There was legitimate optimism around the Fire in the fall of 2019. Unpopular owner Andrew Hauptman was out, ambitious billionaire Joe Mansueto had taken over and a beleaguered fan base was dreaming about the Fire’s next era.
But what happened in the months after Mansueto’s purchase helps to explain why the Fire (2-8-4, 10 points) are where they are now: near the bottom of the MLS standings.
On Oct. 14, 2019, then-president Nelson Rodriguez said the Fire were looking to hire an executive to oversee the first team. The new boss would shepherd the Fire through a critical offseason. Bastian Schweinsteiger had retired, a decision about coach Veljko Paunovic had to be made, the 2017 playoff team had regressed and the club had open designated-player slots before its high-profile move back to Soldier Field.
But anybody expecting quick action from Mansueto was disappointed.
A month after the regular season ended — and after he was a prominent face at the Fire’s formal Soldier Field announcement Oct. 8 — Paunovic was sacked. Not until Dec. 20 did Mansueto finally find an executive to run the soccer side of his business, officially hiring former FC Basel chief Georg Heitz as sporting director.
In the best of circumstances, it would have been a risky hire; Heitz had no experience in U.S. soccer or knowledge of MLS’ complicated roster rules. And these weren’t the best of circumstances.
The 2020 season was starting in a little more than two months, and the perception was how important it was for the Fire to field a competitive, splashy team as they returned to the city.
Heitz quickly got to work, hiring coach Raphael Wicky a week after coming to Chicago. He subsequently signed designated players Robert Beric, Gaston Gimenez and Ignacio Aliseda and handed out multiyear deals, turning over much of the roster as he learned the league on the fly.
Since then, the Fire have been digging out of that offseason and keep changing their roster-building approach.
When he joined the Fire, Heitz preferred not to sign players older than 30. Two years later, he signed 30-year-old Xherdan Shaqiri to one of the richest contracts in league history and 31-year-old defender Rafael Czichos to anchor the back line. Beric, Gimenez and Aliseda failed to earn their paychecks, setting the tone for Heitz bringing in big-money flops.
After seemingly disregarding MLS in building the 2020 and 2021 teams, Heitz hired veteran assistant Ezra Hendrickson to replace Wicky and acquired striker Kacper Przybylko in a trade with the Union.
Neither of those moves worked out, and Heitz pivoted again. That led to the Fire’s on-field product getting worse after Hauptman, not better, as most had expected.
For good and bad, Mansueto has been patient with the soccer side of the Fire. Under Hauptman, there was consistent churn, leading to a lack of roster continuity that forced teams to mesh during seasons.
At the same time, Mansueto was too patient in his first autumn running the Fire and has given Heitz more than enough time to turn around the team since he was forced to throw together his initial roster in two months.
Now is not the time for Mansueto to be cautious. Decisive action is required, and Mansueto needs to go against his track record to make it happen.