One year after MLS Cup glory, Gary Smith is looking for a new job

Since taking control of Arsenal, Stan Kroenke has had nothing but praise for the club’s manager Arsène Wenger, despite spells of less than impressive form.

In a rare interview with the British press earlier this year he described the Frenchman as “one of the game’s greats”, indicating that he had no intention of getting trigger-happy as has been the case with a number of his Premier League peers.

However, things are not quite as harmonious at Kroenke’s other club, the Colorado Rapids, where head coach Gary Smith has found himself looking for a new job despite bringing in more silverware than his counterpart in London during his 45-month tenure.

A week is regarded as a long time in soccer, and by that token a year is nigh on an eternity, but nevertheless one would not have expected Smith’s position would be under threat considering last season’s achievements.

Just 12 months ago the Englishman was preparing his Rapids side for the MLS Cup showdown against FC Dallas at Toronto’s BMO Field after sneaking into the seventh of eight playoff spots in the twilight of the campaign. Victories over Columbus Crew (on penalties) and San Jose Earthquakes (via a rare Kosuke Kimura goal) gave them a place in the final.

George John’s unfortunate own goal gifted Colorado victory and won Smith the first trophy of his career, and this season things seemed to be going as well as could be expected on the pitch.

Despite a number of injuries and the drastic loss of goalscoring form suffered by last season’s top marksman Omar Cummings, Smith’s side upped their points tally to 49 from last season’s 46 (albeit from four extra games) and improved their overall standing to sixth out of 18 teams, compared to seventh from the 16 who competed in 2010.

They even edged past Columbus once again in the play-in round of the postseason schedule, before injuries took their toll and a depleted side were no match for a full-strength Sporting Kansas City outfit. It was probably the most that anyone at the club could have expected.

If Smith’s departure was down to on-field matters then many would justifiably be up-in-arms over the decision, however, there is far more to it than that.

Unlike Wenger, who has had transfer fees available at every opportunity and been allowed to reinvest funds from the departure of key players in the close-season, Smith has not been afforded the same luxury.

Already effectively shorn of a first-team option due to the cruciate ligament injury sustained by Mac Kandji in last year’s MLS Cup Final, one look at the remainder of the roster for this season gives some idea of the threadbare nature of the squad.

Aside from Tyrone Marshall, none of the new additions have made more than 20 starts in the maroon and white and only two – Sanna Nyassi and Caleb Folan – have started more than 10.

It was almost certainly because of this that the impact of injuries was felt so dearly in the playoffs. The loss of Conor Casey – itself a major blow – was exacerbated when his back-up Folan sprained both ankle and knee following a heavy fall in the first leg of the Eastern Conference semi-final against Sporting Kansas City.

That there even was a like-for-like replacement is more than can be said of the cruciate injury suffered by Jamie Smith one game earlier against Columbus: while Wells Thompson is a hard worker and has big-game experience from the 2010 final, Smith’s absence alone forced the team into a different approach with his dead-ball precision and eye-of-the-needle passing removed from their arsenal.

Finally there is the defence, where a solid first-choice back-line was left horribly exposed once the regular partnership of Marvell Wynne and Drew Moor was broken up, with a red card to over-exerted replacement Marshall adding to the misery. The added absence of sometime defensive shield and regular heartbeat of the midfield Pablo Mastroeni was the salt in an already heavily-infected wound.

The second leg in Kansas City saw a back-line of one regular starter in Wynne, alongside a midfielder (Thompson) at right-back, a full-back (Scott Palguta) in the centre, and a left-back with only four regular-season starts in Miguel Comminges. You can guess the outcome.

Perhaps thinking last year’s success granted him at least some licence to voice his concerns, Smith has been publicly outspoken about the lack of investment in the squad.

Tensions with technical director Paul Bravo and general manager Jeff Plush clearly got to the Englishman, with transfer targets seemingly ignored and the balance of power resting unfairly with those behind the scenes if Smith is to be believed.

It seems that Smith has suffered where Wenger has benefited, namely in the sense that club owners often pull the strings in a far more hands-on manner in the European game. The vocal backing of Kroenke, even more extreme than that which Arsenal’s manager has received, may itself have been insufficient.

To their credit, however, the Rapids’ upper management are not wasting any time in their pursuit of Smith’s replacement. Primary target (and without doubt ideal candidate) John Spencer – a hero for his time in Colorado – seems unlikely to be allowed to leave the Portland Timbers after an impressive managerial debut, but the signs are there that a new man will be appointed sooner rather than later.

Whether that new man achieves glory as quickly as Smith remains to be seen, however, and it will be interesting to see if whoever comes in is permitted to grow the squad as they – rather than those upstairs – see fit.