Amos Magee had an hands-on role in Minnesota United’s hiring of new head coach Eric Ramsay, and Magee asked some pointed questions during the interview process.
Magee, the Loons’ VP of Youth Development, was part of the small group within the club that helped whittle down a “quarterfinalist” pool of 30 or so candidates down to single-digit “finalists,” and then he provided recommendations to Chief Soccer Officer Khaled El-Ahmad and CEO Shari Ballard.
For Magee, the first thing that jumped out about Ramsay’s resume was his top-line experience at Manchester United in the English Premier League.
“He had been in the role under three different managers,” Magee said in an interview with the Pioneer Press. “I think it’s very easy to have a relationship under one manager. … But when the second and the third consecutively keep you on, I think it’s pretty good indicator that you’re showing real quality and real benefit to the club, and the club values you and the new manager values you.”
The second piece that Magee noted was Ramsay’s responses to various questions about club culture, mentality for high performances and tactics.
“All of those were unique, made a lot of sense and were exciting and refreshing,” Magee said this week. “So that kind of impression, coupled together, made me really want to basically sit in front of him and have a conversation with him, because the answers given were, in my opinion, so exciting.”
Magee also asked frank questions of Ramsay, including about the 32-year-old’s lack of first-team head coaching experience.
“That was one of my pointed questions to ask him about it,” Magee said. “I think he was really honest and says, ‘Listen, I’ve been studying, I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been observing. I think it’s a step I’m ready to take.’ I feel, and I think he felt, similarly that you never quite know, right?”
Magee anticipates there will be on-the-job learning experiences — similar to anyone in a new gig.
“How does he deal with the pressure, the scrutiny, the in-match decision-making? Well, he’s been living it as an assistant for the last three years at the top level in the world,” Magee said. “I don’t think he’s gonna be, in my impression, … fazed by any of that.”
Magee asked him about why he chose to come to MLS and not stay and advance in England, including an opportunity with El-Ahmad at Barnsley two years ago.
“Basically, he said, lower divisions in England tend to lack sort of diversity of culture, language, they tend to be pretty English, pretty UK-based,” Magee relayed. “He’s like, ‘I want to coach at the highest level, and to coach at the highest level, you have multicultural locker rooms. And MLS has multicultural locker rooms, trying to get South Americans on the same page as Minnesotans on the same page as (Europeans).”
Given his leadership position with MNUFC, Magee wanted to know about the role of a youth academy in Ramsay’s vision for a first team. It was one of Magee’s opening questions.
“He comes from a culture where young players are expected to be impactful at first-team level,” Magee shared. “He was pretty clear about his ideas of communicating with academy coaches, academy players, academy staff, to make sure that we’re supported, that we have an idea of what he’s looking for. That there is shared ideas and resources.”
Magee also said Ramsay conveyed a humility about how there is more he can learn from an academy as well.
Given Ramsay’s apparent ambitions, will MNUFC be but a stepping stone to the next rung on the career ladder?
Magee mentioned that Ramsay is in the process of moving to Minnesota with his wife, Sioned, and two children, Jack and Lilie, both under than age of three. Sioned attended Eric’s news conference at Allianz Field on Wednesday.
“My sense is he realizes he has plenty of time to realize his ambitions and his goals,” Magee said. “He wants to be in a real learning and a real high-performance environment where his family will be part of it. I don’t get the sense that this is a way station to where he wants to be. Turning down a couple of other opportunities and jobs, he’s (effectively) saying, ‘No, this is a place (in Minnesota) that, I think, is at the right time and right place for me and my family.’ ”
Related Articles
Tani Oluwaseyi’s longer ramp to be a key Minnesota United contributor
Loons score late for 3-2 win at Orlando City
Minnesota United at Orlando City: Keys to the match, projected starting XI and a prediction
How Cameron Knowles has built up Loons — and how it contrasts to Adrian Heath’s approach
Christian Ramirez has ‘chills’ in first away game at Minnesota United
Leave a Reply