The Norfolk-born coach is not well known in England but his knowledge of South America has helped build one of Major League Soccer’s most formidable teams

Major League Soccer’s play-offs are well under way and it will not come as a surprise to hear that an Englishman is involved in the thick of the action. But eyebrows may be raised at the fact he is called neither Frank Lampard nor Steven Gerrard. In their debut campaigns for New York City and LA Galaxy respectively, the one-time Premier League A-listers ultimately came up short, allowing a perennial understudy to catch some of the spotlight instead.

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Martyn Pert is a not a name that will be known among many football observers in England but within coaching circles he is highly regarded, not only for the breadth of his talent but also for his desire to test himself abroad. After all, this is a man who spent 13 months as assistant manager of Bahrain and was appointed manager of Ecuador’s biggest club, El Nacional, only to see his dream of taking charge of a team in South America cut short before it got going due to a change of ownership. Undeterred, Pert, who hails from Norfolk, simply packed his suitcase and moved on and now finds himself back as an assistant manager, working alongside the former Wales midfielder Carl Robinson at Vancouver Whitecaps, the Canadian club who are threatening to take America by storm.

Vancouver have made the Western Conference semi-finals for the first time since they entered MLS in 2011 having come second in the division, their highest finish and one that resulted from a regular season in which they recorded their most wins (16), conceded their fewest goals (36) and beat the reigning champions, LA Galaxy, home and away. Galaxy, with Robbie Keane as well as Gerrard in their ranks, went out in the first round of the play-offs after losing 3-2 to Seattle Sounders, while New York City failed to qualify after finishing eighth in the Eastern Conference.

Whitecaps drew 0-0 with Portland Timbers in last weekend’s semi-final first leg and will look to get the job done and progress to the Western Conference final – which is one step away from the title-crowning MLS Cup final – when they host Caleb Porter’s men at BC Place on Sunday. “The first leg result was just wanted we wanted; we knew we couldn’t win the tie in the first game but it was important not to lose it,” says Pert. “Now it comes down to a one-off game and we definitely feel we can beat Portland having done so already this season. We genuinely also feel we can win the play-offs outright. We’ve played well all season, from an attacking and defensive point of view, and there is a real belief we can go all the way. LA Galaxy going out early definitely helps.”

Pert’s desire to help Whitecaps win the MLS Cup for the first time is undeniable, but understandably for a man with ambitions to be a manager one day the focus is largely on personal development. The former Norwich youth player began his coaching career by taking charge of his hometown club’s under-14 team before moving on to various jobs in England, including academy coach at Cambridge City, fitness coach at Watford and assistant manager at Coventry. Then came his spell in Bahrain, working alongside the former England Under-21 manager Peter Taylor and which Pert describes as a “unique experience in so many ways”, before what should have been his first spell as the man in total charge.

Pert lasted just three weeks at El Nacional, who are based 2,800m above sea level in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, after the club’s military owners sold up to a hedge fund company, Monaco Capital Group, in December 2012 and they opted to instead hand the task of managing the 13-times Ecuador champions to the Spaniard Manuel Tomé Portela. “They decided to get rid of me before I’d even had a chance to properly meet the players, which is a bit of a disaster,” said Pert when we spoke shortly after his dismissal, in January 2013.

The man from Sprowston, who holds a Uefa Pro Licence and has funded trips to clubs such as Milan and Ajax to further his coaching knowledge, returned to the UK that year to work as scout, coach and head of conditioning at Cardiff before their first season in the Premier League. The experience started well, with Pert playing a crucial role in the club’s acquisition of Gary Medel from Sevilla, and the midfielder went on to excel not only for Cardiff but also for Chile at the following summer’s World Cup. But when relationships began to fracture in the Welsh capital and the manager Malky Mackay and head of recruitment Iain Moody were sacked by Vincent Tan in late 2013, Pert decided to also depart. Shortly afterwards he joined Vancouver, a move that was neither expected nor desired.

“I had no interest working in North America – South America was where I wanted to be – and the opportunity to go there came out of the blue,” says Pert. “A friend of Carl’s recommended me to him, largely because I’m fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and he likes to sign players from South America as he feels they are best suited to his technical, possession-based style of play.

“I joined Vancouver in February 2014 and that December we went out there together to do some scouting. We’ve now got four players from Uruguay, two from Argentina and one from Chile. They’ve all fitted in well and that is showing by what we’ve been doing on the pitch.”

The standout performer has been the Uruguayan forward Octavio Rivero, who is Vancouver’s top scorer this season with 10 goals, while Pert namechecks the Argentinian Matías Laba, a 23-year-old defensive midfielder who has captained his country at Under-20 level. “He’s a very talented player,” says the assistant manager before going on to also single out the Costa Rican centre-back Kendall Watson, the Gambian winger Kekuta Manneh and the young American defender Tim Parker.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tim Parker, right, heads the ball while under pressure during Vancouver Whitecaps’ goalless draw with Portland Timbers in the MLS play-offs last week. Photograph: David Blair/David Blair/ZUMA Press/Corbis

And then there is the former Wales striker Robert Earnshaw, who joined Vancouver’s squad in March having also played for Chicago Fire and Toronto FC in the MLS. The 34-year-old has scored twice in nine appearances for the Whitecaps. “When Rob plays you can see he is still a top-class finisher,” says Pert. “More importantly, he’s been a great influence on our squad, which is the youngest in the MLS with an average age of around 24.”

Rawness is a prevalent theme at Vancouver, with Robinson in his first stint as manager and Whitecaps as a whole still finding their feet in MLS having seen their application to become the 17th entrants of North America’s premier division accepted by the MLS commissioner, Don Garber, in March 2009.

It has been a whirlwind six years for a club who played their first match in their original incarnation on 5 May 1974, and so it should not come as a surprise that they still lack certain obvious tools, such as a separate scouting department. Hence Pert and Robinson’s regular trips to South America to find fresh talent and the rather quaint “player submissions” section on Vancouver’s website that allows anyone to apply for a trial there. The options on the job application-like form include “primary position” and “strongest foot”.

“We also don’t have our own training ground and so have to use facilities at a local university,” says Pert. “That makes what we’ve achieved even more special. Carl in particular deserves a lot of praise – this is his first job in management and he’s taken to it fantastically. He’s a real players’ manager and has got the best out of every guy who takes to the field for Vancouver.”

And the club’s supporters appear to appreciate the effort, with 18,000-21,000 of them filling BC Place for Whitecaps’ home matches this season. “That’s above the MLS average and while the atmosphere for most games in this division isn’t very intense, largely because you don’t get away fans due to the travel distance, those that turn up make a decent noise,” adds Pert.

“Overall MLS is growing and becoming more of a spectacle – I’ve seen that just in my time over here. The crowds have got bigger, the pitches have got better and the quality of players has massively improved, partly down to the superstars that have arrived in the last few years, such as Gerrard, Lampard, [Andrea] Pirlo and [David] Villa. They have made the league more attractive, for sure.

“The standard remains short of what you see in the other top leagues around the world, but it’s improving because of the guys who have arrived here from Europe and South America. One thing that really stands out is the refereeing – it’s a lot less lenient than back home, which makes MLS a much less physical league.”

Pert has settled not only professionally but also personally in Vancouver alongside his wife, Bela, and their young daughter, Sophia. He describes the city as a “wonderful place to live” and the message to British coaches and players is clear: follow the lead of not only himself, Robinson, Earnshaw, Lampard and Gerrard, but also of people such as Adrian Heath and Owen Coyle, the managers of Orlando City and Houston Dynamo respectively, as well as Nigel Reo-Coker, Liam Ridgwell and the Wright-Phillips brothers, players who are part of the MLS play-off mix.

“Working abroad is an education and for British coaches in particular a way to get to the top,” says Pert. “They can achieve the type of success that isn’t available to them back home because most owners and chairman in the Premier League won’t give them a chance to manage their clubs. And if they do succeed abroad, that instantly improves their chances of getting a job in the Premier League.

“I would definitely like to be a head coach or manager one day, but where and when I don’t know. For the time being I’m really happy at Vancouver, especially given what the club has achieved. This is proving to be a great adventure.”