The Miguel Angel Ramirez era at Charlotte FC was short lived, but good enough to give Ramirez a boost for his next job and short enough that fans will be scratching their heads at Bank of America Stadium for quite some time. Charlotte FC is just the latest of a long line of expansion teams in Major League Soccer and have gotten off to a decent start with a 5-1-8 record, sitting two points below the playoff line in the East.
When compared to MLS’s other two expansion clubs, Inter Miami, who only now seem to have turned it around, but the damage could be done as the club draws around 11,000 to home matches and FC Cincinnati who went through a turnstile of coaches are over the playoff line this season, but both continue to be inconsistent and below .500.
No reason was given for Ramirez’s departure other than, “This is a difficult decision, but one we feel is best for the team at this time,” from Charlotte FC owner David Tepper. In MLS an ugly trend around foreign based coaches has begun to surface as Ramirez is the third coach fired this season and the third coach from outside of the MLS circle to be let go.
MLS latest run with foreign coaches
Miguel Angel Ramirez’s relationship with the Charlotte FC front office was on thin ice at the start of the season as the former Inter of Porto Alegre coach was not satisfied with what the club had given him in regards to reinforcements. Nonetheless despite not being totally happy with the roster Charlotte FC punched well above their weight with highlight wins over the Supporter Shield champions New England Revolution and big spending Atlanta United.
Before that Argentine Hernán Losada was sacked from DC United after being in charge a little over a year, the reasons were the club’s losing streak, but behind the scenes there were rumors of the players not liking Losada’s intense training regime, something very common in newer Argentine coaches.
Ironically a year before Gabriel Heinze was removed from his position for similar reasons as well as not making himself available to the media. Again, all these sackings bare the question, what are MLS front offices reviewing when hiring coaches from abroad? As Ramirez and Heinze’s regimens and styles were very much well known in Ecuador and Argentina. Even former USMNT goalkeeper and former New England Revolution coach Brad Friedel spoke about the complacency in MLS locker rooms when it came to training and body care in a recent BBC Radio interview.
Matías Almeyda was brought into San Jose to give the lingering club a shot in the arm, and he did just that, but San Jose never truly spent the money necessary to give Almeyda a chance, rather having the Argentine coach a very limited budget, the results were meager. Although Almeyda’s man to man marking style may not have suited MLS to begin with, but along the way many of the people who brought the Argentine were fired or left the club.
Even Tata Martino who won MLS Cup with Atlanta United was said to have had difficulties with Carlos Bocanegra over team issues, none bigger than Martino not wanting to sign Ezequiel Barco for the price Atlanta would eventually spend according to sources. Things between the two got so bad according to reports Martino had barred Bocanegra from coming near the team in certain instances.
As MLS continues to grow in many aspects, one aspect the league has yet to truly grasp is dealing with the aspirations and methods of overseas coaches outside of the MLS structure. MLS teams have slowly begun to move away from coaches with no “MLS experience”, in many aspects it is a shame as many of these coaches could bring high intense regimens that players will find playing at the highest level.
Both Heinze and Martino were reported to the MLSPU at one time for certain training methods and philosophies. The question now begins to be raised, is it a matter or culture or a matter of MLS clubs not really knowing what their getting into?
