Earnie Stewart promised big changes, but he was smart not to box himself inside too specific a timeline.
The long-time U.S. national team midfielder took over as the sporting director of the Philadelphia Union on Jan. 1, 2016 and was aided in his cause by two dynamics.
First of all, Philly was a bit of a mess, having reached the postseason and finished in the top 10 in the MLS standings just once in its first six seasons.
Second, though he was just 46 years old when he took the job, Stewart had already developed a resume that would stack up favorably against almost any other executive in the league.
Stewart's bargaining power was such that he could demand a long-term contract from the jump. Of the five-year deal he signed that winter, it "pretty much says it all" about Philadelphia's long game, he told ESPN FC in a phone interview this week.
This season hasn't exactly gone to plan. Ahead of Sunday's match against New York at Red Bull Arena (1 p.m. EST on ESPN/WatchESPN), the Union sits nine points out of the Eastern Conference playoff berths with just six games to play.
But neither is Stewart waffling so much as an iota on his grand plans. Even now, with his team's playoff hopes fading toward black, he speaks with the zeal of the true believer.
"The process we are in, and I hate talking about processes, but we're getting into what identity is for the Philadelphia Union, and we're on our way," Stewart said. "That doesn't happen overnight."
The way he defines that burgeoning identity leans on well-established tropes and cliche: "You go back to what Philadelphia is about. It is a blue-collar city. Our group of guys, within their possibilities, they have to lay that on the field."
Though he represented the USMNT internationally, Stewart grew up in the Netherlands, the son of an African-American airman and his Dutch wife. He began his career with VVV in Venlo, in the southeast corner of Holland, steeped in that country's proud soccer tradition.
Venlo is also where he started the front-office segment of his career, being named technical director of VVV just months after hanging up his boots and before even he was sure he could handle the new gig.
It proved a natural fit. Stewart transitioned up to NAC Breda in the Eredivisie the following season before really making his name at AZ Alkmaar, helping that club qualify for multiple Europa League appearances.
He developed a reputation as somebody who could build smartly on a budget. He willingly walked into a financial crisis at AZ, whose chairman had been wiped out during the financial crisis, and managed those successes despite working with a dramatically slashed payroll.
Stewart has spoken often about his admiration for Billy Beane's Oakland Athletics. He took AZ front office and board to a screening of "Moneyball," the movie, and Beane even joined up as an official club advisor early in Stewart's final year in Alkmaar.
"I've learned a great deal from [Beane]," Stewart said. "A lot of people think you can't quantify certain parts of the game. You can quantify anything you want. ... That's also something you have to build. We are making our own. We are making great progress, but it takes time. It would be impossible to do all of that within our time frame.
"I want to put it apart from 'Moneyball,' because that's somebody else's," he continues. "That's Billy Beane's. But I do believe in having as much information possible. The more information that you have, the better the choices you're going to make. Do I believe in analytics? Yes."
One can easily see the appeal of Stewart's approach for the Union, a club often criticized for not investing enough in its on-field product. And to be sure, Stewart still believes in unearthing the hidden gems and in building organically via a beefed-up youth academy.
This year has proven, though, that there are limits to any approach that skews too much in any single direction.
Stewart thinks that Philadelphia has actually played consistently better soccer this year than in 2016. Even if that is a slight exaggeration, there hasn't been too much of a difference one way or the other, objectively. The team has certainly had its moments.
What has changed is the landscape of the Eastern Conference. One expansion team shouldn't drastically tilt the balance, but Atlanta United is not your typical first-year franchise; take it out of the equation and Philly is still on the fringe of the playoff picture, same as before.
Toronto, meanwhile, has transformed from front-runner to juggernaut, Chicago has drastically improved and New York City FC looks set to contend for years to come.
"We've improved from a group standpoint, a little bit from the top, more from the bottom and building up that foundation," Stewart said. "Others have added from the top, and that's the difference right now."
Philadelphia's spending isn't quite as stingy as it is often made out to be. Based on the Major League Soccer Players Union's annual salary dump earlier this year, the Union sits comfortably middle-of-the-pack with the 12th-largest payroll. More ominous for the club's future is the fact that the top four teams in the rankings all reside in the East, and that fourth-placed Chicago ($12.3 million) spends almost double what Philly ($6.5m) does.
"It's always yin and yang," Stewart said. "It's a bit of buy and it's a little build. ... But I do think there's going to be a moment where that investment is going to change."
From Stewart's perspective, at least, still in Year 2 of his five-year deal, there's plenty of time for that.