He didn’t admit it then, and he certainly wouldn’t admit it now, but there must have come a time this summer when Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay wondered, at least briefly, whether he had made a big mistake.

At one point, his team had lost a club-record six consecutive games. His starting goalkeeper and top striker had been commandeered by Canada for Copa América, something that his new league didn’t seem to have considered as a possibility when making the schedule. His best player had disappeared, months before, and then was unceremoniously sold.

It’s one thing for a young British manager to take his first head coaching job in MLS, a league that’s not entirely well-respected in the hallowed halls of English football; it’s quite another to have it go poorly.

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