2. Dean Smith, Charlotte FC
Born: 19 March 1971
Place of Birth: West Bromwich, England
Previous Teams: Wallsall 2011-2015, Brentford 2015-2018, Aston Villa 2018-2021, Norwich City 2021-2022, Leicester City 2023
Coaching Staff: Miles Joseph (Associate Head Coach) Pa-Modou Kah (Assistant Coach) Christian Fuchs (Assistant Coach) Aron Hyde (Head of Goalkeeping) Rohan Sachdev (Head Video Coach) Kyle Emerick (Performance Analyst)
North Carolina is known for their coaches being named Dean Smith, although the new man in Charlotte is a former English Premier League manager, not a college basketball coach. Smith Arrives in North Carolina after a bumpy career in various levels of the English Football pyramid, eager to embark on a new project in Major League Soccer. An added perk to the job in Charlotte is that he will be substantially closer to his son Jamie, who is a footballer for USL League One side, Greenville Triumph.
Tactically, Smith is considered to be more of a traditional English Football coach. He favors the classic 4-3-3 system, which much to Charlotte supporters dismay is the same system favored by former manager, Christian Lattanzio. At the end of match day 4, Charlotte FC sees themself 10th place in the eastern conference, with 4 out of a possible 12 points and a record of 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses.
I think that Smith is well aware of the circumstances in Charlotte, with himself being the third manager of the club in three seasons, so the pressure of producing results is weighing heavily on the minds of Smith and his technical staff in Charlotte.
The 2023-2024 offseason saw the departure of prolific Charlotte FC forward, Karol Swiderski, to a loan to Serie A side, Hellas Veronas.
I believe that Dean Smith is the right man for the Charlotte FC job because he brings a new energy to the Queen City that simply wasn’t present during the tenures of previous managers Miguel Angel Ramirez and Christian Lattanzio. When Smith was announced as manager of Charlotte, he became the driving force behind the change we have seen. One of the main focal points of the preseason coverage for the club this year has been how this year was going to be different for the team in the queen city. Smith is certainly approaching this job with the mindset of him coming in and succeeding. I’m very excited to see what he change he continues to make in Charlotte. I do think it will take time, but he will make change.
Stay tuned to see who manager number 1 is!