CF Montréal has some serious soul-searching to do, having recently opted to let go of its 11th head coach in a mere 13 seasons since moving to Major League Soccer from the NASL in 2012, and U.S. Men's National Team legend Tim Howard let them know just that in a recent podcast.
Marco Donadel 's exit after just over 12 months in charge followed their 2-1 home loss to the Philadelphia Union , leaving Montréal bottom of the Eastern Conference with three points after seven games.
The 42-year-old departs the club where he ended his playing career, having presided over 42 games, finishing with a 9-10-23 record.
Marco Donadel was let go after Montréal's 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union -Credit:Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
In a brief statement released on Sunday, the club said, "CF Montréal Managing Director, Recruitment and Sporting Methodology, Luca Saputo has announced that Marco Donadel has been relieved of his head coaching duties effective today.
"Philippe Eullaffroy will assume the team's head coaching responsibilities until a permanent head coach is hired."
Reflecting on the decision to let go of Donadel, Howard told Landon Donovan on their ' Unfiltered Soccer ' podcast that "this could be Montréal or this could be AFC Bumblef—."
Howard, a minority investor in the Houston Dynamo , went on to add, "If you and I decided tomorrow, we're going to buy a team in Spain, we could not have the team or have the team exist for 14 years and have 12 managers. That's an impossibility…
"You can't have 12 managers in 14 years. By the way, with no success. If you're saying that this is Roman Abramovich's Chelsea and you've had that many, but you've also had 14 titles. Okay. You can't be you can't be terrible and have that many coaches."
Donovan also went on to point out that with the level of parity baked into the structure of MLS, "It's more difficult to be as bad as Montréal has been than it is to win a championship.
"Because there's parity. Everybody basically spends the same amount. Now, Montréal are not spending a lot of money on DPs (Designated Players) and that kind of stuff, but still, it's hard to be that bad. It really is."
Since joining MLS, the Canadian side has finished in the top three of the Conference just twice, with their best regular season position having been second in 2022 under Wilfried Nancy. As for the Playoffs, which they have reached six times, their best run came in 2016 when Mauro Biello led them to the semi-finals.
They have also reached the CONCACAF Champions League final once in 2014 when Frank Klopas was in charge.
It's now down to Eullaffroy, at least for the time being, to attempt to steady the ship with two tough games approaching, starting with Michael Bradley 's New York Red Bulls on Saturday, followed by Pascal Jansen's New York City FC a week later. Both sides currently have 3-2-2 records and sit within the top 10 in the East.
