We Have A Coach!

First reported by Tom Bogert and confirmed by many the Rapids will name Tottenham Hotspur assistant coach Matt Wells as the team's 11th official head coach sometime next week.

Wells is a name out of left field, but to be fair with the lack of rumors anyone outside of the league would be out of left field.  Most Rapids fans spent the day researching what they could find on him and asking friends who were Spurs fans or Tottenham social media accounts what we're getting.

What we do know is that Wells is a 37 year old born and raised North Londoner who played in the Spurs academy before injuries derailed any hope of a senior career.  He then moved over to the coaching side at Spurs Academy, as an assistant eventually leaving to follow Academy coach Scott Parker as he took over Fulham's first-team and continued with him to Bournemouth and Clube Brugge.  He returned to Spurs under Postecoglou for the 2023-24 season and became the senior assistant to Ange last season, before stepping back down to assistant under Thomas Frank this season.

Postecoglou is known for giving his assistants a lot of responsibility and Wells is credited the game plan that Spurs used to win the Europa League final last season.  Under Postcoglou and Wells, and continuing to this season, Tottenham has been playing with a strong defense and this year in particular going with a counterpressing strategy.  Not exactly Pablo-ball boring but certainly a more defensive focus than what Armas brought the last two seasons.  Of course we don't know what Wells will use when he's the one calling all the shots.

With what little we know right now this seems like a middling hire with more potential to be an improvement from Armas than a step back IMO.  I do like that we didn't go for another unsuccessful MLS retread or elevated Bushey.  I don't like that, yet again, we're hiring somebody without successful first-team club head coaching experience.  It has been 25 years (arguably just 20) since the Rapids have done that and maybe its time to try it?

Chris Armas - took over a RBNY team and runined it, lasted less than a season in Toronto

Robin Fraser - Failed at Chivas USA

Anthony Hudson - Never had a first-team club job, only international experience

Pablo Mastroeni - First coaching job

Oscar Pareja - First head coaching job

Gary Smith - Only youth experience

Fernando Claivjo - Did take the Revs to 2nd in the East but lost in the playoffs

Tim Hankinson - Did succeed and make the semi-finals with the Charleston Battery

The reality is that with Padraig Smith still making the decisions on player recruitment its hard to get to excited about an unknown hire.  Its going to take significant upgrades in the roster to make this team competitive.  If Wells is successful he's likely back to England with a better first-team job in 2-3 years.  If Wells is unsuccessful he'll become the next in line of a list of failed hires by KSE.  I do not expect Wells to be coaching this team by the time the 2030 World Cup rolls around.