Oakland Roots announced they officially hired Gavin Glinton as its full-time head coach on Tuesday.
It’s a move that comes after the club’s largest supporters groups in La Union–Los Roots, Homegrown Hooligans, and Forever Oakland–expressed they demand changes going into the 2025 following two consecutive late-season collapses. This time, Roots fell from second place at the end of August to seventh by season’s end, resulting in a first-round 2-nil exit to second-seed Colorado Springs.
La Union’s statement questioned whether Roots’ standard of success was higher than qualifying for the playoffs. But with the organization’s announcement, they declared that La Union–like it or not–was illogical with its expectations. In both sentences of club president Lindsay Barenz’s first quote, she said reaching the postseason was a marquee reason they decided on Glinton’s return.
“Gavin stepped in midseason and provided the stability and vision we needed to secure a return to the playoffs,” Barenz said. “Qualifying for the playoffs for a third year out of our four years in the USL Championship, including big wins over some of the league’s top teams, showcased Gavin’s leadership.”
The blog has heard Roots’ had an ‘extensive’ list of options and made preliminary contact with candidates back in August, but its unclear how many options were brought in for interviews.
Let’s dive into the case for Gavin, what his hiring means, and some looming questions around the team.
The case for Glinton
It’s easy to forget that 3/4 of Roots’ season under Glinton achieved some things that have never been done by club. They defeated Sacramento Republic at Heart Health Park and won the team’s first ever games against Tampa Bay Rowdies and Louisville City. The results, per Barenz’s words, were a major factor in the front office’s decision.
Glinton also turned things around for Roots’ defense for an early portion of the season. Their 1-0 win over Tulsa on May 29 marked their fist clean sheet in 25 games since a 1-0 win over Charleston on August 4. In 2024, Glinton’s Roots recorded four clean sheets, but none over the final two months of the season.
Gavin also provided Oakland’s only three-game winning streak since July of last year when they defeated Tampa Bay, Sacramento, and El Paso in June.
He also had one of the most successful runs at home in club history. Upon Roots’ 1-0 win over Louisville City, Glinton was undefeated at 4-0-0, turning Pioneer Stadium into a “fortress.” During Delgado’s time at the club, Oakland had just two home wins in 17 matches.
“Being able to represent this club, the Bay Area, Oakland, and to have our fans come here with everything they do; it’s a special place,” Glinton said following the victory over Louisville. “I’m very, very happy that we’re able to reciprocate that energy and some of that happiness. We want to protect this place as if its a fortress, I want our fans to go home smiling, partying, and feeling happy about the energy that they gave to the guys. One game at a time.”
Moreover, he’s qualified for the job on paper despite not having professional head coaching experience. Before his coaching career, the Livermore native made 105 professional appearances over the course of his career in MLS and USL including 22 games on the Los Angeles Galaxy’s championship team in 2002. He also made 10 appearances with Turks and Caicos Islands from 2004-2014.
He was most recently New Mexico United’s assistant coach in 2020-2021 where he coached alongside Roots’ goal keeper coach Peter Davis. He was the technical director of Sacramento United Soccer Club, which is a high-level youth club that competes in MLS Next, UPSL, National Premier League, and NorCal Premier Soccer.
He spent 2018-2020 as Sacramento Republic’s U13 and U14 academy coach 2018-2020 and was Impact Soccer Club’s technical director (now East County Revolution Football Club) in Brentwood from 2012-2016.
Gavin’s experiences across MLS, USL, and international football as both a player and coach have uniquely prepared him to lead our Club into this next chapter,” said Vice President of Soccer Eric Yamamoto. “His deep connections to the East Bay and Northern California make him an ideal fit to bring out the best in our players and staff as we continue to build something special.”
What it means & looming questions
When speaking to a club executive in August, there was mention of them keeping options open despite Roots being up to second place with the top spot still in sight. There was mention of Glinton being the club’s second consecutive interim coach and it might be time to move in a different direction. Following Delgado’s dismissal, another club source shared a similar sentiment, saying it would likely be difficult to bring back another interim coach to the fulltime role.
That was all incorrect.
The squad’s collapse for a second straight year was enough for many fans to pull the plug on the project. It’s similar of a situation to Delgado’s return for 2024, where he entered the offseason already on the hotseat. Just nine games into this year’s campaign, Delgado was sacked.
Would Glinton instantly have pressure to succeed quickly in 2025? If you’re already cognizant that a coach is on the hotseat within the first half of a season, why continue on the same path?
With the club electing to bring Glinton back, there is added reason to completely revamp the personnel in multiple fronts so his seat isn’t already steaming at the moment the season gets underway.
The difference with Delgado’s return is this year’s roster was already nearly set near the end of 2023. In total, Roots brought back 15 players from 2023 including 12 players who earned starting minutes.
Will that number take a dip for 2025? Roots exercised contract options on players like Neveal Hackshaw, Memo Diaz, and Irakoze Donasiyano, who are all likely up for renegotiations. Players who returned on current deals including Paul Blanchette, Daniel Gomez, Napo Matsoso, Trayvone Reid, and Johnny Rodriguez–so it will be interesting to see who is entering option years. Baboucarr Njie, notably, signed a contract extension last offseason.
At the end of Glinton’s press release, the club included the line: “technical staff updates will be shared in the coming weeks.”
It’s worth mentioning that technical director Jordan Ferrell was not included on the press release, while rarely heard from Vice President of Soccer Eric Yamamoto added comments to Glinton’s qualifications for the job.
The blog has heard murmurs of Ferrell assuming a larger role with Project 51O’s player development. With that logic, it could make sense to move on from having a dedicated head coach with 51O. In that case, Zak Gordon could be shown the door. Director of Player Personnel Nana Attakora was also not included in the press release, but one club source indicated he’s still heavily involved in Roots’ roster development.
More public technical staff updates, as one source indicates, will relate to Glinton’s first assistant role which was being held by former player Joseph Nane on an interim basis. Keeping Nane on as a second assistant might be insurance for Oakland should a disaster occur, once again. However, it’s still unclear if Nane is being offered a role on Roots’ coaching staff and another source expects him to head out.
One club source mentioned that a new signing is already in town. If Roots plan on turning the tide on two straight late-season collapses, more instrumental signings will undoubtedly come through the door.
We’ll provide more information on Roots’ offseason as the news arrives.