Photo: Earl Gardner

The core of Jay Sugarman, Earnie Stewart, and Jim Curtin’s vision for their beleaguered franchise on the banks of the Delaware River is the Union Academy.

Young players — cheap players — would rise up through the ranks, earn their way onto Bethlehem Steel and then the Union, and finally become stars in Major League Soccer and the U.S. National Team.

That’s not a bad plan. Really, it’s not.

But it requires a couple of things that may be absent.

For one, it requires patience. Like Rome, a pipeline of young talent isn’t built in a day. Union fans, rightfully, aren’t patient about a team that keeps giving them more and more of the same gruel-dyed blue and gold with only the promise of a better future to neutralize the taste.

More importantly, though, this plan requires an actual commitment to young players.

That means surrounding young players with a coaching staff that trusts them, that is able to pull out their best performances, and that pushes them to improve day after day.

Right now, that commitment is severely lacking.

Stuck in neutral

Optimism about the future was high after 2016.

The Union had a banner draft class that contributed mightily to an unlikely run into the playoffs.

Let’s consider the development, in 2017, of the young players who were on the Union roster at the end of the 2016 season:

Keegan Rosenberry… well, everyone reading this knows the story. Runner-up Rookie of the Year last year, Rosenberry started out of form, lost his starting spot, and has been chained to the bench ever since. He hasn’t inspired confidence in his appearances, but he’s also not getting any opportunities at Bethlehem Steel to work out the kinks.

Josh Yaro began the year with a nasty shoulder injury. Then he found himself in a battle with Oguchi Onyewu for a starting spot — a battle he lost. Yaro saw his first action thrown into the fire against NYCFC, didn’t start again for two months, and then made catastrophic errors each of his last three starts. At one point in August, Curtin said that Yaro “was in week 3 or 4 of preseason.” This was two months after his first start of the season, and over three months after he returned to practice.

Fabian Herbers earned praise throughout camp from his manager — often unprompted — as the player who looked the sharpest. And yet it didn’t take long for him to slide into a reserve role, making just four starts against twelve appearances with Fafa Picault, Ilsinho, and Chris Pontius preferred to him. Two injuries later and Herbers is looking at a wasted season.

Derrick Jones began the season as a surprise starter, showing off a destroyer’s mindset and a well-rounded skillset in defensive midfield. But once Alejandro Bedoya returned to the No. 8, Jones hit a wall. He saw straight red against Red Bulls at home, then earned his manager’s ire as the team crashed out of the Open Cup to the same Red Bulls side. Right now, Jones isn’t making the gameday 18, though he is getting time with Steel.

Auston Trusty hasn’t even sniffed the senior team this season. This is due, in part, to a log jam at center back, but it’s worrisome nonetheless that he’s been used at left back by Bethlehem Steel. More devoted watchers of Steel than I will have to assess his performances down on the farm.

Richie Marquez is right on the edge of “young player,” but it’s disheartening to think that he’s now less than an afterthought after being an every-minute player for nearly two full years. Then he suffered a nasty illness that knocked him from the starting lineup, made one substitute appearance against NYC FC, and hasn’t been seen since.

Ken Tribbett now plays regularly for Bethlehem Steel and extremely irregularly for the Philadelphia Union, which is how it should be.

Eric Ayuk, on loan, has scored one goal in ten substitute appearances for Jönköpings Södra IF. The winger, who played 1,320 minutes in his age-18 season for Philadelphia, has earned just 246 first-team minutes since.

John McCarthy, entering his third season with the Union, has been a bright spot with Andre Blake sidelined throughout the summer. He’s demonstrated strong shot-stopping abilities and eliminated silly mistakes, showing that he is a capable backup in Major League Soccer.

What can we glean from this list?

Aside from John McCarthy, every young player on the Union has regressed in 2017.

Untangling cause and effect

Now, some of this regression is undeniably due to circumstance. Injuries and illness have been a real problem for certain players. Others may have been played above their level to begin with (which is a related issue that I’ll put to the side for now).

But certain habits of the coaching staff have exacerbated the situation.

Jim Curtin doesn’t like to make changes when the team wins. He doesn’t really like to make changes when the team loses, either. Rarely does he make a switch for tactical reasons, or when a veteran player is clearly out of form.

(Ask yourself this: If 2017 Chris Pontius were 23 years old, do you think Jim Curtin would start him as often as he’s started 31 year old Pontius?)

The staff are also timid. They seek only one point on the road, constantly playing up the perils of travel in MLS. They prefer to seek clean sheets, rather than scoring two or three goals. This leads to a bias towards experienced defenders like Oguchi Onyewu and Ray Gaddis, solid performers who offer nothing for your franchise’s future.

These have made it hard for young players to earn the coaching staff’s trust, even harder for them to keep it, and harder still to win it back after losing it.

You can, of course, point to a couple of bright spots — the young players who joined the roster this offseason. Giliano Wijnaldum finally ended Fabinho’s reign of terror at left back. Marcus Epps earned minutes on the wing. Jack Elliott exceeded all expectations and is a leading Rookie of the Year contender.

But why should Union fans get excited about these players when their futures are so fragile?

If Jack Elliott starts next season on a poor run of form, he may find himself in the wasteland with Richie Marquez and Keegan Rosenberry — all while the team hypes up the performances of Bobby Sixth-Round-Pick and Johnny Veteran-Signing.

In summary

Building a strong academy is a vital part of modern football, especially for clubs with limited resources. Patience, too, is necessary. Developing young players is an imperfect art, and few people have all the answers.

But to ask your fans for that patience, you should be able to show “proof of concept” — that you have young players who are getting better every year, and are destined for stardom.

Right now, that proof of concept is lacking.

If what happened to Keegan Rosenberry this year is the norm, why should Union fans trust this coaching staff with Anthony Fontana?