Terry Smith (football)

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Terry Smith is an American-born businessman, who achieved notoriety for his spell as owner of Chester City from 1999 to 2001.

He bought the club in the summer of 1999 and despite giving manager Kevin Ratcliffe money to spend on new players, Ratcliffe quit the job four games into the season, citing interference from Smith. In an interview in the magazine FourFourTwo a few months later, Ratcliffe said that if he saw Smith on fire he wouldn't do anything to help him.

What happened next stunned the supporters as, despite having minimal knowledge of football, he took over full control of the first team instead of hiring a new manager. An awful run of form followed, with the club losing most of the following matches, falling to bottom of the table and only having a decent chance of staying up due to the fact that the second and third bottom clubs, York and Carlisle weren't doing much better. Smith's training methods were slated, and there was even one instance of the side visiting a fast-food restaurant for a meal right before a critical relegation match (which resulted in a heavy defeat). Eventually Smith stood down as manager and Ian Atkins was appointed, but by this time York had pulled themselves out of danger, and while Carlisle were still doing badly they kept pace with Chester, and Chester were relegated from the league on the final day of the 1999-2000 season.

Atkins left, and fan favourite Graham Barrow returned as manager, as did another former manager, Harry McNally in a consultancy role. However, McNally quit after a couple of weeks, slating Smith in the process. With a completely rebuilt team, Barrow managed a respectable ninth place and won the Conference Trophy in the 2000-2001 season, and the side was mentioned as possible promotion contenders for the next season. In spite of this, Smith sacked Barrow, branding the season a failure, and appointed Gordon Hill, who he also stated was the manager he wanted to appoint instead of Barrow.

Chester made a dreadful start to the 2001-2002 season, winning only one of their first twelve matches. Protests against Smith were now worse than ever, and there was even a firebombing of his home (which fortunately didn't result in serious damage). Smith finally sold his interest in the club and left in October 2001, bringing an end to what was widely regarded as the most disastrous period in the club's history.