Ex-MLS coach ready to make impact on K-League
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Seoul E-Land FC players pose at a lounge at the Lexington Hotel in Seoul on Dec. 11, 2014. / Courtesy of Seoul E-Land FC
By Nam Hyun-woo
When Seoul E-Land FC named Martin Rennie as its coach in July last year, many football watchers in Korea said the club found the right man to lead the fledgling team.
Despite some conservative whispers that a new Korean team should be coached by a Korean who is well aware of how the country’s football community works, the 39-year-old Scotsman seem unfazed, busying himself for the past several months with planning the upcoming season and making final decisions on players whom the club should sign.
Facing one of the unique challenges in his life, Rennie says he is ready to make an impact in the pro football league here by bringing entertainment into football.
Seoul E-Land FC coach Martin Rennie / Korea Times file
‘Play with freedom and enjoy football’
Unlike other football coaches who emphasize discipline among their players, Rennie prioritizes maximizing his players’ full potential and giving them freedom, with the belief that doing so will bring not only favorable results but also entertainment.
“The teams I have coached before have been attacking and entertaining teams, and I’m sure that this team will be as well,” Rennie said in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times. “For that, my key principles in coaching players is maximizing their full potential, as well as emphasizing them to play with freedom and enjoy playing football.”
However, he explained that winning is not all about having solid defense and sending forwards to the front.
“In football, the entertainment of the game is down to both teams. So if other teams don’t play open football, the game can become tight and then it is important to have good concentration and a desire to attack,” he said. “It is vital to defend well if you want to be a good attacking team — so we have a lot to work on — but we will focus a lot on movement and finishing in the final one third, and I expect that to translate well on the field.”
An unidentified player, bottom, for the semi-professional club ran by E-Land strikes the ball during the 1994 Presidential Cup in a May 24, 1994, file photo. The club won the tournament.
Rennie is best known for his two-season coaching career with the Vancouver Whitecaps FC in Major League Soccer from 2011 to 2013, during which the Whitecaps rebounded from the bottom of the 2011 standings to become the first Canadian team to earn a spot in the MLS playoffs.
His previous stint with the now-dissolved Cleveland City Stars, which was in the second-division U.S. league until 2009, also deserves attention. As the first coach of the team formed in 2006, he helped the Stars finish its first season in 2007 as a runner-up. He left the club in 2008.
“There are differences with the culture and language being different, between the E-Land FC and the Cleveland City Stars, but some of the most important principles remain the same” he said.
“In both cases we have to build a positive, demanding work environment where players, fans and staff feel like they belong. We need to have vision and values that bring out the best in people and convince them to sacrifice for a cause bigger than their own personal desires.”
After Rennie took the helm, E-Land FC was able to sign MLS imports Carlyle Mitchell from Trinidad and Tobago and Ryan Johnson from Jamaica. Mitchell, 27, a key man in his national team’s defense, also played for the Whitecaps during Rennie’s tenure and helped the team advance to the playoffs.
Domestic talents such as Kim Young-kwang, a long-time national team goalkeeper, and Kim Jae-sung, one of the top-tier midfielders in the K-League and was a part of Korea’s 2010 World Cup campaign, also joined E-Land FC, saying “There’s something more than football in this club. I felt coach Martin Rennie sincerely respects me.”
When asked how long will it take for the team to achieve remarkable results, Rennie said he is confident in his players and only time will tell. “Talk is cheap, so it is more important for us to prove ourselves on the field,” he said.
“I am happy with the players we have, and I am happy to have the staff that I have. We still need to work hard to finalize the last few key players for our team, and we will continue to work hard on scouting so that our team is constantly improving. Remember, this is just the beginning, and we can keep improving our team every year. I believe the biggest surprises will be the performance of players (whom) some fans may not know too much about yet.”
When asked which team he wants E-Land FC to follow, he stressed that the club should forge its own path.
“We can always learn from others, and we should work hard to do that. We have a unique opportunity to shape our club in the way that we think is best for us, rather than a way that other people think or even what has been done before,” the coach said.
Lee Young-pyo advises on new opportunity
One of the key figures in his decision to take the Korean coaching position was Lee Young-pyo, who played at Tottenham and Vancouver, participated in multiple World Cups and is now one of the most beloved football commentators in the country.
According to Rennie, Lee contacted him and spoke to him about E-Land FC, a club based in the capital of Korea and run by a conglomerate. He recalled that he was reluctant to take the job because there were other job opportunities in other leagues. However, he chose to work with a less familiar team in a less familiar country because he believed doing a great job with the team will open doors in the future.
“Once I met with the owners of E-Land, I decided that I wanted to work with them and take on this unique challenge,” he said. “The opportunity to work in Korea is very exciting for me and my family. And probably, this would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because experiencing a different culture, language and style of play will help me improve as a person and as a young coach,” Rennie said, adding that Lee always told him great things about Seoul and he now knows Lee was right.
Before he became a football coach, he played football for a fourth-tier U.S. league team, the Charlotte Eagles, but had to leave the team prematurely after he suffered a cruciate ligament injury. He returned to his home and worked as a marketing employee for IT company Blackbaud while playing for Scottish Junior Football Association teams. With the money he earned from his sales, he was able to afford the UEFA coaching license courses, eventually attaining a UEFA A license, which qualifies him for elite-level coaching and management of pro teams.
“The lessons I learned in business about culture, values, communication, goal setting, unity, focus and confidence have been crucial elements that have had a positive impact on my career as a football manager,” he said. “All the experiences we have had in our life shape who we are today, and it is important to always be learning and improving.”
He also uses his experiences in business and youth football to help the club’s marketing team and build juvenile training systems. He said he will happily help the club’s front when necessary. He hinted that he is willing and able to assist in work outside of the pitch, especially in drawing more fans to the stadium.
Throughout his inauguration speech last September, he stressed the importance of fans, of involving them as a key party in the management of a club. Fans are crucial to a new team such as E-Land FC, which is yet to play a match.
“Without fans, you might as well be playing amateur football,” Rennie said. “The fans make the game what it is around the world, so we have to have a relationship with our fans and build this club together. ... We already have incredible support, and I want to personally thank them for the warm welcome and support they have given me already.”
He also advised that the K-League can be more entertaining and can attract more fans if its games are played at smaller stadiums, which is what the MLS did before it became very popular.
“A stadium that holds 60,000 people but only has 30,000 in it creates less atmosphere than a 25,000 stadium that is sold out,” he said. “I watched in (MLS) how football-specific stadiums were built and it transformed the atmosphere at the games. I have no doubt that it would do the same in the K-League.”