The deal was done. But Axel Schuster was still sweating one small detail or two, like Cascadia’s notoriously fickle meteorological conditions.
Earlier this month the Vancouver Whitecaps’ CEO & sporting director completed probably his club’s biggest transaction of the year, inking Scottish international Stuart Armstrong as their third and final Designated Player – a true capstone acquisition, the “missing piece for us,” as Schuster framed it when Armstrong was introduced to local media on Sept. 4.
This signing was about more than just Armstrong and his diverse central-midfield toolkit, or the Whitecaps’ wider ambitions that may hinge on his arrival and success. The decision to play outside the United Kingdom for the first time in his career – and moving halfway around the world to do so – also had to be right for his partner Stine and their infant daughter Ulrikke, born just a few months ago at the close of his six-year stint at Southampton FC.
“That was part of the choice of choosing the next club carefully, if it fit the family and how we would settle in,” Armstrong told MLSsoccer.com this week. “We're so far away from home, but obviously there's no language barrier here, apart from a few words! But that was obviously a huge thing.
“The city, I think everyone who I've ever spoken to talked about how nice the city was. But you don’t realize until you're here how nice it is, how unique it is, how blended it is with nature, ocean and city life. It's a pretty cool place.”
New digs
Armstrong is learning that even mundane tasks like morning errands can serve up jaw-dropping vistas in Vancouver, where forested mountains and rivers meet the sea on nearly all sides of a shimmering modern metropolis.
“Yeah, it's really nice,” he said. “Going over to the North Vancouver side, going over the bridge and beautiful morning light, the water so still, then going south again over the other bridges – I think when I was at the hotel, coming from the New York-style downtown, over the ocean bridges and then down into sort of a relaxed, beachy-type Kitsilano, it was like three different places in the space of 10 minutes.”
British Columbia tends to have such an effect on newcomers. Still, Schuster admits he felt relieved when Stine, who touched down in “Rain City” with Ulrikke a week or so after Stuart, got a strong first impression.
“Everything went well. Our weather was amazing for the last week, the best Pacific summer weather you can have. So she loved it,” recalled the ‘Caps executive in a phone conversation on Wednesday, adding that he considers this aspect of player care a vital extension of the collectivist ethos VWFC aim to cultivate both on and off the pitch.
“I always say this: If you want to come with this approach that we say, ‘Look, really as a team we can win everything, but only if we always stick together and do it together, we work together, we support each other,’ then you have also to live that outside of the pitch and then you have to have an organization like that,” said the German. “You have to give the players the feeling that the club really wants to do everything for you, but then we also expect the players to put everything on the pitch.”
Next level
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of Armstrong’s arrival for the ‘Caps. Under head coach Vanni Sartini, who took the helm just over three years ago, Vancouver have made a painstaking climb from also-rans to competitors in the rough-and-tumble Western Conference, qualifying for two of the last three editions of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs and winning two consecutive Canadian Championships.
Yet the next step has been every bit as difficult, perhaps more so. VWFC have repeatedly fallen short on high-stakes occasions against high-powered opposition, unable to go toe to toe with the likes of LAFC, Tigres UANL and Pumas UNAM in the playoffs, Concacaf Champions Cup and Leagues Cup.
As MLSsoccer.com’s Armchair Analyst Matt Doyle phrased it in his Matchday 32 column: “I expect the ‘Caps to look like what they have been for most of their time under Vanni Sartini: a good and fun team that lacks the top-end quality to compete with the best when the stakes get raised.”
Vancouver believe Armstrong is the antidote to all that. A modern attacking mid with a mix of No. 8 and No. 10-style attributes who tabbed 25 goals and 19 assists in 214 appearances at Southampton, they see him as an elite talent capable of making the difference in clutch moments while also adding new layers to their game model, so the ‘Caps can aspire to more than defend-and-counter in the big games.
“We have done two steps over the last two years, and we are ending up now in situations where we cannot continue to just play a transition game, because our opponents respect us now more, and they ask us different questions,” said Schuster, recalling how Tigres paid Vancouver the unspoken compliment of sitting deep and absorbing pressure for most of their first-round ConcaChampions series back in February – and were rewarded with a 4-1 aggregate win.
“We had not enough talent, that's true. We had not enough talent or skill sets in our team to unlock these situations,” he added. “That was where we were struggling. We had games where we had way more possession, more passes than our opponent, but at the end of the day, we couldn't really convert that into goals. And because we had not, this skill set and talent in midfield that could unlock situations, we were always depending on defending well and then playing quickly to our forwards.”
Heading abroad
Last season Armstrong helped Southampton earn promotion back to the promised land of the English Premier League; over the summer he played a prominent role for Scotland at Euro ‘24. He had other options available in England. But a nagging sense persisted that something was missing.
“The ultimate ambition of mine was to try something new,” he said. “Being 32 feels slightly older in the football world. So I think it was important for me to try something new, to get a change. I think I needed something fresh. I played in the UK since 17, so there's been a lot of experiences, a lot of great experiences; I’m very lucky to have to have done and been where I've been.
“I didn't exactly know what that was going to be or what that actually looked like. It was more of a feeling. And when Vancouver popped up, and I got a little bit excited about it, about the new challenge and something completely different.”
The ‘Caps had given real consideration to adopting the more youth-oriented “U22 Initiative Player Model” MLS implemented this year, which allows teams to exchange one DP roster slot for a fourth U22 Initiative roster slot and up to an additional $2 million in General Allocation Money.
But with Armstrong a free agent after playing out his last Saints contract, and former Dundee United teammate Ryan Gauld in the prime of his career and eager to strike up creative chemistry with his fellow Scot just as he has with his ‘Caps strike partner Brian White, Schuster & Co. decided to toss their chips on the table.
“From the beginning, we said, look, if we can get him, we use our DP spot. He is actually what we are missing as a team, what we in total miss in our whole approach to the game,” said Schuster. “We don't have a player of this caliber box-to-box, who really connects those two lines … we need a more experienced guy who has played on a higher level, who has done that and proved that, and who also gives us more stability in the middle of the pitch.”
Scottish connection
After winning just about every piece of hardware in his homeland at Celtic, Armstrong lived a more hardscrabble experience at Southampton, who fought for EPL survival across several seasons before finally suffering the drop last year. That in itself was an appealing part of his profile for Vancouver, who offered him another flavor of adventure.
“It wasn't like he looked good because all the players around him were always excellent,” said Schuster. “He was a player who created a lot of threat in teams that were struggling to find solutions … He has still good ambitions, but he was also thinking about his career: What's the right next step? Do I stay where I am? Do I stay in clubs where the whole season is always a big fight, for the good and for the bad? Or do I now use this moment that I'm a free agent and I look into something completely different? And then we had the link, obviously, with Ryan Gauld, a player he trusted and he knew from early times, so we could build a connection there.”
VWFC’s needs present both honor and pressure for Armstrong, who is racing to gear up to match fitness and contribute right out of the gates while also settling with a young family on a distant new continent. The stretch run of the regular season is in full swing, and next week he and his new teammates will host cross-country rivals Toronto FC in the Canadian Championship final.
No pressure!
“Axel did talk about that, and talked about just that extra edge that we needed to push beyond, go further into the playoffs and really challenge the top teams,” said Armstrong. “I've only been here for a few weeks, so I’m still learning the league, still learning about other teams, and still learning about how the playoffs work. But yeah, having said that, it's also an exciting time to come in, because you're right at the business end of the season. Playoffs are exciting, we've got a cup final coming up.
“It should be a really exciting finish, and I feel that this squad is capable of pushing beyond and hopefully going deep into the playoffs.”
He also made sure to quiz friends and former teammates across MLS about the league.
“I've had friends who played at New York, Erik Sviatchenko in Houston I've played with, Johnny Russell in Kansas, we've got Gauldie here, Maya Yoshida of LA Galaxy, and they all talk very positively about the league and obviously the lifestyle and the culture that comes with that new experience,” noted Armstrong. “That was part of the appeal for me, to experience something new and take those examples from other guys who played in the league. And also, you don't quite fully understand until you come here yourself and experience it.”
Stretch run
He’s begun brightly, combining with Gauld to score a gorgeous goal in his second ‘Caps appearance, Saturday’s 2-0 win over San Jose. With a rigorous road swing this week from Houston directly to Los Angeles for a Saturday night clash with the West-leading Galaxy, Sartini and his staff decided to leave Armstrong out of the Texas leg of the trip to pack in extra fitness work.
“The idea was having him training with two hard trainings yesterday and today, and he will fly tomorrow to LA so he can give a bigger contribution [vs. the Galaxy],” Sartini said after VWFC drew the Dynamo 1-1 on Wednesday night. “We saw immediately in the first two games, and in the first training session, that Stuart can be a key player for us, for his quality in the buildup, for his quality in the final third. So we want to enhance as fast as possible, I would say, his reaching of a condition that can give us more minutes.
“I think he’s going to be clear to play more minutes against the Galaxy. I don't know yet if he can maybe start, because if he has 45 minutes or not, but he will feature Saturday in LA."
A high-profile autumn visit to one of MLS’s glamour sides, a Galaxy squad led by A-listers like Riqui Puig and Marco Reus, is just the sort of occasion that has usually bedeviled Vancouver over the years. These ‘Caps might just be made of sterner stuff, though: with a 7W-4L-4D record away from BC Place, they’re the best road team in the West, have conceded just one goal in their last four matches, and seem to have crafted a sturdy collective spirit under Sartini’s energetic influence.
“[Against] the Galaxy, we need to be pressing in a way that is intelligent. Because if we put being relentless ahead of being organized, with the first players that they have, they can break your pressing and play on the side and it kills you,” said the Italian manager. “So I think we need to be willing to play a game where they have more possession than us, but not defending in our final third, because the quality that they have, you've seen even [vs.] LAFC last week, the quality that they have, if you just defend and counter, I think it's not enough.
“The key for me is to try to have the ball as much as we can, so we want to do something that they hate: so they don't have the possession. And maybe sneak a victory, that would be fantastic.”
Sartini has posited that the next couple of weeks will define Vancouver’s season. Hard on the heels of the CanChamp final come Cascadia Cup clashes with Portland and Seattle on home turf, then October visits from Minnesota and LAFC.
If this season is to end more brightly than those that came before, Armstrong might just be the missing link.
“I think the ceiling is what we make it. And it's been my impression so far that we're definitely very capable. We're a very hard-working team with a good structure and also capable of playing really good football,” he said. “We're a team pushing beyond and trying to reach the upper limits of the league and the bigger teams, so to speak. And yeah, the sky's the limit for us.”
