The Diego Fagundez trade: A bridge too far for Austin FC fans?

GAM can't address a deflated press corps after a particularly difficult inaugural season loss, one of the most embarrassing losses in club history, and completely own the moment — showing the ultimate accountability just for stepping up and facing our unpleasant questions. 

GAM can't score an incredible free kick to ignite one of the greatest wins in club history — the 4-1 victory over LAFC last August that trumpeted Austin's title contention in a so-far-unmatchable season. 

And if GAM gets traded to the Galaxy with no warning, it's unlikely that several hundred fans are going to descend on Hopsquad Brewing's parking lot on a Tuesday night to send GAM off with an emotional farewell. 

Let's be clear about this: Diego Fagundez has been special. Among the Austin FC players, only Brad Stuver has been more present and interactive with the community. With Stuver, it's often built around causes and in bringing fans together for service and to make Austin better. For Fagundez, it's been about just connecting on a simple, human level, enjoying the city that he chose after rolling the dice on a new club after being intertwined with the New England Revolution for so long, literally coming of age there after signing as a 15-year-old. 

Taking the bullhorn to address the fans who came out to fete him on Tuesday night, he expressed, "I wish it wasn't ending ... you guys are still gonna be my family no matter what. I have no words. I woke up and I was surprised like all you guys, but at the end of the day, soccer is like that. Sometimes, we got to move on and go somewhere else." 

The move is sudden and surprising, though it comes a little more than four months after Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff purposefully let the fan base know, responding to my question in a press conference in Houston, that Fagundez's play wasn't up to the standards implied by his new contract. Seeking comment from Fagundez himself in the aftermath, I let him know what his coach had just said — one of the more awkward episodes I've had writing about soccer — and Fagundez responded in a very matter-of-fact fashion, saying, "He said he thinks the performances have to be better, so they have to be better. Was I happy to come out tonight? No ... but if he's saying I have to be better, then I have to step it up."

Wolff also put the fan base on notice a few weeks ago, again through the media, that some players might be offloaded during this transfer window and that only a select few were untouchable. Moving Fagundez is certainly an expression of that, perhaps in its most extreme form, a reminder that soccer can be a mercenary business. 

If emotional connection and the feelings of the fans were a factor here, Fagundez would remain or would at least leave the club on his own terms. While the Galaxy presents a new, intriguing opportunity for Fagundez to develop, to be the beneficiary of sumptuous Riqui Puig passes, and to be welcomed by a new fan base in one of the most richly diverse cities in the world, he's also doing so with a new baby less than six months after signing a contract he thought would be sealing a plannable future in Austin. 

The move comes at a critical juncture for Wolff. The #WolffOut drumbeats are growing following the team's Leagues Cup exit, and there are no games to distract the surly segment of fans for another 18 days. Wolff is coaching in front of a new boss, and his early body of work for the audience of Rodolfo Borrell includes a pair of 3-1 losses that have led to renewed jokes about the franchise's inability to compete in tournaments. 

This won't help calm the elements of the fan base on the edge, even if there's a grand calculating plan in all of this — one friend of mine is assessing this as a "shrewd, Bellichickian sendoff that will get us 2-3 Diegos + more versatility," even though that invites the obvious, emotionally charged response, "There will never be another Diego." 

And even as fans came with little notice to send Fagundez off on Tuesday night, prior to his Wednesday morning trek to his new home, know that he'll be back. In fact, he'll be due back on Sept. 24, a Sunday night home match that could find both teams jockeying for playoff places or fighting desperately to get in the mix. I expect fans will welcome him back but also use the occasion to opine about the situation. With only five home games left in the season, they'll all be vital in shaping the journey that Austin finds itself on. As I wrote on Tuesday in an article that landed just before the trade news did, "Every league match from Aug. 20 on, be it one that Austin plays, is a peg in a giant celestial game of Plinko." 

If this is a bridge too far for Austin fans, they could be ceding degrees of the home field advantage that Wolff has claimed all season has been vital to Austin's home form. 

One thing we know for sure: Diego Fagundez will most definitely be missed. What happens over the next few months will be instrumental in determining how his now-former coach recovers from this decision to angle toward the playoffs without him.