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Terry Smith is an American-born businessman, who achieved notoriety for his spell as owner of English club Chester City from 1999 to 2001.
Smith, a former coach of the Manchester Spartans American Football team, bought Chester in July 1999, boldly declaring he believed the club could reach Division One (now Football League Championship) within three years. Manager Kevin Ratcliffe quit the job four games into the season, citing interference from Smith.
What happened next stunned the supporters as, despite having minimal knowledge of football, he took over full control of the first team instead of hiring a new manager. He was the first American to manage a Football League or Premier League club in England.
Although his first game in charge produced an enthralling 4–4 draw at Port Vale in the Worthington Cup to give Chester an aggregate victory, a dreadful run of results followed.
In Smith's four months in charge of team affairs, Chester were thrashed by fellow strugglers Leyton Orient and Carlisle United and only a late penalty save prevented an embarrassing loss to non-league minnows Whyteleafe in the FA Cup. Smith's training methods were slated, and there was even one instance of the side visiting a fast-food restaurant for a meal right before a critical relegation match (which resulted in a heavy defeat). A fly-on-the-wall documentary broadcast on ITV at the end of the season showed the limited respect players had for Smith as he delivered team talks, which included The Lord's Prayer.
Most of his signings for the club were foreign players looking to make an impression in England such as Angus Eve, Kamu Laird, Martin Nash, Goran Milosavljevic and Joe Carver, loans (most notably Junior Agogo) and players such as Steve Finney and Steve Malone from non–league football. The majority would not feature again after Smith stood aside in January 2000 (although he retained the title of manager) with Chester rooted to the foot of the Football League, as Ian Atkins was brought in as director of football in a last-ditch bid to avoid relegation and results and performances improved. By this time it was a three–way battle with Shrewsbury Town and Carlisle United to avoid the dreaded drop to the Nationwide Conference. Due to Shrewsbury's 2-1 win at Exeter City and Chester's home defeat by Peterborough United, Chester were relegated from the league on the final day of the 1999–2000 season.
Atkins left, and fan favourite Graham Barrow returned as manager, as did another former manager, Harry McNally in a consultancy role. However, McNally quit after a couple of weeks, slating Smith in the process. With a completely rebuilt team, Barrow managed a respectable ninth place and won the Conference Trophy in the 2000-2001 season, and the side was mentioned as possible promotion contenders for the next season. In spite of this, Smith sacked Barrow, branding the season a failure, and appointed Gordon Hill, who he also stated was the manager he wanted to appoint instead of Barrow.
Chester made a dreadful start to the 2001–02 season, winning only one of their first twelve matches. Protests against Smith were now worse than ever, and there was even a fire bombing of his home (which didn't result in serious damage). Smith finally sold his interest in the club to Stephen Vaughan and left at the start of October 2001, bringing an end to what had been widely regarded as the most disastrous period in the club's history - at least until the mis-management of the club by Stephen Vaughan put them out of business in March 2010 after they had been deducted 25 points in the Conference after being re-relegated from the Football League just five years after regaining their status.
Smith later returned to his homeland and worked in American Football coaching again.
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