Erik Soler, the Norwegian who was the club’s sporting director/general manager until he was ousted in October, was known for micromanaging, going so far as to sit on the bench next to Backe during games. When Soler left the club, Backe’s dismissal seemed a foregone conclusion, one that was realized the day after D.C. United eliminated the Red Bulls from the playoffs. A cryptic news release said the club would not renew Backe’s expiring three-year contract or the contract of his Norwegian assistant, Jan Halvorssen.

The silver-haired Backe, a voluble Swede who worked with Sven-Goran Eriksson at Manchester City and with the Mexican national team, enraged some fans and reporters for his aversion to using substitutes his first two years with the club. He never believed in his reserve players until this season. Besides seeing his team eliminated three consecutive years in the first round of the playoffs, Backe received a black eye when he stayed home from a U.S. Open Cup game in Chicago last year, instead sending one of his assistants, Mike Petke, to do the coaching.

For his part, Soler was seen around the league as a lone wolf. Asked if he had sought input from the league’s scout in Argentina, Soler, a former club owner and player agent, said he did not require help scouting players. Yet the Red Bulls remain the only team in M.L.S. without a system to follow college players in the United States — a resource that, for better or worse, remains the best place for league teams to find inexpensive talent. And Soler was often absent from league meetings at which club officials and coaches meet informally and discuss trades. Before this season’s acquisitions of Kenny Cooper from Portland (with the Timbers paying part of his salary) and Sebastien Le Toux from Vancouver, the Red Bulls could seldom make trades because teams were averse to dealing with them.

The club plays in a sparkling $250 million, 26,000-seat stadium, but rarely tests its capacity. Last season, the Red Bulls had a payroll of $16.4 million, the highest in the league, but had to battle until the last week of the season to qualify for the postseason. The MetroStars/Red Bulls have failed to win a championship in the league’s 17 seasons, and only once played in the title game, losing to the Columbus Crew in 2008.