Eric Ramsay is convinced that his decision to take over as head coach of Major League Soccer rather than the Championship will benefit his overall development.
The 33-year-old Welshman joins Minnesota United for his first full season on Saturday against LAFC, having joined the team in March of last year before leading them to the play-offs, where they were defeated by eventual Western Conference champions LA Galaxy.
Ramsay will become the 17th Major League Soccer boss out of a possible 29 if he is allowed to rule the first month of the new campaign.
By contrast, of the 18 Championship managers who started last season at clubs who are still in the second tier, only two, Leeds and Middlesbrough, still have the same man in charge.
Ramsay chose the USA despite the grim statistics, moving up after serving as a youth coach at Chelsea before joining Manchester United’s first-team setup.
Ramsay told BBC Sport, “I am aware that I am not by any means the finished article as head coach.”
“I wanted to have the best chance to develop, the opportunity to make mistakes, and the opportunity to lead something that feels big,” I said.
“MLS seems to be subject to scrutiny. There is coverage of media. You are subject to pressure, though not in the same way as England.
“The Championship would have been equally as testing, if not more so, but with that constant nagging doubt, looking objectively, that there is a much shorter life-cycle for guys who go into that league. Overall, this was a fairly wise choice.
Ramsay is, by some distance, the youngest coach in MLS.
He is following a trend of clubs trusting youthful bosses, including 31-year-old Fabian Hurzeler at Brighton and 32-year-old Will Still, who is in charge at Ligue 1 side Lens.
After earning a degree in sports science and management, Ramsay decided to pursue a coaching career.
Before joining Chelsea in 2019, he moved on to Manchester United, first as player development coach under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in 2021. He previously worked at Swansea and Shrewsbury.
“It seemed only natural for me to pursue this opportunity,” Ramsay said.
The “Coaching world is closed to British coaches” is true.
Ramsay feels that his coaching career will open doors that, if he had stayed in England, might not have previously been open as a result of his decision.
“The coaching world has not been open for British coaches”, he said. If you lost your first or second job coaching in the Championship, you wouldn’t have to travel across the continent to find your next job, “feel free to ask.” It is not a well-trodden path.
“Sometimes, the coaches who reach the top level in England are those who have traveled extensively.” Because there are more positions available, their status is safer. It seems a little more secluded. When I visited the MLS, I thought about that.
It stirs up a lot of debate and is a really interesting one. I genuinely believe England’s coaching is very high.
There are “maybe some more trodden paths to other places than there are from the Championship,” one commentator said.
Although he has moved 4, 000 miles away, he still keeps a close eye on events at Old Trafford.
Erik ten Hag has been sacked since he left but the club’s fortunes are yet to improve as, after a below-par eighth-place finish last season, they have fallen further down the table.
” The Manchester United situation is incredibly complex, “Ramsay said.
If you factor in Michael Carrick, I can only recite what I learned from my interactions with three or four coaches. In a Premier League that is ever more competitive, you do have a lot of very good people who are doing their absolute best to re-start the club.
“You’re talking about eight or ten teams who can leave an incredible impression on the top three or four, not just the traditional top four.”
Without taking into account all that Manchester United have gone through in terms of change and transition in leadership, it has become far more challenging than it ever was.
Related topics
- United States Major League Soccer
- Football
Source: BBC
Leave a Reply