Philadelphia Union fire Bradley Carnell... Have Orlando City bitten off more than they can chew? | OneFootball

Time and tide wait for no man or woman in football, especially if you happen to be Bradley Carnell.

Just six months on from leading Philadelphia Union to the Supporters' Shield during his very first season at the club and bagging himself Major League Soccer's Coach of the Year gong for his efforts, it was announced yesterday that the 49-year-old had been relieved of his duties after a wretched start to the new campaign.

Unfortunately, this is hardly uncharted territory for Carnell. Winning the Western Conference with St. Louis CITY during the club's inaugural season two-and-a-half years ago, he was sacked just twenty games into the following campaign after failing to get anywhere close to matching this historic achievement.

As an Orlando City supporter it's really not for me to say whether this latest dismissal was well deserved or a little harsh, but one thing I do know is that it's made our own search for a new coach just that little bit more difficult.

He has to go, blud

Parting ways with Óscar Pareja just three games into the new season, it's pretty clear that Ricardo Moreira is intent on courting and hiring a coach of his own who represents his personal vision for the club going forward.

Sadly, it doesn't seem that Martín Perelman has done enough to convince Orlando's fanbase that he's the right man for the job. Sure, we've picked up enough league wins recently to lift us to within four points of the play-offs and got to within touching distance of yet another Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title, but most of these results have come against equally dire opposition.

If we truly have designs of making a late surge for the play-offs or even claiming silverware after the two-month summer break, then we probably need to a hire a replacement for the 39-year-old sooner rather than later.

Hot property

The problem is, Orlando are now one of seven clubs in this league currently searching for a new permanent head coach.

First to join Pareja in losing his job earlier this season was Marco Donadel, who lasted just seven games as CF Montréal's full-time boss before being sacked in April. Rather unsurprisingly, seeing as Lionel Messi basically runs the whole club by himself now, Javier Mascherano was next to be relieved of his duties as Inter Miami's coach just two days later. But in the last eleven days alone a further four clubs have followed suit, meaning that coaches will be in unprecedented demand this summer.

Basically having our pick of the coaching talent out there as the first of these seven clubs to pull the trigger, it's quite surprising that we haven't hired anyone yet. I'm sure that Moreira is keen to avoid rushing into such a huge decision and potentially appointing the wrong man for the job, but there have been multiple coaches out there who, at least to those of us without intimate knowledge of the current coaching market, seemed somewhat attainable.

Lasting a humiliating eight games at Celtic before being dismissed, a vengeful Wilfried Nancy would've been the most perfect choice to take over from Pareja. Filipe Luís, too, would've been an ideal fit in Orlando after inexplicably losing his job at Flamengo, but he now looks set to join AS Monaco.

If we don't make a move soon, then our dream coach could very easily end up at one of our league rivals instead.

Overplayed our hand?

But what if the cumulative effect of all these early-season sackings rules that we miss out on hiring a coach this summer and, potentially, even have to wait until the off-season?

As unconvinced as many of us have been by Perelman's tactics, substitutions, and apparent inability even after fifteen entire games to settle on his best team, he's got us to within just two games of winning our second-ever major honour. However kind the draw may have been to us until this point, that shouldn't be sniffed at.

But the pessimist in me fears that an away semi-final against Columbus Crew may prove to be one step too far for our current coach. Throwing away an Open Cup and, frankly, almost an entire season by failing to hire a coach in time would be the worst possible start to Moreira's tenure at the top of the food chain.

Still, we've got to trust that these past two-and-a-half months have been used wisely. If we end up recruiting the right man even after all of this time, then we've got a lot to look forward to indeed.