There has been a lot of banter over the last few weeks regarding Martin Rennie and his uncertain future here in Vancouver. I thought I’d weigh in with my thoughts on the situation and why Martin Rennie should stay, for now.

He was widely regarded as a saviour for the club when it was revealed he would be taking over for Tom Soehn to start the 2012 campaign. His signing was seen as a coup for Bob Lenarduzzi and the front office – bringing in a young, highly regarded coach to grow with the expansion MLS franchise.

He had enjoyed unprecedented levels of success in USL-2 and USL-1 prior to joining the Caps, most impressively transforming a perennially poor Carolina RailHawks club into a league power and earning himself four consecutive Coach of the Year nominations.

The move paid immediate dividends for the Vancouver side. He lifted an abysmal Whitecaps team in 2011 to a 15-point improvement and a playoff appearance in his first year.

Rennie’s defensive approach to the game also led to a significant drop in goals against and an MLS record shutout streak of 427 minutes to start a season. Things were off to a pretty good start for Mr. Rennie and the Whitecaps and thusly, I propose that Martin Rennie has been Martin Rennie’s worst adversary.

A string of poor results down the stretch in 2012 meant the club backed into playoffs. The bitter taste became downright sour after they secured an early lead in their playoff game versus the favoured LA Galaxy, only to see it evaporate in a span of five minutes in the 2^nd half. Despite these facts, expectations grew on the back of a positive start to the campaign.

The first big step had been made; the next was to be taken this season.

Instead, what we saw was pretty much a repeat performance of 2012, with one major difference. After spending much of the first half near the top of table and then putting together another dreadful string of games to end the season, the Caps postseason dreams came crashing down last week.

Yes, it’s bad and no, it probably shouldn’t have happened. They squandered away valuable points against weaker opponents in the final month.

But what’s not to be missed in all of this is the fact that despite their shortcomings, this Vancouver Whitecaps team is stronger than the 2012 version.

This season under Martin Rennie they improved their win total. They improved their point total. They improved their hardware total with their first Cascadia Cup since entering MLS. They showed they have some dynamic pieces in place going forward.

And yes, Manager Martin certainly made some mistakes along the way: the revolving starting XI, the square pegs into round holes, the ‘why wasn’t Kekuta Manneh utilized earlier?,’ the ‘why was Jun Marques Davidson utilized so much?,’ the development (or lack thereof) of young players and so on and so forth. But enough ink has been spilled on these.

Instead, let’s remember that Martin Rennie is already the third coach in Caps history. That in and of itself shouldn’t be reason to keep a coach employed, but you can’t argue that a little consistency wouldn’t be nice. There is something to be said for stable leadership.

Let’s take note of Russell Teibert’s development, along with flashes from the likes of youngsters Tommy Heinemann and Kekuta Manneh. Jordan Harvey has put in his finest season in MLS. Camilo has asserted himself amongst the elite strikers in MLS.

Let’s remember that Martin Rennie is only going to get better. He will continue to learn and improve and after having granted him two seasons of MLS experience, why would it make sense for Whitecaps FC to jettison him now?

Let us see what Martin Rennie can bring to the table in 2014. Let him demonstrate lessons learned through experience. And give him the opportunity to lift this club to the heights of our inflated expectations.

I think he’s earned that, Rennie, at least.