Toronto FC has announced that head coach and sporting director Bob Bradley has been relieved of his duties.
Assistant coach and technical director Mike Sorber has also been fired, with the club’s U-17 head coach Terry Dunfield appointed as interim head coach.
Despite the league’s highest payroll, TFC sits in 14th place out of 15 Eastern Conference teams with a record of 3W-10D-7L.
“Bob has been a consummate professional with Toronto FC and we thank him for his passion and tireless work during his time here. We are all disappointed that we were not able to achieve the results we expected,” Toronto FC President Bill Manning said in a club release.
Bradley was appointed to his position ahead of the 2022 season following several years in charge of Los Angeles FC. The former USMNT head coach’s first season fell short of expectations, with the midseason additions of Italian stars Federico Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne failing to spark a run to the postseason.
The 2023 campaign has been another disappointment on the field, and has also been filled with several indications of dissent in the TFC locker room.
Last month, Bernardeschi was benched after openly questioning Bradley’s tactics following a loss to Austin FC.
“We need to [have] a little bit more tactics,” Bernardeschi charged, “We need an idea of how we play because this is the real problem for me. It’s impossible to play like this when we play without [an] idea.”
Amid the Bernardeschi situation, The Athletic released an exposé on the turmoil within TFC’s locker room that revealed, among many other things, that Bernardeschi and Insigne were openly trying to get Bradley fired.
Midway through the season with TFC seven points out of the ninth and final playoff spot in the East, the superstar duo have gotten their wish.