New coach, new players, diff erent outlook
Martin Rennie has been charged with transforming the Whitecaps into a winning squad
Ayear ago, a coach coming off three successful seasons in second- division North American soccer led the Vancouver Whitecaps into their first tierone Major League Soccer campaign. Teitur Thordarson lasted 12 games. Now another coach with three successful years in the tier- two North American game will lead the Caps into what club marketers call “Round 2.”
But Martin Rennie will last a lot longer than his predecessor. Bank on it.
For one thing, the engaging 36- year- old Scot — charged with the task of transforming the Whitecaps from MLS pretenders to contenders — has a multi- year contract, compared with Thordarson’s one- year deal.
For another, after going through one chief executive officer, two head coaches and 17 players in the past year, the organization craves stability.
“I think everybody at the club needs continuity now,” Rennie said in an interview this week, after watching his squad prepare for today’s season opener against the Montreal Impact.
“There have been changes and adjustments and there’s plenty of proof to show that when you have the same people there for a while, you can really build something. That’s what I would like to do.”
Whitecaps officials are convinced Rennie’s no- BS, posi-tive-thinking coaching style will turn around a squad that finished dead last in MLS last year — in the same way he brought success to faltering lower- level clubs such as Cascadia Surge, Cleveland City Stars and Carolina Railhawks.
Rennie had options besides Vancouver this season and the Caps reportedly swooped in last summer to sign him to a deal when he appeared to be on the verge of accepting a contract to coach the Impact.
Money and contract length were obviously crucial in his decision but he only accepted the offer after speaking to club owners about their vision and long- term goals.
“They’re ambitious people who want this to be a really positive community asset,” he said. “They want people to support it and be excited about coming to watch it and they’re willing to invest in it to make that happen.”
Significant new player investments this season include the addition of Korean superstar defender Young- Pyo Lee, French forward Sebastien Le Toux and Scottish international midfielder Barry Robson, who arrives this summer.
Rennie has the final say on all important technical matters, such as who to recruit and sign, and has surrounded himself with several coaches and players he has worked with before.
Assistant coach Jake Declute helped Rennie at all three of his previous coaching gigs while assistant coach Paul Ritchie was his right- hand man in Carolina the past two seasons.
“It wouldn’t be a smart move to bring someone I don’t know into a new club and new environment,” Rennie said. “They understand what I want on the training field and I don’t have to jump in to change the training all the time.”
He raised a few eyebrows by signing five former Carolina players to MLS contracts — goalkeeper Brad Knighton, midfielders Matt Watson, Floyd Franks and Jun Marques Davidson and forward Etienne Barbara.
Skeptical Whitecaps fans will point to the fact that several pre- MLS Caps players — including Jay Nolly, Greg Janicki and Wes Knight – failed to impress with the MLS club and are no longer here.
Rennie said that with all due respect to those players, he’s confident his Carolina- connected group will fit in nicely near the lower portion of the $ 2.81- million player budget. Davidson has played many years of top- flight soccer in Japan, Knighton has several MLS seasons under his belt and Barbara has played more than 30 games for the Maltese national team.
“MLS teams are not just made up of Jay Demerits and Eric Hasslis,” Rennie said. “It’s a whole group of people and some of those guys are on a totally different budget number and have a totally different place on your squad.”
The new- look 2012 Whitecaps team features 12 new players and 17 who have been retained from last season.
Rennie has experience with that kind of roster overhaul and while fans can expect the club to continually tweak the side, he feels confident he has assembled a core group that can do a lot better than the dismal 2011 record of six wins, 18 losses and 10 draws.
Building confidence and creating a winning culture within his new club have been top priorities for the Thurso, Scotland, native who has studied psychology extensively and used it effectively during a business sales career that preceded his move into coaching.
Rennie sensed a lack of confidence within the team when he watched the Whitecaps play last year.
“If the team was playing well in a game and didn’t score or gave up a goal, there wasn’t a lot of belief that it could come back from that,” he said.
Rennie believes confidencebuilding starts with getting to know each individual player and helping him manage his own expectations and insecurities.
“There’s a little voice inside your head talking all the time,” he said.
“It’s either telling you you’re not good enough or it’s helping you become the best you can be. Unless you manage and control that voice, you will be challenged because it normally goes the negative way.”
Players have a history of buying into Rennie’s message, even those considered hard to manage.
Former Whitecaps midfielder Jonny Steele might fit into that category. The colourful character from Northern Ireland recently signed a contract to play for Real Salt Lake after spending last season in Carolina and he can’t thank Rennie enough.
“Martin has been nothing but good to me and spoke very highly of me to other managers when they called so I don’t have a bad word to say about him,” Steele said in an interview.
“He’s a great man- to- man manager and knows how to get the best out of you by making you feel good and welcome.”
But Rennie won’t always be Mr. Nice Guy.
He did not looked pleased last weekend when his mostly first- choice team struggled at times during a 1- 0 win over a Toronto squad filled with reserve players.
“If things aren’t going well, you have to be accurate in your reflections,” Rennie said.
“Sometimes that requires not losing your temper but being very much animated and raising your voice and being aggressive at times. It depends on the situation.”
Rennie isn’t nervous about his step up to MLS. He knows there will be ups and downs but stressed that coaching at a higher level gives him access to more resources, higher- level players and more assistants to help him succeed.
“Each incremental step in my career has brought new challenges but each one has also brought a lot of the same things,” Rennie said. “People are people and players are players and soccer is still soccer. Some things become easier as other things become more difficult.”