Darren Eales updates Atlanta United manager search, confirms Expansion Draft

Darren Eales, Atlanta United’s president, went on GPB Radio this morning and gave an interesting update on several key Atlanta United items.

First off, he says to expect the club to announce a manager “in the next couple of months.”

This is a deviation from other statements made by the front office that have said a manager could be announced in the late summer to early fall time frame. This appears to be a slightly pushed back time frame.

There’s no telling why this could have happened. Possibly a candidate or two fell through or they’re just confident in waiting and biding their time to find the right candidate for the job. This also opens up the window to hire a current MLS head coach or assistant, seeing as the season will be over in two months.

The only legitimate rumor we’ve heard about the manager position came all the way back in December when Josh Wolff was linked to the job by Grant Wahl. That news has since been swept under the rug, but this new time frame kind of makes that link more relevant.

The second piece of news regarding the building of Atlanta United is that Eales expects the Expansion Draft to indeed take place in December. When asked who the manager would be he responded with this:

“In the next couple of months we’re hoping to get someone in place. Because we have an Expansion Draft in December. So, it’s important for us to have a head coach in place before the Expansion Draft.”

While MLS has not officially made an announcement one way or another, that’s both expansion teams stating that the Expansion Draft would take place. Minnesota United’s GM, Manny Lagos, stated the same last week.

It’s been long rumored that MLS was pondering eliminating the Expansion Draft, but it appears as though they’ve reconsidered at least according to these public statements.

Slowly but surely the current MLS season is fading away. We’re not too far from Atlanta United being at the forefront of the news cycle. It can’t come fast enough.