The Marc Dos Santos era in Ottawa will come to an end at a yet-to-be-determined date sometime in the Fall. The announcement came out of the blue this morning at Lansdowne Park Stadium in front of a dumbfounded media that was assembled for the announcement.
The initial reaction from Fury supporters was shock and dismay with a sprinkling of anger directed at Dos Santos. The Fury head coach is universally loved in Ottawa – this was not a situation where fans did not know how good they had it. Fury fans know exactly what they have, and the passionate reaction is natural when the consensus is that it will be impossible to replace him.
The timing of the announcement will not help assuage those hurt feelings, as the Fury are in the midst of a tight playoff race. It’s pure speculation, but it’s not hard to imagine that the news was about to leak by other means, and the club wanted to get out ahead of it before the start of a key 10-match road trip.
Dos Santos remains the best hire team president John Pugh has made in connection to the club. The perfect combination of communicator, teacher and builder, Dos Santos quickly won over the fan base with his direct speaking style, and was equally at ease in both English and French (Ottawa is a bilingual city which straddles the provinces of Ontario and Quebec). He was able to assemble his own players and take them to the top of the table in only his second season. His preferred style of play is already ingrained in the identity of the club, and should remain so when the Fury find his replacement. His extensive contacts and power of persuasion allowed the Fury to recruit players who may have never considered Ottawa as the next destination in their career.
In hindsight, the clues to his departure were there:
- Dos Santos seemed over-qualified for NASL. He had already proven his worth as a second division head coach, having led the Montreal Impact to a USL title in 2009, which was also the year he famously guided the Impact to the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League where they eventually lost to Mexican side Santos Laguna. He then had a successful stint in Brazil coaching for Palmeiras and Desportivo Brasil before accepting Pugh’s offer to come back to Canada and build the Ottawa Fury from scratch.
- Close observers of the team could tell that assistant Martin Nash was assuming a bigger role within the coaching structure this season. Nash was more vocal in training, dealt with the media more often and was asked on multiple occasions to provide halftime comments for the in-stadium broadcasts. Not a smoking gun, but…
- Dos Santos mentioned in more than one instance during a lengthy interview I had with him last week that he was thinking of life beyond his stay in Ottawa. Here’s a quote that struck me even as he said it: “The biggest legacy I wanted to leave in Ottawa was the model of play. I wanted to do very similar to what Johan Cruyff did in Barcelona: leave a model of play that’s going to defend the club. Because tomorrow if I leave, because it’s gonna happen one day, another guy comes, but he comes with the profile to continue in this (style). I think if you look at the big clubs in the world that work a lot like this, the model is the most important part in the club. The model runs the club. The model goes after the coach. The model goes after the players. ” That was 6 days ago. Think he didn’t already know he was leaving?
- Also, a source had provided me with information in June that Dos Santos was moving on from the Fury, but having been unable to confirm it I was forced to sit on it.
What will surprise some is that information coming out of the Montreal media is linking Dos Santos with an assistant coaching job for Sporting KC. Although he was an assistant to John Limniatis for the Impact before taking over from him after he was fired, no one sees Dos Santos as a second-in-command to anyone at this point in his career. There was also a feeling that a return to the Impact as head coach of their MLS squad would have been understandable; the prodigal son returning to conquer MLS is a story most fans could have come to accept.
However, leaving a successful NASL team to become an assistant for Sporting KC will not sit well for some supporters. Nor does fit the NASL narrative of positioning itself as a first division competitor to MLS. What we may be seeing is a window into the reality of the league, where the lure of MLS is too strong to dismiss, even in the face of what appears to be a lesser role. Fans may take solace in the fact that if it is an assistant’s position, Dos Santos is unlikely to take his entire staff with him. The “model” he pointed to in our interview can continue to function.
In the present tense, however, fans can turn their focus to appreciating these last months with Dos Santos as their head coach. The team is in an envious position in the standings and perfectly placed to make the post-season. Dos Santos is a master motivator, and he can likely turn these last matches into a rallying cry for his troops.
It’s what happens beyond the settling dust of the season that will strike the most fear in fans of the Ottawa Fury Football Club.
What do you think? Are you happy for Dos Santos? Frustrated? Hurt? All of the above? Let’s talk about it on Twitter. Tweet me @Mimglow
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