Jason Sudeikis' spoof character Ted Lasso has turned into an Emmy-winning hit, with Ted's charm and wit warming the hearts of players and staff at AFC Richmond (with one notable exception). But at first, many players didn't respect the American after his arrival in Europe, thinking he was out of touch with the culture and the sport of soccer.
But in a case of life imitating art, legendary British soccer club Manchester United now has its own crisis which hews very closely to the early days of Ted Lasso. In fact, ESPN claims Manchester United players are even calling one of their new coaches "Ted Lasso."
It's understandable why Ted got flak when the Richmond job came around. He wasn't experienced with professional teams and he only knew about American football. It was up to his assistant Coach Beard to educate him on the rules of European soccer and operation of the league. That lack of knowledge caused players to mock him. They felt disrespected -- hating his drills, accent and the "Yankee attitude" that didn't fit England.
Ted was completely out of his depth. He wasn't using the proper training methods, instead depending totally on heart, soul and pep talks to motivate his squad. Unfortunately, even after captain Roy Kent got the team to rally behind the coach, their results were poor and they got relegated.
A similar culture clash is playing out in the real-world at Manchester United with former American international Chris Armas. The 49 year-old was surprisingly signed as Manchester United's assistant to new head coach Ralf Rangnick last December -- after winning just two of his 15 games as head coach of Toronto FC, and never having coached in Europe before.
According to ESPN, there's a divide in the Manchester United locker room that centers around the coaches. Rangnick has reportedly left most of the coaching to Armas and players have jokingly started to refer to Armas as "Ted Lasso" because of his lack of coaching experience outside North America. They also think that when Rangnick is coaching, his methods are "old-fashioned" and not the best fit for the team, which is languishing far below expectations.
It's not quite an apt comparison, because Chris Armas is not the head coach of Manchester United the way that Ted Lasso is the top of the pyramid at AFC Richmond. Armas also has much more experience with soccer than Ted did at the start of Ted Lasso, having played for the LA Galaxy, Chicago Fire and two national teams. But it's an interesting turn of events -- and given what happened on the Apple TV+ series, being called "Ted Lasso" might not be an insult. Ted cares about his team and they came to care about him, as seen in the Christmas short film, even though Nate ended up leaving. Maybe Manchester United will come around on Armas as well. It's still a better work environment than the one in Apple TV+'s upcoming series Severance.
Both seasons of Ted Lasso are available on Apple TV+.