playing Moneyball is that you have to hit your signings at close to 100% in order to be a selling team that also wins consistently. If they upped the overall level of spending on the club, they could be the American Benfica, or Salzburg, or Ajax, but you gotta buy big in addition to selling big and running a robust academy. Jay Sugarman seems happy topping out at the Shield when you and I know this franchise can be so much more. They have a great foundation in place and need to show some continued ambition here, or else the stadium is gonna be empty this summer, in a World Cup year.