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Dean Smith's new challenge: Bringing success to one of MLS' newest teams

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Dean Smith has swapped English football for American soccer and is aiming to bring joy to the second-youngest team in the MLS.

Photo: Panorama of the crowd at Charlotte FC's match against Vancouver Whitecaps FC. (HangingCurve)

Dean Smith’s predecessors at Charlotte FC had their flaws.

Miguel Ángel Ramírez had the prestige of leading Charlotte into their maiden MLS season, but after game week 17 had already been booted and replaced by Christian Lattanzio.

During the Italian’s 18-month tenure, he seemed to have done well, from the outside looking in. He managed to bring the squad together to guide them through the tragedy of Anton Walkes and finish the season in the play-off spots for the first time in their history.

But throughout his spell in charge, he would often put players in unfamiliar positions, and built a side that looked unable to hold onto a lead, as his side dropped 25 points from winning positions last season.

Along with the questionable decisions on the pitch, he also struggled to build a rapport with the fans, often walking down the tunnel after a defeat without any recognition of the matchgoers.

Compare this to Smith’s first week in the job where an announcement on X, he was seen signing a gimmicky contract that would see him and Charlotte’s mascot, Sir Minty, have regular meetings with one another.

It is this playfulness with the fans that Smith has already shown more of compared to the club’s previous appointments.

But the former Premier League coach will be more aware than anyone that Charlotte aren’t a team that is settling for mediocracy, they want to take on the MLS giants.

He said: “If I came and said the goal isn’t to win the MLS cup then I shouldn’t have been hired because the role is to be as ambitious as possible.

“My ambitions are to bring the MLS trophy here, whether that be next year or the years after and the players will know my ambitions as soon as they get here.

“My job is to develop players, and that means the team develops. If the team develops then you start winning football games.

“Then we start to get into the upper echelons of the regular league and that’s what we need to do.”

Luckily for Charlotte, Smith has had multiple success stories when it comes to sourcing talent but also getting the best out of a squad.

If you look at the Aston Villa team that currently sits in the Premier League top four, the Birmingham local bought in Emi Martinez, Matty Cash and John McGinn whilst also handing a debut to Jacob Ramsey.

And although he won’t have the complete financial backing like he did at Villa, and squad rules will limit the amount he is allowed to spend, the current Charlotte squad still have incredibly exciting prospects.

One of those players is Kerwin Vargas, who scored The Crown’s first-ever play-off goal, as the young Colombian striker finished the season with five goals in five games for club and country.

Vargas’ goal against New York Red Bulls encapsulated his way of playing perfectly, hitting an overhead kick through a crowd of bodies.

 

He is an entertainer and with Smith often relying on his wide players to be strong in 1v1 situations and able to stretch the pitch, the 21-year-old possesses these traits that would help him flourish under the Englishman.

Central defence is another position that Dean Smith has often had success with when developing players.

At Brentford, he had John Egan and Ezri Konsa, with the latter later moving to Villa with him, which could mean that Andrew Privett and Adilson Malanda could be set for a season of improvement.

The 23-year-old and 22-year-old were the starting centre-backs at the end of the season, after Guzman Corujo picked up a season-ending injury and Bill Tuiloma’s move from Portland Timbers struggled to live up to the hopes expected when it was announced.

The young partnership struggled at times but, Malanda showed he was strong in the tackle whilst Privett complemented him well with better on-the-ball ability, but if Corujo is unable to return from his ACL injury successfully, a more experienced central defender to guide one of these two prospects would be an ideal investment.

But it isn’t just the players in the squad that are at the infancy stages of their careers, the club as a whole was only founded in 2019, compared to the 135 years, 134 years, 148 years, 139 years and 121 years that Smith’s other clubs have existed for.

Smith said: “Most clubs in the UK have a long history, Walsall have been around since the 1880s but has never played in the top league but this is exciting and a challenge.

“I am really impressed by the facilities and I have had a good start already but it is one really where we can go and create our own history and what has happened in this short time is a credit to everybody here.”

Throughout Smith’s managerial career he has been tasked with a range of different tests, he has enjoyed promotion and cup finals at Wembley with Villa, as well as fighting relegation battles with Walsall on a shoestring budget.

Although his first managerial venture abroad will give the former Premier League boss a completely new experience compared to the ones he has faced in his homeland.

The 52-year-old said: “I want to be pushed all the time, so this was something I really looked up to and I was really excited about.

“When you are excited, you get great things from people and hopefully we can get those great things.

“The MLS is a league that is growing and it can be taken lightly at your peril, I have seen enough games over the past five years to know that it is tough but we can make a real impact.

“I have had plenty of vacations over here to visit my son and I got invited to a game against Red Bull where Charlotte won 2-0.

“It was a great atmosphere and you could tell it was a real community-driven club and I think that warmth and feel never left me.”

He has seen Charlotte as a home away from home for many years now and has tried quickly to embrace himself into the culture, watching a Carolina Panthers game since arriving.

But come February when Charlotte open the season against New York City, he will be solely focused on the football. 

When Smith steps out at the Bank of America Stadium on the 24th of February, he will have had the building blocks put in place by Ramírez and Lattanzio that he will take and use to bring new joy to this emerging footballing city.

 


The cover image for this post was sourced from Wikimedia Commons under the

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International licence

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BofACLTFCpanorama.jpg), and is attributed to the author, HangingCurve. It was retrieved by me on the 26th December 2023.

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