CHESTER CITY THE AMERICAN DREAM
“HE DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING. IT WAS AS IF HE WOKE UP ONE MORNING AND DECIDED TO BUY A FOOTBALL CLUB”
An eccentric American coach arrives as the manager of a professional English football club, despite having no experience of the game and only the slenderest grip of the basics. Chaos ensues. It could be the plot for a comedy show. In fact, it is the plot for a comedy show: Ted Lasso, currently streaming on Apple TV.
Truth is often stranger than fiction, and back in July 1999 such an occurrence was both very real and not all that funny. Terry Smith – a former defensive back for the New England Patriots and respected one-time coach of Great Britain’s American football team – liked the city of Chester so much he bought its football club. A North Carolina native who had lived in England since 1988 when he took charge of the Manchester Spartans, Smith counted aborted attempts to purchase ice hockey’s Sheffield Steelers and setting up a world indoor soccer league on his CV, and was allegedly lured to Chester by regular visits to its zoo.
“He should have been in it,” snarls Kevin Ratcliffe, the incumbent manager when Smith rescued then-Division Three Chester City from administration and duly targeted second-tier football in three years. It’s safe to say the ex-Wales and Everton defender didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with the Seals’ incoming owner – he later successfully sued the club for £200,000.
“From minute one he wasn’t open. “It was clear that he wanted the manager’s job – he wanted to take over. It was a fiasco. He didn’t know anything about football. It was as if he just woke up one morning and decided to buy a football club.
