Dean Smith has a mission statement for Charlotte FC. “From the moment I came here,” he told MLS.com, “our job is to get bums out of seats.” Out of seats. Not on them. Every manager alive wants the stadium full, but Smith wants it standing. On the evidence of the last three months, he’s found his man.

Allan Saint-Maximin spent Saturday at Philadelphia being booked inside the first twenty minutes for a challenge on Frankie Westfield, the Union defender who was in Pochettino’s fall squad. He crossed for Rodolfo Aloko to head over in the first half. He was off by the 83rd minute. It finished 2-2 against a Philadelphia side on a club-record 15-game unbeaten run, and Charlotte’s draw ended the Union’s eight-game winning streak. It was also the first time since August that Cavan Sullivan went a league game without a goal contribution, after Charlotte keeper Kristijan Kahlina denied him in the 92nd minute.

Maxi himself didn’t have a goal or an assist, which tells you how high the bar has been set. Through his first twelve league games, he had one goal and six assists. He’d also completed 35 dribbles, second in MLS only to Lionel Messi’s 40, despite playing less than half as many games. Saint-Maximin isn’t just producing for Charlotte; he’s given Charlotte fans someone worth getting out of their seats for. A week before Philadelphia, he chased a ball that was heading for a throw-in, ran at two Dallas defenders, and set up the goal that started a comeback from 2-0 down.

I’d like it noted that, in July, I said I didn’t expect him to pick up as many yellow cards as Zaha. Don’t let this Philadelphia game fool you, Maxi’s two yellows in 12 games is very respectable. When you realise Zaha picked up seven in 13 league games and still ranks second in Charlotte’s yellow-card count despite leaving in May, Maxi starts to look like a saint! 

The bigger picture is Charlotte’s season. At the World Cup break, Charlotte were sixth, on 21 points from 15 games, with 24 goals. By the 28th game they had 46 points and 50 goals. I won’t give one winger all the credit, because Idan Toklomati is finishing well and broke the club’s single-season scoring record on Saturday, and Kahlina made 11 saves in a Columbus defeat last week. Toklomati told reporters that it “helps me a lot”, regardless of whether it’s Maxi or Zaha feeding him. The fact Maxi has more assists than Zaha in fewer games this season tells me a favourite might be emerging. 

Now for the other headline from the roster freeze. Charlotte announced the signing of Abdoulaye Doucouré on October 10, a 33-year-old free agent from NEOM SC in Saudi Arabia, on a deal through the end of the 2026 season. The club’s own words were “expansive Premier League experience.” That undersells it.

Doucouré played 307 games across Watford and Everton, scoring 38 goals and providing 26 assists, after coming through at Rennes. He grew up in the French youth system before switching to Mali and winning two caps in 2022 World Cup qualifying.

His real legacy is one afternoon. In January 2023 he was training alone after a fall-out with Frank Lampard. Four months later, on the last day of the season, Everton were in the relegation zone at half-time against Bournemouth. In the 57th minute he volleyed home from the edge of the box. Everton won 1-0 and stayed up. Leicester went down.

Some Everton pages called it one of the most important goals in their 145-year history. For Leicester, it was the start of a slide: relegated in 2023, promoted back in 2024, relegated again in 2025, then dropped to League One this April. Three relegations in four seasons. I’m not saying one volley did all that. Leicester fans might still hold a grudge.  Leicester’s manager that day was Dean Smith.

He’d been appointed on an eight-game rescue mission, the kind of job I wrote about in July, and Leicester were out of the bottom three for most of the afternoon before Doucouré’s goal went in. “You finish where you deserve to over a season,” Smith said afterwards. Three years later, he signed the man whose goal relegated him. Under Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool had a real tendency to sign players who played well against them. I’d like to think Smith watched that volley and did the same, which might be the healthiest way anyone has ever processed a relegation.  

The catch is that Smith says Doucouré isn’t match fit and is still waiting on his work visa. If you are a Charlotte fan, this might feel like déjà vu. Maxi missed Charlotte’s first Leagues Cup games with immigration problems too. Charlotte’s recruitment model appears to be signing excellent footballers and then asking the American immigration system to let them play.

Smith, it turns out, has a whole bum-based philosophy. Back in September, with eight games to go, he told reporters, “I think last year I called it squeaky bum time,” and that the run-in would be exactly that.

It’s a phrase with pedigree. Sir Alex Ferguson coined it during the 2003 title race against Arsenal, and it now sits in the Oxford English Dictionary, defined around the sound of someone shifting restlessly on plastic seating at the tense end of a contest. As a Manchester United supporter, I’m legally obliged to approve of anything Fergie said, and I do.

The eight-game run-in has become four, and the maximum available points is now 12. Charlotte are fifth in the East heading into the next gameweek. A top-four finish means a home best-of-three series in Round One, and two of the four are at home. Smith asked for bums out of seats. The run-in will have them squeaking in them.

I said in July that Charlotte probably wouldn’t win MLS Cup, and I haven’t changed my mind. But Ashley Westwood says the squad has a handshake deal: if they win, they’ll all wear designer headbands like Maxi’s. “We’re all going to wear one.” Smith, by his own admission, dresses far more conservatively than his winger. For that photograph alone, I’m staying up.