Where's Williams? Life after Prestatyn

[withnail316]

Really enjoying this, great work Dave. Look forward to seeing where you end up.

[EvilDave]

On 9/16/2016 at 10:30, neilhoskins77 said:

Superb achievement. Looking forward to seeing where you land next on this journey. Great work Dave.

 

On 9/16/2016 at 13:47, withnail316 said:

Really enjoying this, great work Dave. Look forward to seeing where you end up.

Thanks guys, really appreciate you following along. I was a little surprised by how quickly success came in Adelaide, so we'll see what's next...
--

 

That conversation, as you might expect, did not end on the teary high of the flight back from China. My employer did not even pretend to be upset at my departure - he made it quite clear that while he was grateful for the success I had brought, he believed another could have achieved just as much - and indeed turned on me with suspicions that I had been dealing with other clubs behind his back.

Naturally I pushed back, informed him of Dean Thomson’s appointment as my agent, and told him in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t because of a better offer that I had decided to hand in my resignation - but because I could not stand to work with such an ungrateful and odious employer.

That, of course, did not go down well. McGregor flew into a furious rage, spitting his words as he told me how he had resourced my every move, how he had turned this club around from rock bottom and how I should have been thankful that he listened to ‘that old git Dougan’ and taken a punt on ‘some Welsh no-hoper’ to run his club. By this point, my blood was boiling too, and I could not help but bite.

Out came everything. My suspicions, Rachel’s investigation, the conversation I had with his ‘old git’ in Stranraer. I told him exactly what I thought of his selfish and nefarious business practices, what I thought of his character, what I thought of his intimidation tactics and attempts to discredit my management. I told him I would do my damnedest to make sure no manager worth their salt stepped through the doors of the Hindmarsh as long as he was in charge, and that I would not be keeping quiet if the press happened to ask me why I was leaving.

I also told him, against every piece of advice I had received so far, that I would informing the police of his activities.

That shut him up, and he quietly agreed to host my final press conference for that very afternoon, on the condition that he be there alongside me. With that I had no problems - I did not expect a huge turnout from the media outside of Adelaide at such short notice, and I was not about to fire my best shot in front of such a sparse crowd. McGregor wanted to control my departure, and to a certain extent I was happy to let him put on his mask for the audience. But my resignation letter had already been accepted, I had a meeting with Dean lined up to discuss my next options, and my next step was already planned.

The conference itself went off without a hitch. The assembled hacks were a little bemused and had plenty of questions, but I played them back with a straight bat and did not allow McGregor the pleasure of interjecting to defend himself. I had no intention of throwing him under such a small bus, and the farewell handshake which appeared in the Advertiser the next day did indeed give an accurate impression of the events. I was leaving, the paper claimed, because there was nowhere else for me to take Adelaide United. That was true, but not solely because we were the new Asian champions.

That night as I awake next to Rachel, my wife’s rhythmic breathing soothing and slowing my furious thoughts, I smiled to myself before drifting off to sleep. Tomorrow there would be no alarm, just an open future and a fresh start. No more worrying about McGregor - not yet anyway - just family life and opportunities abound. I could think of worse ways to spend a day.

[EvilDave]

 

“So then Dean, what have you got for me?”

“You sound awfully happy Owain, I’ll do my best to keep it that way. Right, first up there are three clubs with vacancies right now, I’ve sounded them all out and while none bit my hand off, they’d all welcome an application - that’s often the best you’ll get.”

“Sounds good Dean, where are we looking?”

 

“Looking at what you told me, I think we can pretty much rule Partick Thistle out. Rock bottom of the Scottish Premier, and their finances are a bit of a mess. Union Berlin are midtable in the German second tier and you’d struggle to build them up given the money sloshing about further up, and that leaves New York Red Bulls. They’ve just finished last in MLS, need an overhaul and have got the money to do it.”

 

“You think they’d be a good fit then?”

“The money would be better than Adelaide, you’d be in a great city, Rachel would be able to set up business fairly easily and the girls would have no problems finding a school. Plus you don’t have the language problems you’d have in Berlin - or Scotland for that matter!”

We had a quick chuckle at Dean’s quip, and then it was back to business.

“Behind that, there are a couple of interesting ones that I’d say are worth making your interest known in.”

“How would that work exactly? I don’t feel very comfortable talking to clubs behind a manager’s back.”

“Don’t need to worry about that Owain - both clubs I’m talking about have made it clear that they wouldn’t do anything that isn’t completely above board.

“Let me explain - Sheffield Wednesday are by far the biggest club in terms of history, but I don’t know how much that bothers you. They’re looking to kick on in the Championship, but they know Paul Clement is likely to leave around Christmas - he’s got too big a reputation to hang around.

“Seattle Sounders are in a different position. Sigi Schmid has been there since 2008, but he’s retiring either in two weeks or whenever the owners find someone to step in. They’re a bit like New York - resources by the bucketload but a team badly in need of a makeover.”

“It sounds to me like we rule Partick and Berlin out straight away - Germany doesn’t particularly appeal unless someone like Bayern or Dortmund come knocking, and it sounds like Partick are too much of a mess for me to rescue.

“That leaves us with Wednesday and the two American teams, which all have their appeals. How do I go about expressing interest?”

“You leave that to me Owain, it’s much better if it comes through an agent - looks less desperate. There are another three or four other clubs that I reckon are between 70 and 80 per cent jobs, do you want me to put your name out there for them as well?”

“Depends where they are.”

“Right you are - Wolves, Aberdeen, Fulham, Los Angeles. Probably in that order - Wolves are a bit of a long shot.”

“OK, that’s useful. Let me chat with Rachel and I’ll give you a call tomorrow - there’s no need to rush any of them is there?”

 

“Not really, although LA tend to move quickly if they’re moving.”

“OK. Just before we call it a day, can we go through the details a little more closely? Up to this point I’ve done it all myself and used lawyers to pore over the contracts, but now you’re here I’d like to make sure we’re getting the best deal. Is that OK?”

“Your wish is my command.”

We spent the best part of 45 minutes discussing the ins and out of what ‘a manager of my reputation’ might expect from any prospective employer. From accommodation to cars, Rachel’s employment prospects to the girls’ education. Also included, at Dean’s initiative rather than my own, was the issue of termination and breach of contract - and what the outcomes would be if either I or my new club stepped out of line.

It was a lot to take in. I needed a lie down.

[EvilDave]

 

I was somewhat frustrated to see that, in the first game after my absence, Adelaide managed to celebrate their ACL win by dropping points at home to Wellington. Not that the Phoenix were a bad side - if anything they were one of the most consistent in the league - but I couldn’t help but feel that if I’d been on the sideline they might just have managed not to blow a two-goal lead. Call it arrogance if you like, but I don’t think my Reds did that on too many occasions.

But Adelaide were very much not my problem any more, and while I still liked to keep half an eye on how Prestatyn were doing back home, I could not foresee me taking a long-term interest in the goings-on at the Hindmarsh. Yes, this chapter of my career was significantly shorter than the six years I had spent prowling the touchline in Denbighshire, but it was also a great deal less pleasant - although quite how significant the rose tints of nostalgia had in that opinion I remain unsure.

The much bigger question was a simple one: where were we going next? Dean’s list of possible clubs had been interesting to say the least, with Aberdeen and Los Angeles never before appearing in the same sentence. The choice seemed to be between taking a stab at the English game from a slightly lower starting point, or jumping in with both feet into the moe closed and complex American system.

Both had their merits, and both certainly had their advantages from my family’s perspective. Whether in Sheffield or London, Rachel would be able to use her past experience to her advantage - she knew the rules, she knew the lay of the land, she knew people in the right place. Bethan and Rebecca would have no problem finding a school place, and with the money flowing across the game from various TV deals, we would not be wanting for anything.

That would probably be the case in the States, where the game enjoyed a lower profile but was run largely by a combination of the league itself and very wealthy individuals, who in some cases would bankroll a team to the hilt. Education for the girls would be more expensive if we decided to stay long-term - and I didn’t want my family to be moving constantly at my whim - but with my expected income and Rachel working as much or as little as she pleased, that wouldn’t matter too much. Add to that the appeal of moving to a thriving city like New York or a West Coast cultural centre like LA or Seattle, and the US also had a compelling case.

In the end, with all the cards laid on the table, we narrowed it down to three. New York seemed like an obvious candidate, and the lure of the Big Apple was not something lost on my wife. On the American front, Seattle also made the cut, although surprisingly we dumped Los Angeles - they had a man in post, and Dean had said they were quick movers. I didn’t want to be forced into a decision, and the pressure of the Galaxy job would be much higher than the others two MLS clubs.

That left us with Wolves, who we took out of the equation on the basis of probability; Aberdeen, which held very little appeal for either of us, Fulham or Wednesday. Did we want the London life and all the pressures and pleasures associated with it, or did we prefer the weight of history and fierce loyalty attached to the Sheffield club? It very nearly came down to the toss of a coin, but in the end we plumped with the Yorkshire outfit - Fulham’s habit of hiring and firing managers on a regular basis ultimately taking them out of the game.

I gave Dean the call to go ahead, and a couple of hours later he messaged me back to let me know that the ball was now firmly in the courts of our three options. All I had to do was wait and start packing up our life here in Adelaide - even if none of the three wanted me to manage their team, there was little point in hanging around longer than necessary.

[withnail316]

Bit of a shame to see Aberdeen dumped - reviving that club is a great challenge - but looking forward to the next chapter.

[EvilDave]

 

Thanks withnail - Aberdeen would have been a challenge, but it just didn't seem to fit at the time. Hopefully the next move will be an interesting one...
--

A couple of days later - as I made a headstart on Christmas shopping and mulled over once more my plan to torpedo McGregor - my phone rang. Dean. Bracing myself, I took myself away to the quietest corner of the huge department store I could find, and answered the call.

“Owain, is now a good time? Nothing too long, I promise.”

“Fire away.”

“Well, it’s not good news I’m afraid. New York have been in touch, and while they were very impressed with your CV, they don’t think you fit their ‘club image,’ whatever that is. I understand that middle-aged Welshmen might not the target market for Red Bull, but you’d think they’d understand that a winning team is far better vehicle for their product than one bottom of the league.”

“Was that really the reason they gave? Should I re-apply with a Brazilian name or something?”

“You joke Owain, but it might well make the difference. To be honest, I have doubts about the way that club is run. With the spending power they have, their trophy cabinet should be a lot fuller than it is. Either Red Bull haven’t figured out MLS, or the guys they’ve got in charge in New York simply aren’t a priority. Look at how they’re doing in Austria, Germany, even the Formula 1. I don’t think they’re that bothered how it works out.”

“So they’re a definite no.”

“‘Fraid so.”

“OK, thanks for trying Dean. Speak to you soon.”

Listening to my agent’s reasoning, I was somewhat glad that New York had turned my application away. Working for a huge multi-national corporation had never been the footballing dream, and fighting for attention amongst so many of their other sporting endeavours did not seem like a fight I was ready for. The Big Apple has chewed up and spat out many a good man over the years, and I had my doubts over whether I was ready for that particular cocktail of high expectations and dubious backing. Good riddance, I guess.

Who was I kidding? New York were Dean’s dead cert, and they had been the first to knock me back? Had I pulled the plug on Adelaide too soon? Did my Asian Champions League count for far less than I was banking on? Why would anybody of note hire a ‘middle-aged Welshman’ after all?

I had to turn the negativity off somehow, and as I paced the aisles of the store I instead turned my mind back to the one area I did indeed have complete control over - getting back at McGregor.

[EvilDave]

 

But I couldn’t do that until I had a new club, and so it would have to wait. In the meantime, my old boss decided that the best way to get Adelaide to beat Perth was to steal their manager - Lucas Neill was unveiled as the new Reds boss, and I wished him all the best. I didn’t have the heart to tell him what he was letting himself in for, but at face value I had absolutely no problem with him jumping into my seat. Any manager with any sense of ambition would relish the chance to take on the continental champions. Had it not been for the very specific circumstances, I’d have done the same myself.

As it was, Dean had some more news for me, and I was going to need some plane tickets. Both Seattle Sounders and Sheffield Wednesday wanted to speak to me, although it was only the former than had asked me to go in person - the old English club were happy to things over Skype, suggesting something a little less formal at this stage. My agent was onto things in a flash, had us booked to travel to Seattle via first Sydney and then San Francisco, and got back to the club to make the necessary accommodation arrangements.

As it happened, the Skype chat with Wednesday boss Dejphon Chansiri was scheduled for the day before my flight, and so there was every possibility that I would head to the American interview with a verbal job offer already on the table. Dean seemed quite comfortable working under such conditions, and so I instructed him to agree to their suggestion. It would be quite the couple of days.

On reflection, I wondered whether it would have been possible to be interviewed by two more different clubs. On the one hand there was Wednesday, an ancient club in a traditional manufacturing heartland. Their Hillsborough stadium was famous across the footballing world for reasons both glorious and tragic, and the club was undeniably a giant waiting for the right men to wake it from its slumber.

On the other hand, Seattle’s official history goes back only to 2007, although its various predecessors claimed a heritage dating to the early 1970s. The Amazon Arena - backed by local resident and company boss Jeff Bezos after previous sponsorships with Qwest and CenturyLink - had once been recognised as the loudest in the world, with its passionate fans packed into a hyper-modern arena. The club’s history was significant in the States, but compared to Wednesday was still waiting to be written.

Reading up on the two clubs, I could find very little to separate them in terms of appeal. Both the traditionalist and modernist in me would be appeased by one or the other, and the family reasons I seem to have spent so long talking about presented no cause for concern. I had no great knowledge of either city, but their online residents seemed to have generally positive things to say about both, and Sheffield in particular seemed like something of a gem in terms of life quality.

And so the day approached when I was scheduled to meet with Mr Chansiri to discuss the future of his team - his investment, as Dean reminded me before we made the connection. It wouldn’t do me any favours to tear his current management apart, particularly as he seemed resigned to losing Paul Clement to another club rather than on his own terms. Diplomacy would play a bit part of the interview, and I wrote down as much on a post-it just wide of the webcam.

At the appointed time, Mr Chansiri requested a connection. Without a moment’s hesitation, I accepted his call. Off we went.

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

Interesting and enjoyable read EvilDave. Having never read or even visited the FMS forum, this has kept me coming back over the last 8 weeks! I had always dropped in and out of the now defunct LLM forum. Can I say KUTGW, or is that not FMS style? 

[EvilDave]

 

Thank you very much, good Sir 'Ammer! You certainly can tell me to KUTGW, all denominations are welcome here - and your kind words are most appreciated, it's great to know folks are still following along even at this stage!
--

It was difficult to know, as I chatted to Mr Chansiri, what he was thinking. The Thai entrepreneur maintained a poker face throughout, and as we went over the initial pleasantries - discussing what I knew of the club, reliving my success with Adelaide - I got the distinct impression that he was sizing me up. The only problem being that I couldn’t figure out his conclusion.

The conversation moved on to Wednesday’s current predicament - ninth in the Championship and within touching distance of the end-of-season play-offs with more than half of the campaign still to play. How was I going to make sure there was no crunching of the gears if I took over in such a busy period? If players asked to leave for bigger clubs, how would I respond? Did I think a play-off berth was realistic, and if not how much time would I need?

Chansiri was thorough, of that there was no doubt. Taking my time, I talked him through my thoughts - namely that Wednesday could indeed hit the play-offs, but that survival in the Premier League would not be possible without significant investment, and another year in the second tier might be advantageous from a footballing, if not financial, point of view - after all, the club had only rebounded from League One two seasons ago.

He seemed particularly impressed that I had managed to hold my Prestatyn team together for so long, and also that in both of my previous jobs I had left on my terms - a sacking-free record did apparently count for something. He was understandably apprehensive about my views on Wednesday’s promotion prospects, but understood that sometimes the worlds of sport and business did not always overlap. So far, so good. Then he asked a question that caught me completely off-guard.

“One of my aims, Mr Williams, is to build Sheffield Wednesday’s image in Thailand. How would you react to being asked to purchase and play one or two Thailand internationals in the first team?”

I had not expected that, and I had to pause for a moment. If this was a sticking point and I agreed despite my objections, I would be positioning myself over a trapdoor later on. If I disagreed, I might not get the opportunity in the first place. Glancing over at Dean, who was sitting off-camera listening in on the conversation, I replied.

“That depends entirely on the quality of the players, Mr Chandiri. I understand completely the need for Sheffield Wednesday to become an internationally-recognised brand if it is to enjoy commercial success. However, I also understand that if the manager’s team selection or transfer policy is interfered with, it creates a tension that is unworkable. If any player, Thai or otherwise, has been thoroughly scouted and fits into the tactical system in operation, they would be played - assuming they are training well, injury-free and the best option. However, I would not be willing to jeopardise the team’s chances on the pitch in order to speculate off it.”

I dared not look at Dean, who was probably hiding his head in his hands. On the screen, Chandiri did something I did not expect. He clapped.

“Thank you, Mr Williams. You are the first person I have spoken to who has not agreed to everything I have suggested. That shows a certain character, a level of honour. I like that in my staff. Thank you.”

From then on, the rest of the interview seemed to get a lot more serious.

[EvilDave]

 

The following day, I flew to Seattle with an understanding between myself and Mr Chandiri that a contract offer would be coming my way within the next three days - at which point Dean and I would still be in the US. It placed me in a difficult but enviable position - with one offer already on the table, I was interviewing for a position which I may not even need or want.

The journey to Washington state was a long one - 22 hours including the two connections, and so I had plenty of time with my agent to run through the pros and cons of the two clubs. In my hand luggage were detailed squad lists of both the Sounders and Wednesday, which gave me plenty of reading material, while Dean spend a great deal of time on the phone trying to ascertain the financial figures behind each club.

The very fact that Seattle wanted to meet me in the flesh would ordinarily had given them a headstart - although I would perhaps have preferred them to come to me - but in this instance Wednesday had all but agreed to make me an offer, and so they were rightfully in the box seat. On the other hand, the Sheffield side had agreed to make me an offer without seeing me in person, and without me viewing their facilities - were they taking too much of gamble? Could I trust a boss who operated that way?

Of course, if Seattle said no then I wouldn’t have a choice, and I had to remind myself that the Americans were by no means guaranteed to take me on. Looking at the four men who would be interviewing me - long-term majority owner Adrian Hanauer, Microsoft co-founder and one of the country’s richest men Paul Allen, retail kingpin Erik Nordstrom and technical director Chris Henderson - a man with 79 caps for the US - I was not going to be able to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. These were hardened businessmen with long-term interests in the game. In their eyes, I would be nobody.

But a nobody that they had decided to interview for their club, and that in itself gave me confidence. You don’t call a guy halfway across the world if you aren’t seriously considering giving him the job, and so I had to go into things positively. Dean seemed confident that they were serious, and so far he hadn’t put a foot wrong. Of course, Rachel had also assured me of my reputation, but as my wife she was never going to say anything else.

Touching down at Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Dean and I were met immediately by club officials who, after the myriad security checks, whisked us off to our luxury accommodation for the night. We had a packed schedule the following day, and I would need every hour of sleep I could get. The next few days had the potential to change everything.

[EvilDave]

 

The first part of day was the guided grand tour - Chris Henderson was the face of the Sounders’ front office, and if I were to get the job, I’d be seeing an awful lot of the former international defender. First up was the club’s Amazon Arena, the 67,000-seater stadium Seattle called home. The club shared it with NFL side Seattle Seahawks - another sporting venture backed by Paul Allen - and for the majority of their MLS matches limited to capacity to just under 40,000, but it was a hugely impressive ground nonetheless. Whereas Prestatyn need to redevelop Bastion Gardens and Adelaide could have done with working on the Hindmarsh, the quality on display would last for another 50 years comfortably.

After an in-depth tour, we were taken by a club driver around 25 minutes to the south, and more specifically to Seattle’s training and office complex in Tukwila. The excitingly-named Starfire Sports Complex was were I would spend most of my time if I got the gig, and once again there was nothing I could have asked for not already present.

From multiple, pristine training pitches to hydrotherapy pools, state-of-the-art gyms and even an on-site dental practice - although I was assured this was not permanently staffed - it was clear that Seattle was a club that looked after its men. The Sounders needed athletes in their prime, with minimal risk of anything that might take away from their performance on the field. Every eventuality had been legislated for - for the sports scientist, physiotherapist or coach, it was paradise.

After touring the complex, it was straight into the boardroom, where I was introduced to Adrian Hanauer, Paul Allen and Erik Nordstrom. All were impeccably dressed, polite to a fault, and went out of their way to relax me into my surroundings. Despite being sat across a table from four men - Chris had joined them on the panel - with billions of dollars to their name and with reputations for being some of the best businessmen around, there was never a sense in which I felt intimidated by their presence.

Mr Hanaeur was the first to speak.

“Welcome to America, Mr Williams. I do want to thank you for coming to meet us at such short notice - it must have been a long few days for you?”

“Please, Mr Hanauer, call me Owain - and please let me thank you for inviting me. I’ve been very impressed by what I’ve seen so far.”

“In that case you shall call us all by our Christian names, Owain - I feel it helps lighten the mood a little. If it’s OK with you we’ll get started - I know you have a long day and I dare say you’ll want to speak with your family at some point. What makes you think you’re the right man for this club?”

Nothing like an easy question to kick things off with.

[EvilDave]

 

After setting out my stall as someone comfortable working with a salary cap and skilled in taking teams from the wrong end of the table to the top - something I had done successfully at both Prestatyn and Adelaide, things moved at quite a pace.

Adrian did most of the talking which, as majority owner, made perfect sense. Paul Allen interjected to discover just how much I knew about the MLS rules - not everything, I admitted, but certainly enough to start constructing a squad. Chris Henderson wanted to know how I would work with a technical director, and in asking effectively explained his own role to be as involved or not as I wanted.

Then we moved into the details. After a few questions regarding my tactical approach - I told them I would work with the players available to me, but favoured an attacking approach given that football is ultimately entertainment - and how I had worked with the salary cap in Australia - under pressure, but with a certain ruthlessness and ultimately success - I was then asked by Adrian what three things I would change about the club - not necessarily just the first team - given my way.

“That’s a difficult question Adrian, but I know what I’d do first - tell Michael Bradley that his contract won’t be renewed. He may be an American footballing icon, but he’s at the end of his career and he’s being paid a quarter of a million dollars every week. I don’t know the history or his agent, but that’s an outrageous sum of money for a man of his age and ability.

“Secondly, I’d want to tap into the incredible community surrounding this club. There aren’t many MLS sides with several supporters’ clubs and their own band, so why not grow it? Get the players and coaches out in local schools, cut the ticket prices for kids, host a few open training sessions. Again, there aren’t many place where the MLS club has a chance of reaching the popularity of the NFL franchise, but Seattle is one.

“Finally, I’d overhaul the scouting network. There are only three scouts on the books, and currently they’re all operating in the Western Hemisphere. I know the domestic market is big and there are good players out there, but I’d want to be getting reports from across the world, not just back home. Seattle and the US has a global draw, and that’s something the club should be tapping into on a sporting level as well as a commercial one. Not only that, but the player turnover in recent years has been huge by any standards - stability is generally good for any club.”

The four-man panel looked at each other for a moment, silently sharing their thoughts as if they had done so a thousand times before - something unlikely given the extreme length of Sigi Schmid’s tenure. Paul Allen seemed to break the tension by nodding to the majority owner, at which point Adrian addressed me once again.

“Owain, I do not overstate things when I tell you how important your answers to that question are to us. Firstly, you showed that you know more than the surface details of the club, and that despite only contacting us a few days ago - for your research, I thank you.

“Secondly, your solutions to this club’s problems did not focus simply on us giving you the financial backing to make sweeping changes. Yes, your suggestions would increase our scouting budget, but your very first response would actually cut the club’s wage bill by millions of dollars each year. I did not expect you to be a man to throw money at a problem, and you have confirmed those thoughts.

“Finally, you recognised the importance of the Seattle community to this club and vice versa. Although you could not possibly have known, we are in the process of launching a ‘Football in the Community’ scheme very similar to the one run by Cambridge United, where I am also an investor. The British are much better are integrating their clubs into their communities, and we are hoping to learn from that.

“I can see a situation in which you could lead the Sounders, and in many ways it is our lack of foresight that has not brought you here before now - Sigi Schmid has been a fine servant to this club, one of the best, but perhaps his history has blinded us to the problems of the present.

“If you’re happy, the three of us will leave Paul to talk contracts with you. It’s up to you whether you stay or leaving the negotiating to Dean here.”

Trying my hardest to contain my smile, I took a moment to compose myself before replying.

“If it’s OK with you all, I’d like to stay and take part in the negotiations. I have no doubt we’ll be able to reach an agreement, but I must add I’ll also have to call my wife before coming to a final decision.”

“Of course Owain, we’d expect nothing less. There’s no pressure on you to sign anything today - we can have a contract drawn up this evening if you would prefer?”

“That sounds perfect. Thank you very much Adrian.”

With that, three of the men left the room, and Dean and I began to discuss employment terms with the co-founder of Microsoft. It was times like this I was glad of an agent.

[EvilDave]

 

Thank you to all readers and voters for any of my stories over the past year - it's great to know others are enjoying what I'm writing, so you're a great encouragement to me!
--

My head spinning, I began to mull over the figures in my mind. Paul had told us that the club had no less than $300 million in the bank, a frankly astonishing amount that made me sit up and realise just how big this project was for the men in charge. You don’t get Microsoft, Amazon and Nordstrom in and expect something cheap, I suppose.

The club’s transfer budget would dictated by MLS HQ, as was the way in these parts, but with the departure of Bradley imminent there would be ample room in the wage budget before I started bouncing off the salary limiter. Given that I had yet to spend a single penny (or indeed cent) on a transfer fee during my career, I was sure I could manage with such an arrangement.

The contract suggested was for two years, and in the first year expectations were minimal. ‘Be competitive’ was the official wording, although personally I hoped to take the Sounders back into the post-season, somewhere they had not been in the four seasons since winning the Western Conference. In the second season, progress would no doubt be expected.

And my proposed recompense for taking charge of the Sounders? No less than $30,000 each and every week - around £15,000 in real money, roughly the same value each week as my first Prestatyn contract provided in a year - with bonuses for reaching the play-offs and winning the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, Supporters Shield, MLS Cup and North American Champions League, with a sliding scale for each competition.

As if that was not enough, the club - after some tough negotiation from Dean - agreed to accommodate me, Rachel and the girls for six months at their expense, and then contribute up to $360,000 - three months’ wages - towards a property which we would be the legal owners of. I’d have a Toyota of my choosing - Seattle had already agreed a corporate partnership - to use for all club and personal use, and any equipment or furnishings I required for my office would be covered on club expenses. Dean had wanted to push for a clothing allowance, but I didn’t want to rock the boat. On $30,000 a week, I thought I could stretch to a suit or two.

After taking a moment or two to compose myself, I made the call to Rachel. Part of me wanted to snap Paul Allen’s hand off, but Sheffield Wednesday would also have sent a contract through, and that would also enter into the equation. Given what I had seen of the Sounders, it would be a tough ask to outdo them.

[EvilDave]

 

“So darling, how did it go?”

“Well, let’s just say I’ve got something to think about.”

“That’s amazing Owain, congratulations! Has Dean done a good job for you?”

“You can say that again, they’re certainly not messing about. Before I go through everything with you, have Wednesday been in touch with you?”

“They have, apparently they’ve been trying to call you or Dean but haven’t been able to. I didn’t speak to the same man you did, but Paul Clement has signed a two-year contract extension. There’s no deal Owain.”

“Wow, Chandiri seemed so sure of things as well. I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but I think I’d have preferred this place anyway. Seriously, you should see the set-up they’ve got over here…”

What followed was Rachel’s mind being kicked into overdrive by the numbers involved, and the fact that a club with £150 million in its pockets would entrust that itself into her husband’s hands. In many ways I was still Owain from Wrexham, and this transformation from part-time enthusiast to managerial millionaire was something she had still not fully got to grips with. Nor had I in truth - $30,000 each week seemed obscene, but I wasn’t going to argue.

We talked through some of the practicalities - she was happy with the Sounders’ accommodation arrangements, and seemed confident we could find a school for Bethan and Rebecca, with her only reservation being her own employment status. Clearly with the money on offer she would not need to work, but worried that with nothing to do, she would find Seattle a lonely place.

“At the end of the day Owain, we’re all together and that’s the main thing here. I’m not even being soppy when I say that - this is an amazing opportunity and if we need to figure out the details in the first few weeks and months, so be it. You can tell Mr Microsoft that he’s found his new manager, and to book us three seats on the next flight to Seattle - the movers have been on high alert for the last week. Congratulations darling - I love you and I’m very proud of you.”

“I love you too Rachel Williams. I can’t wait to see you again.”

With that, we said our goodbyes, I poked my head around the corner to give Dean the thumbs-up, and the two of us headed into the next room where Paul Allen was waiting for us, flanked by Adrian Hanauer and Erik Nordstrom. I could only assume Chris Henderson had other business to attend to.

“Is everything to your satisfaction Owain?”

“Very much so Paul, and if the offer is still there I’d be delighted to take you up on it. It would be an honour to work with you for the Seattle Sounders.”

A smile broke on the faces of all three men and they shook hands with both Dean and myself. It was Adrian who spoke first.

“I am pleased Owain, I think you’ll do a great job here in Seattle. Now if there are no delays, let’s get that contract signed shall we?”

The next chapter of my life was about to begin.

[withnail316]

Interesting move, ED. Looking forward to the next chapter.

[EvilDave]

Thanks withnail, I'm looking forward to Owain taking a crack at MLS - a new experience for the both of us!
--

 

I signed for the Sounders on November 20th, and although I would not officially step into my duties until the New Year, with Sigi Schmid’s blessing I was effectively given the freedom to make whatever changes I felt necessary to the club’s personnel before that date. He, after all, was about to retire, and any decisions I made would not affect him in the slightest.

My first act as Seattle boss was therefore to make some changes to the backroom staff. In came three fresh scouts to add to the trio already working at the club, and out went assistant manager Bryan Marino. He had worked alongside Schmid for the last four years, and after a pleasant conversation he informed me that he felt the time was right to explore other options. I had no problems with that, and in his place came former Jamaica international and Minnesota United man Babajide Ogunbiyi - or simply ‘Jide’ for short - whose knowledge of the US game would hopefully help me to settle in.

Speaking of settling, the first few days in the States were spent trying to sort out accommodation. The club were happy to put us up in hotel accommodation near the Starfire Complex, but if we were going to put down roots in the area then we would need a place of our own. With my wages now amounting to a small fortune, the cost was never to be problematic, but the practicalities were. Rachel and I were kept busy unloading the packages which kept arriving from Adelaide, knowing that in a few weeks were would be doing the same again.

There was also the issue of schooling, and on that front Adrian Hanaeur was most helpful. For obvious reasons, a lot of the Sounders staff had chosen to live in the Tukwila area, and there was a standard procedure that new staff members went through in order to get their children into schools. As Jide and I were going through the same process - I with Bethan and Rebecca, he with little Ruben, he set the ball rolling via his own personal assistant at the club.

Speaking of personal assistants, for the first time in my career I was to be afforded the luxury of a PA - at both Prestatyn and Adelaide, I had dealt with all my own administration. When it was mentioned, I floated the idea of Rachel stepping into the breach - it would guarantee time together - but after reflecting on the somewhat unsociable hours required of a manager travelling the length of breadth of the United States, we decided against it and the club advertised the job on my behalf.

After a full day of interviews - apparently the Sounders have a good name as an employer, which was reassuring - the man I settled on was Jordi Villarreal, a 29-year-old man of Mexican descent who had moved up to the Pacific Coast, achieved top grades throughout his education and subsequently realised that studying and practising the law were two very different things. A football-mad fan of Queretaro, he knew my field inside out.

He also had the advantage of sincerity - of the candidates I interviewed, around a third were relatively young girls who in truth should never have reached that stage, being far too interested in simply hanging around young professional athletes. Similarly, some of the men on the shortlist were somewhat obsessive Sounders fans wanting to get up close and personal with their heroes. In Jordi, I had a man attached to the game but not the team, and someone with the ruthless efficiency and eye for detail I needed.

The budget at Seattle meant that I was also afforded the touches that make a manager’s office his own space, rather than simply an enlarged cupboard waiting for its next victim. In addition to the Sounders memorabilia from down the years - cut back at Sigi Schmid’s request for personal momentos - I could connect to anyone in the club at the touch of a button on the new phone, and both my work desktop and personal laptop were upgraded to state-of-the-art. I had little need for paperwork, but a treasure trove of literature on the sport was at my disposal should I ever feel a literary urge. Mostly importantly, I had a mini-fridge with a limitless supply of Diet Coke - I was set.

[Guest]

Just read the whole story from start to finish, its the best FM story I've ever read! Also hope it goes well for Owain in Seattle 

AJ 

[EvilDave]

Thank you very much AJ - high praise indeed! I'm both honoured and surprised, but thank you for reading and commenting, it's great to have you along.
--

 

With my scouting team now evenly split between the college game - looked after mainly by the existing US-based staff ahead of the Superdraft - and the global field, I was as prepared as I could be ahead of the many complex drafts that lie ahead. For this first season, I intended to let my scouts determine the best course of action. The advantage I had, thanks to the Sounders’ poor performance in the last MLS calendar, was that we were slated for second pick in every round of drafting. On the other side of the coin, FC Dallas’s 3-2 win over rivals Houston Dynamo in the MLS Cup final meant they would be picking up the dregs left by everyone else.

The main reason for me leaving the drafts to the scouting team and Chris Henderson was, of course, my recent arrival in Washington state. With the help of the club, Rachel had set her eyes on a particular property in one of the suburbs of Tukwila itself - only a five-minute run from where the club were already putting us up - and with the aid of the Sounders’ legal team, was figuring out how high our bid needed to be to take the house off the market. Although bricks and mortar have never been my thing - I never had the knack of seeing the potential of a place - I had to admit my wife had found a beauty. Even with the club’s help we would be taking out a mortgage, but this was a house that would host a family twice our size and was as beautiful as an empty home could be. She had done well.

The property was also just a few minutes from one of Seattle’s preferred schools, and so with the boxes all ticked it came as little surprise that Rachel had found it so quickly. Bethan and Rebecca would both be enrolled after Christmas if everything went to plan - another reminder that, amidst all the chaos of moving, we were preparing for Christmas on our third continent in the last five years. Prestatyn, Adelaide, and now Seattle - we were becoming quite the jet-setters.

Ah yes, Adelaide. I may seem like an age ago, but I had not forgotten the ill-treatment I had received at the hands of Brett McGregor, nor the revelations of his past that had emerged in my subsequent investigation. I hadn’t gone to the South Australia Police or the FFA with my allegations of wrongdoing, but I did still have something up my sleeve for my former employer.

Deciding to begin my relationship with the local press on a positive note, I took the liberty of inviting reporters from both of the major newspapers covering the team - the Times and PI - for an interview at the Starfire base. I promised them 45 minutes each, one-to-one, no holds barred with the only proviso that a ‘no comment’ be left as such. Both, as you might expect, were very happy to entertain such a request in the low season, and sent their brightest young sports reporters along.

My plan, of course, worked like a charm. Grant Thornton and Shaun Griffin both looked like the cat that got the cream when they inevitably asked the ‘why did you leave Adelaide?’ question, and before the day was done they had it as headline news on their websites’ respective sports pages. The following morning, a few of the nationals began to run the same line, and it wasn’t long before Reuters themselves had a piece up. Included at the end, after the expected lack of comment from United, was the statement that the local police had indeed opened an investigation.

With my family now on the other side of the world and McGregor in the spotlight, there was very little he could do to defend himself. Whoever his wealthy friends had been, they did not rush out of the spotlight to defend him, and the FFA were not about to miss a trick. His ownership of the Reds was suspended for the duration of the investigation, allowing the club’s supporters’ trust to rally round and begin to raise funds for a takeover bid. Watching from afar, it was all rather amusing.

Meanwhile, back in Tukwila, things were beginning to settle down for the Williams clan. My scouting team was on the move, the players and coaches had left for their winter holiday, and the pressure of providing the perfect family Christmas was removed from Rachel’s shoulders when we received an invite to the Henderson household. Of course, we had missed the great Thanksgiving feast in the madness of our move, but spending time with Chris, his wife Jackie and their grown-up children would no doubt be a pleasure. It also meant Rachel and I had several less things to worry about.

[EvilDave]

 

Christmas came and went with the minimum of fuss thanks to the hospitality of the Hendersons, but while the girls certainly enjoyed having aunties and uncles at every turn, I was not sure it was an experience we would be repeating. Chris and Jackie were very accommodating hosts, but their own family traditions and determination to welcome us meant we had very little space as our own little unit. It was selfish thinking, and I could not begin to express my gratitude to our hosts, but the truth was that after so long living as one family in a strange environment in Adelaide, we were used to bunkering down.

By the time Christmas had come, my scouting team had come up trumps in the Waiver Draft - an end-of-season affair in which players with imminently expiring contracts are free for other teams to poach without going through the fuss of free agency. This was our chance to get rid of Michael Bradley and his exorbitant wages - which Chicago Fire inexplicably picked up from us - while in return we upgraded in two keys positions. Pedro Valdez would, as a Mexican, claim an international slot, but the former Chivas USA man immediately became our top choice striker at the tender age of 22. Then in midfield, former New York Red Bull dynamo Ollie Cosgriff brought crucial top-level experience and energy to the middle of the park.

A little bit of back and forth with a number of other clubs saw us manoeuvre our way into what appeared to be a better position ahead of the Superdraft, while the overseas portion of our scouting team turned up a couple of absolute gems. Julio Parra was another from south of the Rio Grande, and would likely partner Cosgriff in the centre of the park, while Brazilian attacking midfielder Cacau’s contract had for some reason been allowed to run down at Gremio. At just 23, his skills already looked too good for MLS, and I expected to face interest from Europe in the coming years. For now though, he was ours.

Across the Atlantic, the Scottish FA had finally been forced to comment on the ongoing McGregor story. Investigations were still ongoing down in Adelaide, but with the gagging order having long expired and their man now making the sports sections in many a specialised paper, a national team press conference unexpectedly included a question about his time at Forfar. With nothing to hide, the spokesman laid bare the facts, making my old boss’ life that little bit harder as he no doubt faced questioning. It was good to hear.

Next on my agenda was something resembling a pre-season schedule, which is not the easiest when no other clubs seem to be thinking that far ahead. With the big European clubs not wanting to come until midway through our season, I combined a tour of the local Washington league sides with a handful of South American giants. Botafogo, Newell’s Old Boys and the mighty Boca Juniors were all heading for the Amazon Arena, and I had no doubt that all three would give us quite a challenge.

With those dates booked in the diary, I finally felt as if I had a few days to spend with Rachel and the girls, to welcome in 2023, and to begin to feel settled in Seattle. It would still be a few weeks before I could even coach my new Sounders, but at least with Sigi Schmid officially retiring the team was officially mine. I intended to be here for the long haul, and the hard work started now.

[EvilDave]

 

With the New Year well and truly here, it was edging ever closer towards business time in MLS. My Seattle side would be one of the first teams to pick in the Superdraft - for some inexplicable reason now a televised event for those keen enough to tune in for a few hours of teams selecting unknown college players - and I would be sending Chris Henderson with my list of targets. We had two picks, but instead of one in each round, we have the second and sixth overall selection thanks to some cunning trades in the run-up. As a result, my list didn’t have to be too long.

Unsurprisingly, New York Red Bulls took the man everybody wanted with the opening pick, but it left us wide open to take the next best option. Liam Avila would play third choice striker for the season and, due to his arriving as one of the earmarked, world-beating, not-at-all-overhyped Generation Adidas players, the league would be making a sizeable contribution to his salary. Choosing a striker with a leading draft pick seems clichéd, but we couldn’t want to let him get away.

Our second pick was a little more strategic, as we landed Californian goalkeeper Philip Johnstone. He would likely spend his first year as a Sounder warming the bench, but he had undoubted talent in a position which is often tough to pin down. By drafting a keeper, we ensured that in future years we would have either a very tradeable asset or an excellent pair of hands between the sticks. Either way, it was the best move for the club.

In the following days we also entered the Supplemental Draft, in which those not deemed good enough to be picked in the Superdraft made their bids in what is effectively a third and fourth (and in some cases fifth and sixth) round of the main event. Quite why they split the pack like this I could never understand, but American sports have never been the most logical to a Brit.

With no real pressure to do so, we threw a lifeline to Jon Ayres, a forward from Clearwater, Florida. He was under no illusions to his status within the squad, but I intended to deploy several attacking players on the field at once, and his versatility made him the ideal man to have on hand in case of injury, suspension, international call-up or all three. None of the media outlets seemed to rate our picks other than Avila, but I was happy with the work my scouting team had done. Very few of the potential draftees had slipped through their net, and none of them were picked up by our rivals.

Following the drafts, the hard trading truly began, and with Chris’ strong hand on the tiller, I made it through the days and weeks with a quiet confidence in the squad we were assembling. We did, however, upset the Sounders’ applecart by trading away not one but two of our designated players. Goalkeeper Jak Alnwick was good but not good enough for his pay packet, and when Columbus were willing to give us top-class striker Jon Shannon in return, we took them up on it.

The bigger deal was still to come, and only time would tell whether we or Los Angeles would come out on the right end. The grapevine informed us that the Galaxy had their eye on English playmaker Joe Rothwell, and we took them to town for him. In return, we picked up Javier Cardenas and Cheyne Robinson - both excellent depth options behind the striker and in the centre of midfield - as well as their first-round Superdraft picks in both 2024 and 2026. It was a move which allowed us to spread the wealth in the squad, add depth to the team, and free up both an international and designated player slot - even if the fans missed Rothwell, they would love his replacement.

Striding into his spot was Russian maestro Vladislav Klepikov, a 24-year-old gem of a playmaker and goalscorer snapped up for nothing from Rubin Kazan. He’d played under-21 football for his country, made several appearances in the Russian Premier League and European competition, and was a cut above Rothwell and everyone else in his position. If we could keep him healthy, he could take MLS by storm. I certainly hoped he would - at $65,000 per week he was now comfortably our best-paid player.

That left only defensive reinforcements to make - centre-back Jamie Cook arriving from Toronto in exchange for fellow defender Jon Brown and a small amount of petty cash, two unfulfilled prospects and a couple of Supplemental Draft picks to San Jose in exchange for the versatile and talented Nathan Rodriguez, and the free signing of former Chivas USA man Jack Burt to round off our backline. We had given up little and secured depth across the positions, and the only thing we have left to do now was register our squad for the season. A 30-man limit, salary cap, designated players, reserve list - it would prove to be a minefield, and without the expert hand of Chris Henderson to guide me through, I would have been completely lost.

[Guest]

Looks like a good pre-season, hopefully you can take out the MLS at the end of the year

[EvilDave]

 

Thanks AJ - something tells me this is a bit of a tougher gig than the previous two, but we'll see where things go...
--

“So who do we cut? Leonard? Miller? What about Burt? I know we’ve only just brought him in but we’ve got plenty of depth back there.”

“Owain, if you give me…”

“Chris, who do we get rid of? I know it’s my fault, but we’re over the cap and…”

“For heaven’s sake Owain, would you listen to me? We’re over the cap. By how much as it stands?”

“A couple of thousand each week.”

“Right, how much do we have left in the allocation fund?”

“The transfer kitty? Just over two million dollars.”

“Right, in that case you shift some of the allocation fund into the top end of the cap, and the cap rises. There, done.”

“We can do that? How much do we give up?”

“Yes, we can do that - how else do you think LA fit all their players in? I’m not sure exactly how much will come out, that’ll be down to MLS HQ, but that’s the system. Does that mean everybody’s in?”

“Chris, you’re a lifesaver. And yes, that’s a full house.”

My technical director had, in the space of just a few minutes, shown me the value of an experienced front office, and the squad list was fired off to the league headquarters several hours before the arbitrary midnight deadline. Seattle Sounders would have a full squad of 30 - a luxury I could never have imagined in Australia, and while there were a couple of spots I’d have liked more depth in, we had plenty of room to make things work.

In goal, Tom Johnson would start as the man in possession as the elder statesman at 23, with draftee Philip Johnstone riding the bench and Aaron Forest as third-choice should anything go wrong. We lacked a true star between the sticks, but it seemed strange to have previously be employing a designated player there.

On the right of defence, or more accurately at right wing-back as my planned formation required, Ben Ebert would start ahead of club vice-captain Mike Miller, at least to begin with. Ben’s extra pace gave him the nod, but I had little doubt that the older of the two men could fill in when needed. There would be plenty of rotation here.

On the left it was another matter. Chris Kelly was a decent footballer at 23 years of age, but Nathan Rodriguez was the undoubted lock for the position. Two more years of experience and vastly superior technical ability, he would be one of the first names on the teamsheet.

Central defence was a strong point, and with my planned 3-2-4-1 requiring plenty of bodies, we were blessed with ample talent. Club captain and much sought-after Andrew Perez would lead from the back, with Hunter Robinson and Jamie Cook his regular partners. Behind him was the aforementioned Jack Burt, while youngster Marco Bridges - at just 16 a prodigiously-talented player - and Lewis Davies gave us a complete second string should they be required.

The two central midfield slots would largely be occupied by new signings, given my choice. Julio Parra and Ollie Cosgriff were both happy box-to-box, holding the line or making the play, and I’d be using them in all three roles interchangeably. London Leonard, a former New York Red Bull, was more of a playmaking option, while new boy Cheyne Robinson added depth to the more defensive roles. In reserve, destroyer Kyle Miller and creator Peter Levey bolstered our numbers from the youth ranks.

That left the attacking players, and the two men behind the lone striker would, I hoped, be the source of many of our goals for the coming year. Klepikov was, if he played to his full ability, one of the finest players in the league, and with Cacau as a partner, they had the potential to wreak havoc. Behind them were Javier Cardenas and Jordan Cunningham, both 26 and capable backups, while Bryan Pacheco and Jordan Finch would be limited to travelling and learning unless crisis hit.

That left the lone strikers’ club, where Jon Shannon and Pedro Valdez would compete for the starting position - the American just about edging it for the opening day. New draftee Liam Avila would be third man in line, with two others youngsters - Jim Eckersley and Jon Ayres - picking up the pieces in the worst-case scenarios.

How did our squad compare to the rest of MLS? Quite frankly I had no idea, but I suspected it was better than the second-bottom finish of the previous season. Our pre-season friendlies yielded, as you might have expected, victories against the local amateur sides and narrow defeats to the three South American opponents, and served only to test out a new tactical approach. Still, as long as the owners saw progress and their money spent wisely, I could see satisfaction across the board. We just had to deliver on the field now.

[edtheguy]

Top notch stuff as always, I'm really looking forward to seeing how someone who knows what they're about handles MLS.  I'll be eagerly following, as usual!

Have fun in MLS - it's a change of pace from the same 'ol same 'ol for sure.

[CFuller]

I can't believe I haven't commented on here before, but I have definitely been following along. MLS is a very interesting league, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how you handle it, with all the extra rules and that.

Seattle Sounders supporters are among the loudest and most passionate in MLS, if I'm not mistaken. Don't let them down!

[EvilDave]

 

Thanks guys, it's good to know people are still reading after all this time! MLS is a new monster for Owain to grapple with, and it took me long enough to get my head around the rules! As for the Seattle fans, reading up on the history and culture was a big part of the move appealing - they seem like an actual club, unlike a few of their opponents!
--

The new MLS season kicked off in March, yet I’d been in Tukwila since the end of November and it felt like only five minutes had passed. Rachel had made a bid on the home we wanted, and with the help of the club’s legal team was in the process of completing the purchase - the legalities and various fees seemed like one more way of making you lose patience, but she had it covered - but in the meantime life in our temporary accommodation seemed to be going a several hundred miles per hour.

Both Bethan and Rebecca were beginning to settle in at the local school, and indeed Rachel and I were given the chance to meet their teachers very early open in their stay. Both women - it seemed almost all the teachers in Washington state were women if my staff’s conversations were anything to go by - seemed perfectly pleasant, although I’m not sure I wanted either of my girls growing up with the combination of accents they were headed for. A Welsh lint at home, hint of Aussie and now the addition the Pacific Northwest. I didn’t know what that would ultimately sound like, but I’m not sure it would be pleasant.

More importantly, however, they seemed to be getting on well. While Bethan had initially struggled a little with her reading, she was well on the way to matching her peers, while a few weeks shy of her sixth birthday Rebecca was leading her class in pretty much every field. At home it was our elder daughter who kept us busiest, but Rebecca’s quiet character had, very obviously, belied a racing and inquisitive mind that was hungry to learn. As parents I was hard for me and Rachel not to feel a sense of pride, but we promised each other not to pile on the pressure - she was, after all, not yet six.

But the biggest progress made by any of us was not either of our daughters, nor was it me getting to grips with MLS rules, but my wife and her future employment. After spending years in the recruitment business in Wales, setting herself up as her own boss in Adelaide, Rachel concluded that, with the move to the States would come a new phase in her life. With me pulling in tens of thousands of dollars each week and the girls both settling into their new surroundings, my wife decided that the time had come to go back to school.

For Rachel, that meant a half-hour drive north each day across Lake Union to the University of Washington, where at the age of 42 she would join plenty of up-and-coming twenty-somethings on their Global MBA course. Quite where it would take her she didn’t know, if indeed it took her anywhere - by the time she finished the course she’d by almost 45 - but she was excited by the challenge and the prospect of starting in September. Between now and then it would be preparatory reading and getting back into the student mindset, but she was very ready to take it on. Perhaps even more so than I was of my girls, I was immensely proud of my wife.

 

With all our goings-on finally beginning to settle, and the house purchase almost complete - ideally it would have been wrapped up before the great MLS kick-off - it was my turn to make a big move, as I headed south with Chris and the team for our opening league fixture, an away game with the big-spending Galaxy in Los Angeles. They had been one of the teams Dean had earmarked as a possible move for me, so to line up against them would provide a great indication of whether I had been wise or foolish.

Lining up in our new, largely untested 3-5-2 formation - only our mixed bag of friendlies against local sides and South American giants had seen us use it - everything about the occasion was going to be a new experience for me, and in that respect I was incredibly nervous. For the first time in my career, I had been entrusted with phenomenal resources. If it all went wrong, it would be my career and reputation on the line.

[EvilDave]

 

At the expanded StubHub Centre, we couldn’t have got off to a better start. The Galaxy lost possession from the kick-off, Cosgriff strode forward with purpose past a fairly half-hearted challenge from an opposing player, slipped to ball to Cacau and watched as our Brazilian forward buried a low drive from the edge of the penalty area.

What was even more remarkable about that passage of play four minutes into the match, was that it was the second time the Galaxy’s net bulged. Just seconds earlier we had won a corner on the right, a defender’s head had knocked it away only for Klepikov to meet the bouncing ball with a thunderous half-volley and send it crashing into the corner of the net. For all their well-paid stars, LA were crumbling.

The rest of the first half was a lot less eventful, but we began the second in excellent fashion as well. Just before the hour mark, Cacau dusted himself off after being fouled 25 yards from goal, and bent the set-piece beyond the reach of the goalkeeper to make it 3-0. The Galaxy were completely beaten, they didn’t know how to deal with out forwards’ interplay, and we had the run of Los Angeles out on the flanks.

Fifteen minutes from time we had a debut hat-trick. Shannon’s shot was parried past the post by the home goalkeeper, and with a fascinating blend of genius and good fortune, Cacau curled the dead ball over the head of the defender on the near post and into the net without a single other player touching the ball. Eight minutes later, Jordan Cunningham capped a fine cameo appearance from the bench by knocking home a rebound, and after round one of the new MLS season we were top of the table. A 5-0 win against one of the biggest teams in the land, and we were dreaming.

As if our trip to California couldn’t get any better, I was informed by one of my oft-checked news outlets that my old friend Brett McGregor had finally been brought to justice for his exploits over in Adelaide. The authorities had very much taken their time over things, but the indictment was damning - illegal gambling, illicit use of club funds, misuse of sponsorship monies and, something which thankfully did not materialise during my time in Australia, attempted match-fixing at Forfar. He was handed a life ban from football activity, and his criminal sentence would be announced in the days to come.

 

With a 5-0 win under my belt and my old boss languishing in an Australian holding cell, it was the ideal time to reflect on my good fortune in getting out when I did. With the Asian Champions League under my belt I had become a manager worth pursuing, and when Seattle entered the equation with their well-built club and seemingly endless resources, I had not really had to think about whether or not to make the move. Had I decided to ride it out in Adelaide, I might have risked being caught up in a match-fixing scandal, and having my reputation forever tarnished.

 

As it was, I found myself with an excellent job, a fine managerial reputation and the status of one who had helped bring a criminal to justice. My star was on the rise, and all I had to do was keep it heading in the same direction.

[EvilDave]

 

Six days later, we were back in Seattle for my home debut at the Amazon Arena, and what an experience it was playing in such a fantastic arena. The Sound Wave didn’t stop playing throughout the 90 minutes, the 47,500 fans were in fine voice at all times, and I was given a superb welcome when I stepped out of the tunnel for my first competitive game on home soil. It was a moment I would not forget - for the first time, it felt like I had made it as a manager.

Unfortunately, my players did not share my enthusiasm. San Jose Earthquakes were the visitors in a league clash that doubled up as the first Heritage Cup clash of the campaign - a largely meaningless competition that my employers were not at all concerned about - and they took all three points back with them down the West Coast. We held them for an hour of what was a stodgy midfield battle, but then Tony Lozano headed past Johnson and we couldn’t find a way back into things.

A week further on, we were on the receiving end of the same result at last season’s champions FC Dallas. The goal came a few minutes later courtesy of MLS top scorer Danny Gilstrap, and once again we found ourselves unable to break through a difficult defence. At this stage in the season I had to remind myself not to panic, but the five goals we had scored in LA looked like the exception rather than the rule. At neither Prestatyn nor Adelaide had my teams struggled for goals, and yet that was the problem we seemed to be facing.

Three more days, and we were starting to head towards crisis. Eight minutes into our tie at Real Salt Lake, striker Victor Gonzalez broke free to slot beyond Johnson, and again we failed to create anything in the way of clear-cut chances. A third successive 1-0 defeat meant our table-topping display of the opening day was already a distant memory, and the side that Sigi Schmid had struggled to get a performance out of was appearing despite several changes in personnel.

What made it worse, was that perhaps the most significant change of all - the arrival of Klepikov from Russia - was rendered irrelevant during that defeat in Utah. Midway through the second period, with us pushing hard in search of an equaliser, our designated player collapsed after leaping for a header, and it was immediately obvious that he would not be able to walk off, let alone continue. The diagnosis from the physio department was not good - a torn calf muscle - and we would be without our star man for a minimum of three months.

That meant that, with Julio Parra also ruled out for a few more weeks after an injury in pre-season, we would be playing without two of our five best players. Klepikov was the one that hurt - he was our highest earner, the man was who going to lift the Sounders up to the next level, and yet for half the season he would be forced to watch from the sideline, his involvement limited to rehabilitation and recuperation. With us already in a slump, it was the last thing I needed.

Three days more and I was in dangerous territory. Portland Timbers were in town, by far our biggest rivals, and this time we got on the scoreboard. Javier Cardenas netted our first goal in four matches on the half hour mark filling in for Klepikov, but by that point it was only an equaliser after Leigh Basham’s early opener. With 67,000 screaming fans in the Amazon Arena, the wall of noise which hit me at that moment was something I wanted to hear a lot more often, but it wouldn’t come during this particular match.

Instead, a stoney silence met us at the final whistle as the same Basham fired home three minutes before the end of the 90 to claim our three points in the first Cascadia Cup clash of the season. We were slipping alarmingly close to the bottom of the Western Conference, any pretence we might have had to the Supporters’ Shield had already vanished, and even the play-offs seemed like a pipedream.

Before our next clash, I was asked to attend a meeting with the owners. I was not at all hopeful.

[EvilDave]

 

“Thank you for coming today Owain, we appreciate your time,” began Erik Nordstrom, to this point by far the quietest of the ownership group in my brief time with the Sounders. “How do you feel things have been going?”

“Well, Mr Nordstrom…”

“Erik.”

“Sorry, Erik. I’m not particularly pleased with results. We started very well at LA, but since then we have struggled to create. Our defence has performed reasonably well - we have only conceded five goals in as many games - but one goal in four is unacceptable as we are trying to improve that.”

“Thank you,” came the response from Paul Allen. “Can you explain to us how you are planning to make changes?”

So, it didn’t take a genius to figure out from the question, they expected changes. I explained how, if the team failed to improve in our next match, I intended to change the formation to the Christmas Tree I had executed to such good effect in Adelaide. When asked why I hadn’t immediately opted for such a formation, I told them I thought the existing players were more suited to the wing-back system.

“Owain,” said Adrian Haneuer after a few more minutes of conversation, “we aren’t going to sack you five games into a contract, so please stop worrying. We aren’t expecting the MLS Cup this season, or indeed next. But what we are expecting is progress. You’ve told us you can deliver that, and that’s enough. What we need to know is when we can expect to see it.”

“Thank you for your clarity Adrian. I don’t know whether this group of players can make a sudden tactical switch without there being more lost matches, but in the next five matches I would expect us to pick up more than three points. It might only be four or five, but more than three. Again, the following five should be better still. Unfortunately, I can’t offer more than that, particularly with unknowns such as injuries.”

I held my breath, unsure of whether the piecemeal improvement I had offered would be enough to give me an extended stay of execution. I was not expecting to be sacked - Adrian had just given me that assurance - but I did wonder whether I’d be given a timeline.

“I can’t deny that we were hoping for something more, but your honesty is welcomed. As far as we are concerned, the first half-season is for you to make your mark on the team - get them playing your way, have them learn the system, even find a new system if you need to. If we are still at the wrong end of the conference at that point, we’ll be a lot more concerned. We expected a transition after so many years of Sigi, so don’t feel you need to produce miracles.

“Now, as far as we’re concerned that’s everything Owain, so you’re free to go. We won’t do this every month, you understand, but with you being new and things looking worrying, we needed to know how you would respond. Thank you for your time and your honesty.”

As much as I appreciated what sounded like their confidence, I only wished they had just sent an email.

[neilhoskins77]

This is a new situation for Owain, he's never been at the wrong end of the table before. The MLS is not an easy transition to make, but I've no doubts that once Owain and the new players are given time to settle, the Seattle board will soon see an upturn in fortunes. Great work as always Evil Dave, still very much enjoying this story. 

[EvilDave]

 

Thanks Neil - it's a bit strange seeing Owain at the wrong end of the table, turns out tactical innovation isn't always the way forward! In many ways it's actually nice to write something a little different, and MLS with all its quirks certainly provides that.
--

While Rachel continuing to read away in anticipation of her university enrolment and the two girls to settling nicely into life in their Tukwila school, I was beginning to feel the pressure. My Sounders were struggling, of that there was no doubt, and the expectation I had given myself after that 5-0 opening day thrashing of the Galaxy was being woefully missed. No point since, a defeat to our biggest rivals, injury to our best player - it seemed as if everything that could go wrong was doing - a far cry from just a few weeks ago.

With the MLS’ unusual conference system, we would not play every other side in the country the same number of times. Such were the quirks of the system that, just a couple of weeks since our last encounter, we would travel to San Jose to take on the Earthquakes for a second time already, and again we would find the net.

Again it was Javier Cardenas, and again it was ultimately meaningless. Chris Brown had fired the hosts ahead before our forward slid one in from the edge of the penalty area. Our leveller came just before the hour, but what happened next had me spitting feathers on the sideline with Jide. From the kick-off we missed not one but two tackle, lost a man in the box, and simply watched as their striker got free to head them back in front less than 90 seconds after the equaliser.

That made it 2-1, that was how things ended, and as I had promised the board it was time for a change. Out went the wing-backs and the 3-2-4-1, and in came the Christmas Tree set-up I had worked with in Adelaide. We would need it to work quickly if we were to placate the fans in our next game - a second home game with the Timbers of Portland.

Needless to say it didn’t work, and it had nothing to do with the tactical set-up. We were the dominant side for the opening 20 minutes, Portland even having to clear a shot off the line to deny Cacau the opener, but we were unable - even with the Sound Wave doing their level best to play the ball into the net - but what followed left us completely at the mercy of our rivals.

In came a cross from the Portland left, the forward met it with a header, and in his panic at seeing Johnson beaten, Ben Ebert made the ridiculous decision to punch the ball round the post for a corner. It would have been a fine save for a goalkeeper, but for a wing-back it was nonsensical. The referee had no choice but to issue the red card, Maxi Urrutia smashed home the penalty, and we had an hour to play with only 10 men.

In the end the Timbers hit the back of our net just once more, former Ajax man Roly Bonevacia burying a great effort from around 25 yards out. Our rivals got another one over us in the points table, pulling to the top of the Western Conference and leaving us above only a floundering LA side on goal difference, and my promise of more than three points in the next five games to the board was looking ill-advised - we had absolutely nothing from the first two, and my own demons were beginning to make themselves known once more.

[EvilDave]

 

Would the change of tactic work? Would the players respond well after the horror show against Portland? Had I made a mistake trading away our designated players? Should I still be looking for new talent? Could we take ourselves off the bottom of the conference?

They were the simple questions. The others, the nagging self-doubts, were still there. It was only April, and already I was mentally knocking myself down. Should I have made the move to Seattle? Were the MLS rules too much for me? Did I lack the tactical nouse to make it as a top level manager? Had I been found out by my peers? Should I find alternative employment?

Whilst I was left to grapple with my own issues, I had a family to look after. Rachel was very much enjoying not having to chase up clients on a daily basis, and was delving deeper and deeper into the murky world of business. Most of what she was reading in preparation for her course at the University of Washington sailed well over my head, but she was really taking hold of it and her pile of notes was growing by the day.

However, Bethan was not doing so well at school. This time, her problem were not academic - after her early wobbles she was firmly in the middle of the road in terms of grades - but socially, where her teachers told us she was often the most quiet and retiring of children at any point outside of the classroom.

That was a concern for us, because at home she was the liveliest, bounciest seven-year-old you could ever wish to meet, and often prevented younger sister Rebecca getting an word in. At first Rachel and I wondered whether we had somehow neglected our eldest in favour of her sister’s academic prowess, but in hindsight and with the benefit of hands-on experience it proved not to be the case. On the one hand we were relieved that it had nothing to do with parental favouritism - the very thought mortified us - but it did mean that we still had no idea what was wrong with our daughter.

Rachel was obviously in the best position to actually chat to Bethan by virtue of being around the house a great deal more often, but with her personality so different to that reported by her teachers, it was difficult even calming her down long enough to have the conversation. It was therefore decided that, on the rarer occasions I was in the home and our daughter wasn’t sleeping, I would try and coax something out of her.

“Bethan, is something the matter?”

Her big brown eyes gazed back at me as her head spun from her toys and the Lego she was very much enjoying constructing for them.

“No Daddy, why do you think so?”

“Well, a little bird told me you’ve been very quiet at school and I wondered if something was wrong.”

“Not really.”

“It’s just that it’s very hard to keep you quiet at home!”

That seemed to break down the nervousness Bethan was obviously feeling, and she opened up immediately.

“Well I don’t want to make any mistakes at school Daddy, it’s a lot harder there.”

Surely that wasn’t it? She’d settled down nicely in Tukwila, and was hitting all the right marks in class. However, she wasn’t finished.

“If I make a mistake, the girls make fun of me. So I try not to say the wrong thing.”

I was doubting my choice of career, my family was struggling to settle in a new city, and my oldest child was being bullied at school. Sometimes you wish for the simple life.

[EvilDave]

 

With all that going on, we travelled back down to Los Angeles to take on Chivas USA, a side which had survived a league buy-out and the threat of replacement by an expansion team to cement themselves as a side here for the long-run. I stuck to the 4-3-2-1 system, Jide gave the players their last-minute instructions, and I crossed all my digits in a desperate bid for all three points.

The hosts weren’t in particularly good form, but our recent efforts had been worse than dismal, and so when we made it through to the 20th minute without conceding a goal I gave a silent prayer of thanks. Chivas had the majority of possession, but for the first time in a while our defence looked secure and we even managed to get a couple of shots away ourselves. Of course, neither of our two main strikers, Shannon and Valdez, had netted all season, so the latter, starting his first game in three, did not find the target.

Cacau, however, had scored in previous matches - in fact between our Brazilian and Cardenas we had scored the majority of our goals. With a minute to go before half-time, the latter found himself chopped down on the edge of the penalty area, and our Samba star stepped up. Three shots steps back, the briefest of run-ups, and an absolute dream of a free-kick leathered into the top corner to give us the lead. The lead!

Perhaps more remarkably, we kept it. Chivas huffed and puffed and got absolutely nowhere, and the old Christmas Tree meant we had the extra numbers in midfield to suffocate anything they did try and create. We almost had a second when another Cacau free-kick bounced out off the woodwork, and when the whistle went at 90 minutes we had claimed the three points with the minimum of fuss.

We had two more matches in the next six days, and unfortunately we were unable to maintain our newfound goalscoring form. Both matches were at home, and even a near-capacity crowd for a Cascadia Cup clash with the Vancouver Whitecaps did not prevent an early Chris Gold strike sending the Canadians home with the points, before a dismal 0-0 with the Red Bulls saw us creep past the target I had set for ‘improvement’ with the board. Four points from five games, and we were talking about improvement.

However, the following week we travelled to LA and found ourselves undone by two goals in the final 10 minutes from Slovenian star Haris Vuckic, and the revival proved to be short-lived. I had reached the target, that wasn’t a problem, but I wondered whether a spot of tactical innovation wouldn’t go amiss if we were to run this thing around. I scheduled a meeting with Jide the following day, and we began to talk tactics.

[EvilDave]

 

“I know what you’re saying Jide, but we couldn’t keep the ball out when we played with three in the middle, what makes you think one will do it?”

“Well Boss, we did it at Minnesota and it worked - people didn’t know how to deal with it. Yes, you leave yourself a bit more open, but the options up front are incredible.”

 

My assistant had a point. Playing with two up front and three men behind was bound to create opportunities, of that there was no doubt. But at the same time - one central defender? Surely that was asking for trouble.

 

“Owain, if you don’t mind me asking - what have we got to lose here?”

 

It was another very valid point. The Jamaican had me interested, and we couldn’t get any worse using conventional tactics.

 

“Go on then, how does it work? What about the midfield?”

 

“I knew you’d like it Boss. Two men in front of our main guy - I assume Perez - and you tell one of them to drop back in when we lose the ball. I assume you watched Busquets at Barcelona?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Well, you play like that. It’s basically four at the back in defence, but forward you get the extra men.”

 

“I tell you what Jide, we’ll try it if we lose the next one. We’ll need five points from four if we do, will we get that?”

 

“Only one way to find out Boss.”

 

As it happened, we did lose the next game - sending Montreal Impact home with three points on the back of two first-half goals. We were about to try something very unusual, and my neck was on the block if it all went wrong.

[EvilDave]

 

Heaven knows what the Real Salt Lake coaching staff thought when we lined up at the Amazon Arena for our next match. Obviously we fielded a goalkeeper, but between our two full-backs was the lonely figure of Andrew Perez, our club captain isolated in the centre of defence. Ahead of him Cosgriff and Parra, and then a significant geographical space before the trio of Cardenas, Cunningham and Cacau, with both Shannon and Valdez ahead of them. It looked like we’d gone mad.

And yet we hadn’t. In theory, our formation left us with huge spaces either side of Perez, but in actual fact our two sitting midfielders kept slotting in alongside him and blocking any holes the visitors could find. From then on there was always a free pass to a team-mate, and only one of the three attacking midfielders needed to drop in to collect and launch an attack of our own. Bizarrely, it seemed to work.

 

It worked so well, as a matter of fact, that RSL seemed to run out of ideas. Their attacks slowed right down, their passing unimaginative. With moments to go before the interval, Cunningham picked off one such pass coming deep to get involved in the play, and immediately fed the run of Valdez breaking through. In came the challenge, firm but fair, but the ball spilled out of the penalty area to Cacau who casually stroked it into the bottom corner. With the craziest of formations, we had the lead.

 

What’s more, in the second half we extended our lead - a second goal! Not only a second goal, but a first for a striker as Jon Shannon broke through the Salt Lake defence, dummied a shot to fool the goalkeeper and then dinked a cool finish into the net. For someone in such poor form it was a very composed piece of play, and our 2-0 was unassailable. As Jide was very quick to remind me after the game, his ‘crazy’ formation had done the job.

 

In our next game, away at last season’s MLS Cup finalists Houston Dynamo, it did the job again. It didn’t just do the job, but our spell of firsts continued - the first time since the opening day we netted three goals, and the first time all season one of our strikers managed a brace - Shannon getting his second and third goals of the entire campaign and in two matches. Manuel de la Rosa’s consolation was nothing more, and we had back-to-back wins for the first time under my management. And all with my Jamaican assistant’s left-field tactics.

 

In many ways, it didn’t do anything to settle my doubts about my own managerial abilities - my ability to select and listen to an assistant was not in doubt - but what it did do was make sure we hit the progress target set for the benefit of the Sounders board, and jump us up a spot in the Western Conference. When the two conferences combined, we were as high up as 15th - although we had played more games than everyone else in MLS, and that almost registered as midtable. Almost.

 

Of course, there were plenty of things that could still do wrong, but for now we had just about managed to steady the ship. You could say many things about my Seattle Sounders side, but you could not accuse us of being boring.

[Black and Yellow]

This is a fantastic story. I read this one first before thinking to go and find the story of your time in Prestatyn - spent the morning reading that and I just want to say bravo! Love the variety of updates!

[EvilDave]

Thank you very much for your kind words @Black and Yellow, it's great to know you're reading and enjoying after all this time! There's plenty more of Owain's story still to come, so I hope it keeps you interested!
--

 

Having addressed Bethan’s school struggles with her teachers once again, they managed to solve them in a way I was not particularly keen on. Our eldest daughter had not been struggling for friends or for progress since our move to Seattle, but their response to the mockery that had come with her odd wrong answer - and therefore her decision to simply stay quiet - was to switch her into a new class.

Of course, at her age she took the move well, making new friends and spending plenty of time with her former classmates on the playground, but the idea sat a little uneasy with me. If one parent’s complaint can get Bethan effectively transferred, then what was stopping other parents making less grounded grumbles about particular pupils or even members of staff?

 

Of equal concern was my Sounders’ apparent inability to defend set plays. Our next match saw us travel across the border in another Cascadia Cup clash with the Whitecaps, and despite matching them blow for blow with Jide’s unorthodox formation, we wound up on the wrong end of a 2-0 scoreline. Midway through each period we conceded a corner, and then stood watching while Jorge Almaguer headed his first two goals of the season. We deserved a point, and got nothing.

 

One particular quirk of the MLS, and indeed American, sports system is that while there are always strong teams, it is actually quite difficult to get cut too far adrift. Despite a thoroughly miserable start to the season, an invaluable home win against Colorado - a poached effort from Valdez just after the break seeing us past the Rapids - meant that our accumulation of points was beginning to count. No longer were we stuck down on our own - our polarising form balanced itself favourably with other sides struggling for wins, and midtable seemed like a real possibility.

 

As ever, a great deal of that was down to forces outside of my control, and in particular Jide’s tactical revolution. I don’t know who had dreamed it up at Minnesota United all those years ago, but I’m sure they never imagined a $300m football club stealing their ideas. Of course, it helped that in Andrew Perez we had one of the league’s true defensive rocks standing between our opponents and our goalkeeper, but it was working wonders.

 

Another man keeping us alive in our quest for respectability was Cacau, our Brazilian maestro probably the stand-out player since his arrival in Washington state. A week after our win over the Rapids we hosted DC United, and despite going a first-half goal down, we did not panic. Instead, the response at the interval was cool and collected, and it was rightly rewarded when, just three minutes after the restart, Cacau won and converted a penalty to bring us level.

 

Needless to say he wasn’t quite done, and what followed in the next 15 minutes was a snapshot of why I was so confident his move to the States was destined for success. Three minutes after his penalty he sent a 25-yard free-kick glancing in off the left-hand upright, and 10 minutes later played a delightful nutmeg pass on a defender to let Jon Shannon in behind to give us breathing space. It finished 3-1, we kept on climbing, and somehow we were clawing ourselves out of our pit. A goalless stalemate at the home of the Columbus Crew a week later was another point on the board, and we were doing alright.

 

For the first time in a long time, I was happy with alright.

[Guest]

Looks like the Sounders could push for a MLS Cup spot at the end of the season 

[EvilDave]

Thanks AJ - although I think there's a bit more recovery to do before we think that far ahead...
--

“Jordi, can I ask a daft question?”

“Daft, Owain?”

 

“Daft - stupid, silly, pointless. You get the idea.”

 

“Sure, go ahead.”

 

“Who was Lamar Hunt?”

 

It was something I should have known, but then my knowledge of American sports was fairly limited before making the move. We had three days between our draw in Columbus and our next match - a domestic cup tie against Premier Development League side Reading United. We did not expect too many problems from an amateur club, however I was still intrigued by the name of the trophy we were playing for - the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.

 

“Well, you know the Crew you played yesterday?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“He owned them.”

 

“Oh.”

 

“And FC Dallas. And Kansas City. He started MLS as well, I think. Give me a minute.”

 

“Sounds like a busy man.”

 

“Oh yes. Named the Super Bowl, minority owner in the Chicago Bulls, Columbus Blue Jackets, he’s in the tennis hall of fame - if there was a sport going, Lamar Hunt bought into it.”

 

“So he was a money man then?”

 

“I don’t think so. It seems as though he cared about what he was doing, he was a sports fan through and through. Made a few enemies along the way, but it looks like everywhere he’s been, he’s been honoured - you don’t get that in America just by throwing your money around. Lamar Hunt led things, that’s why he’s got schools named for him”

 

“After him, you mean. It’s strange to name your cup after someone who wasn’t a player, but Hunt sounds like he’s earned it. We’ll have to do him justice over in Pennslyvania.”

 

“I don’t doubt it for an instant boss.”

[EvilDave]

 

It didn’t take us long to get going in Reading, with that man Cacau toe-poking us in front as early as the eighth minute. From then on it was all about letting the amateurs tire themselves out on the chase, and my rotated team did a fine job of doing just that. Right before the break, with the hosts already beginning to flag, Nathan Rodriguez popped up from left-back with a venomous low drive that found the bottom corner from 20 yards, and we were done.

Whether we had served the memory of Mr Hunt I do not know - I imagine his vision was for a brand of football a little more exciting than the game management we had demonstrated - but it didn’t matter, because we were in the hat for the next round. When the draw was made, we won a home tie with the excellently-named Wilmington Hammerheads of the United Soccer League - a pro team, but one we should be dealing with easily.

 

That clash would come on the back of what seemed like yet another trip to San Jose for a Heritage Cup game in the league. Only a few weeks ago I complained of my men’s inability to defend set-pieces, and again our Achilles heel haunted us. Back then it was Jorge Almaguer with a brace of headers from corner kicks - this time it was the Earthquakes’ Matt Andre, who bagged two in the first half to give us an uphill struggle we were never going to manage.

 

We had another quick turnaround to get home in time for the Hammerheads, who had enjoyed a break of some two weeks since their last outing - also in the cup. They were fresher, we were rotated, and that produced a far more even game than we - and the Sounders fans packed into the Starfire Complex - were expecting. Half an hour in, a long ball forward caught Hunter Robertson out of position at centre-back, and the visiting forward fired past Johnstone to silence the crowd.

 

Just 45 seconds later, we were level. Straight from kick-off we flooded forward, and the ball wound up at the feet of Cunningham 10 yards from goal - at least until he was upended by a Wilmington defender. Up stepped Cacau, and our top scorer made no mistake from the spot.

 

What that should have led to was a flurry of goals as the MLS side overwhelmed their lower-level opposition. Even my second-string Sounders with little rest should have had enough to contain the Hammerheads, but what actually played out on the field was a much more balanced affair. Johnstone, making his first start between the sticks, had just as much to do as his opposite number, and we looked nervous.

 

We looked nervous for the entire second half, but did not fail to create a few chances of our own. Jon Shannon was busy leading the line alongside young Liam Avila, and with 10 minutes to go had almost begun to celebrate before seeing his goalbound header bounce into play off the woodwork. A few minutes later and very much against the odds, the Hammerheads forced us to extra-time. When they took the lead again.

 

Fortunately, they couldn’t make it stick, and the old adage about being most vulnerable immediately after a goal proved true a second time. Cosgriff, on as a substitute, threaded a ball through for Shannon, and with the second period to come we were level again. Nothing came of it, and there was still nothing between our two teams. Penalties it was.

 

In somewhat bizarre circumstances - against a third-tier team in our second-choice stadium with a whole host of rotation players in the line-up - we pulled through. The first four men I chose to hit the mark did so with some aplomb, while Johnstone’s leaping save to deny Ricardo Aguilar gave us some daylight. We had shot first, meaning right-back Ben Ebert had the chance to put us into the last eight, and he did so with a cool side-foot finish.

 

We had dodged a bullet, of that there was no doubt, but were into the quarter-finals. However our run in his competition finished up, I had no question Lamar Hunt would have taken a great deal of pleasure from our last encounter. I just wished it had been less entertaining.

[EvilDave]

 

We rattled on quickly after our cup antics, travelling to Kansas City to take on the local heroes. Sporting were a team like us, recovering from a poor start and struggling for goals, and so it was perhaps no coincidence that the bookmakers’ odds on a high-scoring thriller were somewhat long. Even so, with Cacau in the side, we always posed a danger.

On this occasion however, it was not our Brazilian playmaker who did the damage, but the much less heralded Javier Cardenas. Starting the season as first reserve in the attacking midfield role and the propelled into the line-up by the injury to Klepikov, he had netted a few early on but was yet to come alive in the team. Nevertheless, his hard work was not unrecognised, and seven minutes from time he latched onto Parra’s reverse pass and slotted past the home goalkeeper to earn us three valuable points. He won Man of the Match plaudits for his performance, and it was no less than he deserved.

 

Cardenas was at it again the following week, when we returned home to the Amazon Arena to take on New England Revolution. This time his goal came 20 minutes after the interval, an instinctive poacher’s finish after Shannon’s initial shot was parried into his path by the goalkeeper, and for the second time in as many games he wheeled off towards the corner flag in celebration.

 

This time, however, were already in the lead and flying. Fellow attacker London Leonard was the man who got us up and running inside 10 minute, recycling the ball from a cleared corner and then finishing a lung-busting run into the box with a cool finish. The Revs levelled on the half hour, but shortly after the break we put ourselves back in front, Rodriguez nodding in Cacau’s free-kick from inside the six-yard after a flap from the keeper, and it was 2-1.

 

That was when Cardenas saw fit to make his intervention, and even then we were still not done. With the visitors coming forward in a desperate attempt to get themselves back in the game, we pounced. Cosgriff started the move with a fine interception on the edge of our own box, before laying a lead ball into the right channel for Ben Ebert to run down. Run it down he did, and three touches later he sent a skidding, curling cross low into the penalty area when Jon Shannon met it first time with his right foot to send it home. It was a goal of beautiful simplicity, we lead 4-1, and the Revs made the long trip back to Boston with their tails between their legs.

 

All of which meant we were in good form and high spirits as we flew cross-country to Georgia for our Open Cup clash with NASL outfit Atlanta Silverbacks. The home team were underdogs, but had already sent Chicago tumbling out of the competition in the previous round, so were not to be underestimated. Particularly when, eight minutes in, an unfortunate slip form Perez let Wes Bryan in to put the underdogs ahead.

 

The early goal meant Atlanta were able to dig themselves into a trench along their 18-yard line and hold out for the whistle, which is exactly the plan they employed. Time after time our attacks broke down at the final ball, a Silverback headed clear a dangerous cross, or Shannon somehow managed to shoot wide. It wasn’t to be our day.

 

That is, until the 74th minute, when Shannon succeeded in putting one on target and a cruel deflection sent it past the helpless goalkeeper. All of a sudden the home team had to come out, and as soon as they did we punished them. Just three minutes remained on the clock when Cacau lofted one over the top for substitute Liam Avila to chase, and after beating the defenders in a footrace it was easy enough for him to clip a deft finish over the onrushing keeper. We had left it late, almost too late, but we had done it. Just.

[EvilDave]

 

The win over the Revs ahead of our cup tie brought up 20 for the season in MLS, nudging us towards the business end of the season. The league’s unusual scheduling meant we were leading the league in games played, with some sides have three or even four matches to make up. Establishing who was where at any given time proved surprisingly difficult.

But the arrival of July also meant a mid-season review with Adrian Haneuer and his fellow owners, as promised after those first few games in which we sank like a stone to the foot of the Western Conference. They had told me they would give me a few months to figure things out, and this was the date they had chosen to see if we had improved.

 

“Take a seat Owain,” opened the main man. “And thank you for coming, we won’t keep you long.

 

“We’ve been chatting to Chris here, who obviously sees a lot of what you’re doing first-hand. Compared to where we were last time, the results are looking a lot better, and while we don’t expect to make the post-season there’s still an outside chance. Chris confirmed our suspicions that this was largely due to something of a tactical revolution, can you explain?”

 

“Well Adrian, I’m not sure I can take much credit for that. My assistant suggested we try something he once played in the lower leagues, and we’ve implemented that with the current players.”

 

“So it was Mr Ogunbiyi’s idea?”

 

“You could say that, yes. I don’t think I’d have dreamed of using one central defender, but in Andrew Perez we have an excellent man for the role. But yes, Jide suggested it.”

 

“Then you were a wise man to listen to him Owain - please do not downplay your own role. You’ve taught the players to run such a formation, and it is paying dividends. What would you say our play-off chances are at this stage?”

 

That was a tough question. We occupied a wildcard berth at present, but if any one of the three teams beneath us won their games in hand, we’d be quickly out of them.

 

“Honestly Adrian, I’m hopeful but not expectant. We’re in something of a false position at the moment due to league scheduling, and one area we have struggled this season is consistency. Without consistent results, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to secure a place.”

 

“Thank you for your honesty, that’s useful to know. In which case, I believe you have a question Paul?”

 

The Microsoft man seemed to wake up at the mention of his name, and in a soft tone began to address me.

 

“Yes, thank you Adrian. I wondered Owain, whether any of our players have been attracting any interest from elsewhere? You mentioned Perez earlier - I assume a man of his talents does not go unnoticed.”

 

“You’d be correct, although there have no formal approaches as of yet. There have also been scouts present to watch Mike Miller and Cacau, although again no official bids.”

 

“And would you consider letting go of any of them if the offer was good enough?”

 

“That’s difficult Paul. Obviously anything of that nature I’d have to discuss at length with Chris, but my inclination would be to reject any approach for Perez and Cacau out of hand. Miller is more difficult - he’s our vice-captain and a good player, but Ben Ebert is very capable and so we’d lose less by selling him.”

 

“Thank you Owain. Do keep Chris in the loop on these things, and be careful with your strongest assets. It can be difficult to replace a cornerstone of any building without causing serious damage - but I know MLS rules mean it is difficult to recruit without first selling.”

 

“Owain,” came Adrian’s voice again. “We’re satisfied with what you’re doing. Things have turned around, we’re in a respectable position, and it looks as if we have a platform to build on next season. If we make the post-season that would be wonderful, but your job does not hinge on it. Thank you for your hard work, and we’ll see you at the end of the season for a review.”

[EvilDave]

 

The first day of July was board meeting day, and the second was matchday - my natural environment. With the entire nation gearing up for Independence Day, there was a party atmosphere in the stands as we welcomed FC Dallas, with the Sound Wave playing non-stop throughout the 90 minutes. Rachel, Bethan and Rebecca took their seats in the directors’ box, and the music was far from the only entertainment.

Twenty minutes into the match, we took the lead thanks to a catastrophic piece of defending from last year’s MLS Cup winners. Their holding man won possession from Cardenas and laid the ball back to one of his defenders, who played a suicidal blind ball across his penalty area to a partner who simply wasn’t there. Scarcely able to believe his luck, Valdez took a touch to steady himself and a second to bury the ball in the back of the net, and we had the lead.

 

At roughly the same point in the second half, the same man doubled our advantage with a far less comical goal. Parra did the creative work 30 yards from the Dallas goal, bulldozing his way through a tackle before bisecting two defenders with a slide-rule pass, and there was his fellow Mexican to pass the ball into the bottom corner for 2-0.

 

That got the full house at the Arena going, and the defending champions looked to be out of ideas. That was, of course, until we conceded a stupid free-kick 30 yards from goal, and Les Dooley thumped an absolute screamer that flashed into the top corner before Johnson even had chance to move. All of a sudden it was 2-1, and with seven minutes to go, we had a game on our hands.

 

But Valdez was not done, and there was still time for him to hit his hat-trick to the delight of the Sound Wave and my family watching on. It was his first in a Sounders shirt, completed with a sliding finish at the back post, and with three minutes to go sealed the three points on our behalf. Of course, there was still time for Dallas to net a second consolation in jury time, but by then it really was all over, and the 60,000 or so crammed into the Amazon Arena could leave for their Fourth of July celebrations in high spirits.

 

That included the Williams clan, who very much enjoyed their first such celebration on American soil. The fireworks delighted Bethan and Rebecca, who had seen nothing on that scale in either Prestatyn or Adelaide, while Rachel and I enjoyed having a couple of days to ourselves. When my wife started her course in the new academic year, it may well be two of us plus her books, but that was simply something I was going to have to learn to live with. After all, if she very rarely got much time with me minus the mental baggage of the Sounders.

[EvilDave]

 

“Darling,” came Rachel’s voice from next to me on the sofa. The previous day my Sounders had made it back-to-back wins with a 3-1 victory against the Vancouver Whitecaps courtesy of a Valdez brace, and so my wife knew she was asking questions at a good time. “You’re signed here for two years, right? Well, what happens next?”

On the face of it, it seemed far too early in our stay to be thinking about the next move, but as ever, my wife was right to ask the question. I was indeed contracted for two seasons, the first of which was approaching its end, and then Haneuer, Allen and Nordstrom would have a decision to make - as would I.

 

“Well it’s not really down to me darling - if the club don’t want me, they’ll let me go.”

 

“I know that silly, but what if they do want you. Do you want to stay here?”

 

Rachel was pushing for an answer, so I guessed something was troubling her. Without wanting to push back too hard, I tried my best to stay reasonably neutral.

 

“I think so. I mean, Tukwila is a nice place, I’m enjoying working with the club, and they’re doing alright. Of course, a lot of it depends on other things - if we’re going backwards I might not want to stay. But it isn’t just up to me any more, is it? You’ll be doing your MBA, and I don’t know how many more times we can move the girls.”

 

“That’s kind of what I’m getting at darling.” Rachel’s voice was soft but hesitant, as if she was worried about what she was saying. “We’re in our 40s now, the girls are growing up, and well, I don’t know how much more I want to move.

 

“I like Tukwila, and I like Seattle. Rebecca is loving life at school, she’s got plenty of friends, and Bethan is flourishing after moving class. But look at us Owain - it won’t be long before we’re 50, and how many friends do we have? We left everything behind in Prestatyn, and the only people we really got to know in Adelaide were Francesco and Maria. Now I’m not working it can get awfully lonely, but I’m going to meet people studying. If we move again - it sets it all back to nothing.”

 

There was a short, poignant silence as, for the first time my wife let slip that, beneath the surface, all was not well with her. She had sacrificed so much for my career, and financially there was no doubt it had paid off, but emotionally it was beginning to take its toll. I tried to utter some consolation, but the words wouldn’t come.

 

Instead, Rachel leant over from her side of the sofa, placing her head on my chest. Instinctively I pulled her closer with her right arm, softly stroking her silky brown hair with my left hand. For a moment, we simply sat in silence, the faint traffic outside providing the night’s only interference.

 

“Rachel?”

 

“Yes darling?”

 

“I love you. I might not have the words right now, but I needed to hear what you told me. I don’t have the answers, but I don’t want you ever to feel like I’m dragging you around. You, Bethan, Rebecca - you’re what’s important now, not my career. If I need to, I’ll walk away right now - we’ve got the money to do it. I’d be bored, you’d soon get sick of me, but I’d do it.”

 

With that, my wife sat up again, a combination of smile and silent tears adorning her face.

 

“Owain Williams, you daft old man, I don’t need you to quit your job to sit around and be my friend. I just need you to know where I’m at, and I’m sorry I haven’t told you before now. We’re a team, you know? I’m just trying to play my part.”

 

“You play it brilliantly my love, don’t you worry. I’m sorry I haven’t given you the time just lately - I’ll try not to fly solo too much.”

 

There was little else to say, and Rachel’s head rested on my shoulder. Wordlessly, I reached down to hold her hand in mine. Together, we listened, thought and mulled over what had just been said. Together.

[EvilDave]

 

To describe our next two matches as frustrating would be an understatement of some proportions. First we hosted FC Dallas, and for the third time this season, we were undone by a simple inability to defend corner kicks. Twice we took the lead - Valdez maintaining his good run of form and Cacau getting in on the act - and yet twice we allowed David Andre all the time and space in Seattle to head in from set plays. If looks could kill, my defence would be missing a lot of bodies after that showing.

Then came the trip to Portland, who we musn’t have played for at least three weeks. For 90 minutes we pushed the Timbers further and further back into their own half, controlling possession and creating chance after chance. Finally, in the 89th minute, we finally made one count, and from the unlikeliest of sources. Klepikov, finally returning to the side after his injury problems, rolled a pass sideways for Mike Miller to hit, and our vice-captain’s right-foot rocket found the back of the net from all of 30 yards.

 

The only problem, of course, was that Portland had, with their only two shots of the entire match, already scored twice. The first came from yes, a set-piece, just before the break, and the second came seven minutes from time when a perfectly-timed sliding tackle from Perez proved an inch-perfect pass for Luke Moore to tuck beyond Johnson. We’d been well and truly robbed, and the home fans knew it. It made their taunts all the more painful to endure.

 

The one plus point was that, even in defeat, we were still scoring goals, and Jon Shannon did exactly that after just four minutes into our next game, an away day at Real Salt Lake. However, if we thought we in for an easy day we were quickly made to think again, as flying Italian winger Frederico Cossu ensured that we would go in at the break trailing our hosts, a quick-fire brace from the pacy wideman giving us plenty of work to do.

 

But work we did, and that began with a crunching tackle from Nathan Rodriguez on Real’s first foray forward after the restart that left Cossu unable to play on. It was hard but fair, and caused the winger no damage beyond a bruise or two - a truly excellent outcome from our point of view.

 

With their talisman gone, Real struggled to impose themselves as they had in the first period, and it was only a matter of time before our equaliser came. When it did, it was a familiar face that did the job in Pedro Valdez, our in-form hitman beating the goalkeeper low to the near post with a stabbed finish to draw us level. Ten minutes later, he combined again with Cacau and Klepikov to find space inside the penalty area, and his spinning half-volley left the keeper with no chance. From 2-1 down to 3-2 up, we were in cruise control and Real had no way back. Three more points for us, and a great show of strength from a precarious position.

[Archkangel]

Sweet! So what's your position in the table?

[EvilDave]

21 hours ago, Archkangel said:

Sweet! So what's your position in the table?

Thanks Archkangel! I'm actually significantly ahead in the game now, but I'm pretty sure at this point we were hovering around the wildcard spot in the Western Conference - much better than we started, but still not brilliant for a team of Seattle's resources.
---

 

 

“Owain, have you got a minute? I’ve got the Revs’ GM on the line.”

 

“Sure Chris, who do they want?”

 

Chris Henderson hadn’t been massively busy as a trade negotiator during the season thanks to my preference to have things wrapped up before the season began - call it my European upbringing - but being approached was another matter.

 

“Jamie Cook, and for $2m, which I thought might be of interest to you - I’ve haggled up from $1.4m. They aren’t offering any players, but they’re willing to talk draft picks.”

 

“Decent picks?”

 

Jamie had been one of the players I’d signed in preparation for playing 3-5-2, but with the current system only requiring one central defender as opposed to three, he was very much surplus to requirements. I was happy to part with him, and if we could take cash and draft picks from New England - well, I’d be delighted.

 

“They’re offering a first round pick in 2025 if that interests you at all?”

 

“I tell you what Chris, let’s see how badly they want him. Tell him we’ll take their ‘25 pick and next year’s, see what they’re made of.”

 

“Will do boss, give me 10 minutes.”

 

My front office manager disappeared back into his office and emerged five minutes later with a smile on his face.

 

“Well?”

 

“Done. They’ll do their first round picks for 24 and 25.”

 

“Do it. Don’t tell him I’ve told you, but he’s not worth $2m, let alone the picks. Thanks Chris, remind me not to try and buy anything from you in the future.”

 

“No problem Owain, thanks for your time. We’ll have to do more business with the Revs in future.”

 

[EvilDave]

 

Before our next match - a match which would, in all likelihood define our season - we parted company with another one of our players. Mike Miller had been attracting interested from France, Holland and the Middle East for the best part of three months, but it was Israeli club Maccabi Haifa that first came in for our vice-captain.

Their bid was substantial at $3m, so I chatted it through with Mike after training. I told him straight up what my position - that the club didn’t need the money, but wouldn’t stand in his way if he wanted to leave. He, in turn, hid nothing from me. Maccabi were not his first choice of club, but the opportunity to play Europa League football and test himself on a bigger stage was something he wanted to take up. We shook hands and parted on good terms, before quickly getting on with other business. Later that evening, I call Jon Shannon and asked him if he’d be happy to step as as vice-captain for the rest of the season. He was, of course, thrilled to be asked.

 

But it wasn’t all departures, as we made our first signing for many a month, hitting our limit on overseas purchases in the process. Chris had been hard at work with my scouting team, and on his travels Kasey Keller had turned up a gem in France. Nicolas Gauthier was just 18 years of age and a fine holding midfielder, but for some reason was deemed not good enough for current club Marseille. As a result, he was happy to agree terms with us, and would join the squad after our Open Cup semi-final.

 

That semi-final would be held at our Starfire Complex against DC United, who would make the lengthy trip from one Washington to the other to compete a place in the showpiece final. I questioned the decision to host the tie at our secondary stadium given the expected demand for tickets, and was vindicated when we packed our training base to capacity. When Pedro Valdez fired us in front after just a quarter of an hour, that capacity crowd felt as loud as anything we’d mustered at the Amazon, and we were on our way to the final.

 

We would have been, too, had Filip Malbasic not decided to show off his considerable talents. Right on the half hour mark he skinned both Ebert and Perez as he weaved his way off the right wing into our penalty area, and then bent a shot which set off outside the far post and curled back in to nestle beyond the dive of Johnson. Fifteen minutes later, with the referee’s whistle in his mouth to blow for half-time, the young Serb used his left foot as a pitching wedge to chip our young keeper from the edge of the box, and all of a sudden we trailed.

 

We were not dead, and Malbasic was not perfect, and when presented with the chance for a hat-trick he uncharacteristically skied his shot when unmarked. Knowing that we had to do something to turn things around, we pushed forward, and both Cacau and Valdez saw shots deflected agonisingly wide of the goal as we went for the equaliser. Then, with 15 minutes left to play, new vice-captain Shannon shrugged off one tackle and fired low between the legs of a side, the DC keeper unsighted by the challenge and unable to stop the ball rolling past him.

 

With a quarter of an hour to play, we needed calm heads and cool execution if we were either to get a winning goal or move into extra time as favourites. In the likes of Perez, Cosgriff, Cacau and my two strikers, we had the personnel to make it happen. I just had to trust their temperament.

 

What I couldn’t trust, of course, was my team’s defending at corners. Three minutes remained when Johnson palmed a shot behind, and then watched as Danny Courtwright was given the freedom of Tukwila to run, jump and power a header in at the near post. The players on the field slumped to their haunches in devastation, whereas I was just angry. In a predictable moment of incompetency, our season went up in smoke.

[Black and Yellow]

That's frustrating!

[EvilDave]

On 11/21/2016 at 08:50, Black and Yellow said:

That's frustrating!

Frustrating is right - Owain seems to have struggled with corners since his Prestatyn days! Thanks for reading along!
--

 

From that point - that point when our hopes of lifting Lamar Hunt’s trophy to compensate for a mediocre league campaign disappeared into the Tukwila air - our season simply fizzled out. In our very next match, hosting Chicago Fire, we did well to twice come from behind to earn a  2-2 draw through Valdez, but a 3-2 reverse against conference leaders LA in our next outing - courtesy of an 89th minute winner from Golden Boot contender Homero Cano - put an end to any faint hopes we had of reaching the end of season play-offs.

We would pick three more points up in our next outing, again at home, this time against rock-bottom Chivas USA thanks to an early goal from Klepikov, but from then on we simply coasted to the finish line. Three consecutive away games saw three consecutive defeats - 2-1 at Eastern Conference leader Philadelphia, 4-2 in Colorado and 2-1 at the hands of Toronto - and our play-off aspirations disappear, and from then on it was all about getting to the end of the campaign in one piece. In the week that followed, Rachel began her studies up north in the city, and although work was hard, interaction with the other students had an undoubtedly positive effect.

 

We then watched on as our conquerors DC United needed penalties to beat New England - the same side we so convincingly steamrollered in our last league encounter - to win the Open Cup final, and were left to wonder what might have been. The owners did not consider the competition massively important, at least not compared to MLS, but I had secretly been targeting it as a route into the Champions League. It would have to wait until next year.

 

That left us with two matches in three days at the start of October to wrap up our campaign, the first of which would be another home game against Chivas USA. We had beaten them 1-0 at the Amazon just a few weeks ago, and this time we would go through several more gears, Klepikov and Rodriguez adding to Shannon’s brace for a comprehensive 4-0 win. These things are much easier when the pressure is off.

 

Our final game was on the road in Colorado, where a solitary goal from Pedro Valdez ensured we would finish our campaign with a victory. The Rapids had already secured a play-off berth in their conference, whereas we would have to wait and see where we wound up in the West. We held a wildcard spot, but we had also finished our fixtures a full fortnight before everyone else, and needed at least one side to lose their remaining four matches to hold onto the position. Unless Vancouver collapsed, we would have a lengthy off-season.

 

As it happened, and as Rachel and I enjoyed a few days to ourselves - well, joined by her books - with the players given the time off, we would not hold on to our unlikely position. Of the nine sides in the Western Conference, we would finish in 7th place, a single point behind our rivals from Portland and five points shy of the wildcard spots. For a club of Seattle’s resources, it was nothing to be celebrated.

 

On the other hand, our 46 points was the most accrued by a Sounders team since the club lifted the conference title five years ago, and our 11th place in the Supporters’ Shield table - a table topped by the same LA Galaxy side we thumped 5-0 on the opening day -was another improvement. We were not helped, of course, by being in the stronger of the two divisions - our points tally would have been enough for 4th place in the East.

 

All of this was reasonable consolation for my first season in the States, and would no doubt be to my credit in the eyes of the team’s ownership. My final task before the post-season draft flurry, would be to review the year with my employers, and then link up with Chris to talk transfers. Before then, I had three weeks with Rachel all to myself and her studies. Which, given what she had told me in the not-too-distant past, was no bad thing.

[EvilDave]

 

“So then Owain, how do you think things have gone?”

Adrian Haneuer’s familiar voice opened my end-of-year review with a smile to boot, and so I felt on comfortable ground. For all my own concerns, it hadn’t been a bad year for the rebuilding Sounders.

 

“Well, it’s been a bit of everything really. It’s the first year since I took over at Prestatyn that I haven’t been in a title battle, so it’s been a little strange to get used to.

 

“However, I think we can happy without being satisfied. You asked me for progress, to put a gap between Seattle and the bottom of the table, and we’ve done that - 11th is about as midtable as you can get if you follow the Shield standings. I believe I’ve strengthened the squad, we put in a good run in the Open Cup - something I’m disappointed we didn’t win - and I’m hopeful we can build on it for next year.

 

“On the other hand, I’m concerned by our inconsistency, about the time it took to find a working tactic, and about the size of the squad. I’ve had to transfer allocation funds to salary cap on a couple of occasions, and we’ve too many players on the books who aren’t in the first team squad. Of course, it’s a lot harder to move players on without also paying their salary here in MLS, but it’s something I’m keen to work with.”

 

“Thank you Owain. You’ve mentioned inconsistency - is there anything you can think of that might solve this?”

 

“Well, my suspicion is that a more conventional tactic would help. We’re still using Jide’s unorthodox 3-2-3-2, and while it has worked better than I expected it to, it isn’t something the players are all that comfortable with. I’d like to have it there as an option, but finding a more conventional formation might do the trick. What’s more, if we could defend corner kicks, we might be in the play-offs.”

 

“Thank you, that’s helpful to know. Paul?”

 

“Yes, thank you Adrian. Owain, have you and Chris identified any targets for trades?”

 

“Chris and I will be getting our heads together shortly to identify targets, but at the moment we are focusing on the upcoming drafts. Everybody focuses on the SuperDraft and the college players, but there are expiring contracts across America and if we can either get in there first or pick up at Re-Entry, we could make some real improvements for very little outlay.”

 

“I like your thinking Owain, very good. Are there any positions you’d like to strengthen?”

 

“Right-back is a priority - behind Ben Ebert I’m drawing on teenagers - and we could possibly do with a better goalkeeper. Johnson has done well, but he’s young and makes mistakes. Beyond that, we may need another centre-back if we move to a conventional formation, and I’m looking to see if there are any forwards to add to the rotation.”

 

“But you’re looking to trim the squad?”

 

“Yes, it doesn’t sound like it does it? You’re right though - we mustn’t get carried away because otherwise we’ll end up releasing new signings, and that won’t do.”

 

“Thank you Owain. Anything to add, Erik?”

 

“One or two questions if you don’t mind - firstly Owain, you made the maximum number of discovery signings this season, do you anticipate doing the same in the coming year? Where are the scouts?”

 

“A good question Erik, thank you. As things stand, we have five foreign players at the club, Klepikov, Cacau, Valdez, Parra and now Gauthier. League rules state we can only have nine, so it’s unlikely we’ll be using all our discovery signings again. However, bringing in players from overseas is often easier than negotiating with MLS rivals, so we are looking - the team is out in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Scandinavia, France and Germany at the moment, with two men travelling round Europe.”

 

“Very good, thank you. Finally, do you have any suggestions for us as to how the club might be improved?”

 

That was not a question I had been expecting - this was not a job interview after all. Nevertheless, I had an answer.

 

“If we’re playing MLS opposition, move the Open Cup games back to the Amazon. It makes no sense packing them into Starfire if the tickets will sell, and while the atmosphere is great there it could be better at the Arena.”

 

Erik and Adrian looked at each with a knowing smile, and the main man took over once again.

 

“Thank you Owain, thank you for your time and your answers. For the coming season, our demands are the same as before - improvement. Ideally we would like a play-off position, but as long as we improve on 7th in the conference we will be satisfied. We do not expect miracles, just progress. Any questions?”

 

“No Adrian, thank you.”

 

“In that case, meeting closed. Enjoy some time with your wife before the drafts, for your own sake.”