Assistant Coach Steve Guppy = Head Coach Gary Smith

The Rochester Rhinos have announced that player/assistant coach Steve Guppy is leaving the team and joining the Rapids as an assistant coach in January.

Guppy has a long history of 17 years playing in England and Scotland, spending time with Southampton, Wycombe, Newcastle, Port Vale, Leicester City, Celtic, Leeds, and Stoke City. He then played with DC before a brief stop back in England before joining Rochester. One of the first EPL tams I followed was Leicester City when Kasey Keller was there, which coincided with Guppy's time at left wing with the club. Guppy followed Martin O'Neil to Celtic in 2001.

The big part of this news is that it almost assuredly means that Gary Smith has been given the Head Coach position. If the Rapids are already signing Assistant Coaches they probably have figured out who the head coach is going to be. Given that to the best of our knowledge the Rapids haven't talked to anyone, and Steve Guppy is a long time friend of Smith and a fellow Englishman, the logical conclusion is that Smith has been given the job. I bet the Rhinos jumped the gun on the announcement and the Rapids are planning an official announcement between now and MLS Cup.