The Last Man Standing
On the morning of May 18, Anthony Precourt walked into Austin FC's offices and walked out having fired the two people most visibly responsible for the club's football decisions. Head coach Nico Estévez and sporting director Rodolfo Borrell were both gone before noon. By afternoon, the club had an interim coach with no contract, an open sporting director search, and a press release from Precourt explaining why the change was necessary.
What the press release did not explain was who, exactly, would be accountable for whatever comes next.
How the Structure Was Built
Austin FC entered MLS in 2021 as a Precourt project — he had previously owned Columbus Crew before relocating efforts collapsed and he sold the club. In Austin, he built a front office designed around a sporting director model, the idea being that a football expert would sit between ownership and the coaching staff, insulating both from short-term pressure.
The first sporting director was Claudio Reyna, a name with genuine soccer credibility. Reyna departed in 2023. Precourt then hired Rodolfo Borrell, whose résumé included stints with Manchester City, Liverpool, and Barcelona. It was, by any measure, an ambitious hire for a club still finding its footing in the Western Conference.
Borrell talked publicly about overhauling scouting and youth development. He made one head coaching hire: Nico Estévez, who had most recently been fired by FC Dallas. The choice surprised observers in Austin and around MLS, particularly after Borrell had suggested — in a line that would follow him — that "names you wouldn't believe" had expressed interest in the role.
Eighteen Months of Estévez
Estévez's tenure produced real results alongside the frustrations. He guided Austin FC back to the MLS Cup Playoffs in his first season and reached a U.S. Open Cup final. Those were not nothing.
But the 2026 season unraveled quickly. Austin fell to Louisville City FC — a USL Championship club — in the first round of the U.S. Open Cup. Then came a 5-0 loss at San Diego FC on May 13. Three days later, Austin lost 2-1 at home to Sporting Kansas City, the last-place team in the Western Conference. The record stood at 3 wins, 5 draws, and 6 losses through 14 games.
Precourt's statement after the firings was measured: "We believe this team can compete for a playoff position, and given our results thus far, a change is necessary to achieve our goals."
The logic was straightforward. What it left unaddressed was the sequence of decisions that produced the roster, the coach, and the results.
The Continuity Problem
Davy Arnaud, the lead assistant coach, will take over on an interim basis for the May 23 match against St. Louis City. Arnaud has now outlasted two head coaches as an assistant — a fact that says something about institutional continuity, though it is not entirely clear what.
The sporting director role is open. The head coaching role is open. The club has not articulated a football philosophy going into the second half of the season. Two searches are running simultaneously while the team plays.
What is not open, and has never been open, is Precourt's position. He hired Reyna. He hired Borrell. He approved Estévez. He announced both firings. His statement on Borrell — "We are grateful to Rodo for his tireless dedication" — carried the same cadence as his statement on Estévez: appreciation, then a pivot to what the club requires going forward.
The sporting director model, in theory, creates a layer of football expertise between ownership and results. In practice, at Austin FC, it has created a layer of accountability that rotates while ownership remains fixed.
The Question the Firings Leave Open
None of this makes Precourt's decisions obviously wrong. Coaches and sporting directors get fired at clubs around the world. Midseason changes are not unusual in MLS. A 3-5-6 record with a playoff position still mathematically reachable is exactly the kind of moment that prompts ownership to act.
But the pattern across five years — two sporting directors, two head coaches, one owner — raises a structural question that the firings themselves cannot answer: when the people hired to make football decisions keep turning over, and the person who hired them does not, where does accountability actually live?
Austin FC's fans and the club's next sporting director will both be working inside that question. So, presumably, will whoever coaches the team on May 23.