Lasso is now a handy shorthand for the unique snobbery which blights the American football manager. What can they teach us about our sport? Ralf Rangnick’s American assistant Chris Armas has allegedly been nicknamed Ted Lasso by disgruntled players.
Partly this is because of a dearth of source material. Unlike the American heroes of Premier League past (Kasey Keller! Cobi Jones! Lynden Gooch!) there have only been two US nationals in charge of top flight clubs. David Wagner holds American citizenship through his stepfather and was capped eight times by the USA. He kept Huddersfield up before things unravelled the following season.
Bob Bradley, appointed by American owners of Swansea shortly after their takeover, fared less well. He managed 85 days in charge, only won two of his 11 games and made the heinous mistake of publicly calling penalties ‘PKs’.
American managers are not just easy to mock, but acceptable. Their country’s lingering cultural imperialism still makes them a punch-up comedically. ‘They call it soccer!’ Ho ho ho! But we are on shaky ground here. The military fly-pasts and relentless commercialisation of gridiron used to seem silly but think back to last Sunday when there were soldiers in camouflage on the pitch before kick-off at the League Cup final then, during the match over the PA system, an advert for new flavours of Carabao.
You wonder if there is anything similar in American sport when the NFL’s annual London games roll around. “Jolly good inside linebacker cup of tea field goal?” We would be rightly scornful of such broad brush nonsense, and should resist writing off Marsch before he has had a chance to overcome his biggest obstacle: replacing the beloved and poorly treated Bielsa.
The most legitimate comparison of Marsch to Lasso is the fact he seems a pleasant and well-rounded person. Would increasing the emotional intelligence quotient of the league be so bad? Leeds must just hope life does not imitate art in one crucial way. At the end of Ted’s first season, AFC Richmond are relegated.
