Has Martin Nash Done Enough To Land The Vancouver FC Gig?

When interim head coach Martin Nash took over at Vancouver FC, the struggling CPL side was in all sorts of trouble: on track for the worst season in league history, they were winless at home in over a year and struggling to produce anything up top.

The Eagles had ousted former head coach Afshin Ghotbi in late July, whose metric of being ‘the best last-place team in league history’ was evidently not good enough for club brass. On track for three seasons in a row as a league table bottom-feeder, it was time for change.

Nash’s arrival brought structural changes to their locked-in roster, with the team’s offensive output ticking upwards at nearly double its previous rate. This resulted in the majority of the club’s seven wins this year coming under Nash, with insiders stating his arrival also made for a better locker room environment than under his predecessor Afshin Ghotbi.

Extending on the above, the club’s points per game more than doubled, rising from 0.46 to exactly 1. That’s still not a rate that would ever lead a CPL side to playoffs – the league has parity, but not that much parity – but it’s a marked improvement over how things were. That’s with Nash joining amidst a calamitous season in league play, with no time to impact things with his own roster changes.

All-told, doubling a club’s points per game without being able to bring in your own players might just be, at face value, enough for the veteran head coach to secure a more permanent position in the Vancouver FC hotseat. Ensuring that the club beat out top CPL side Atletico Ottawa in a two-rounded semi-final stage to reach their first ever cup final is another feather in Nash’s proverbial cap.

CEO Rob Friend said there was no specific timeline on bringing in a permanent successor, but the general expectation is that things will be sorted well in advance of next year’s preseason.

“Everything we do is not reactionary, it’s not short term. If the right coach, if we don’t find them, we’re going to take our time, because really we’re thinking of the next three, four, five years with the next coach that we find,” Friend had told media during the club’s head coach turnover earlier this summer.

Friend had also said a global search was under way – which might, ironically, be the same thing York United said before they hired Martin Nash back in 2023.

Owner SixFive Sports & Entertainment is in the midst of large-scale change, looking to shed Pacific FC from its portfolio and focus efforts on both Vancouver FC and the group’s modular stadium production efforts.

The dawn is already looking brighter in Langley, with Vancouver FC incredibly qualifying for the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup despite finishing last in the league – and with continental action brings a brighter spotlight to attract both coach and player talent.

Nash’s own dossier in Canada’s top flight, beyond being bolstered by this year’s Canadian Championship Final appearance, also includes him leading York United to playoffs in 2023 and coaching them for part of the 2024 season en route to the club clinching playoffs that year, too.

It all boils down to this: has Martin Nash done enough to warrant his stay? Since arriving in late July, he’s certainly started carving out the potential in the club’s attack and converting that into tangible contributions. With an offseason ahead of him, he might just be able to shed some of the bleeding done at the backline – and then, suddenly, Vancouver FC might just be a dark horse come 2025.

We argue that the Eagles boss has done enough to warrant an opportunity in 2025 – but what do you think?

Header Image Photo Credit: Philippe Lariviere