Ted Lasso is quite the underdog story, both on and off the show. With the first episode of season 4 now streaming on Apple TV we’re taking a look back at the story so far.
Originally based on a character Jason Sudeikis, Ted was first portrayed in a series of promos for NBC Sports’ coverage of the Premier League for American fans. The show itself follows Ted Lasso, an American college football coach who is hired to coach an English soccer team whose new owner Rebecca Welton secretly hopes his inexperience will lead it to failure as a final middle finger to her cheating ex husband; instead, Lasso’s unyielding kindness and optimistic leadership proves unexpectedly successful to the team and the club overall.
Season 1
The story begins with an absurd act of revenge. Rebecca Welton (played by Hannah Waddingham), the newly divorced owner of AFC Richmond, inherits the struggling English Premier League football club from her toxic ex-husband, Rupert Mannion (played by the late Anthony Head). Seeking revenge for his endless cheating and cruelty, Rebecca schemes to ruin the only thing Rupert ever truly loved: the team itself. To guarantee this, she hires Ted Lasso (played by Jason Sudeikis), an endlessly cheerful, moustache wielding American college football coach from Kansas who knows absolutely nothing about actual football.
Ted arrives in London alongside his stoic, mysterious best friend and assistant, Coach Beard (played by Brendan Hunt). From day one, Ted is met with brutal and harsh judgement from the British press, furious fans, and sceptical players. The locker room is heavily divided between two toxic factions. On one side is Jamie Tartt (played by Phil Dunster), an arrogant, gifted young superstar on loan from Manchester City whose selfish playstyle hinders the squad. On the other side is Roy Kent (played by Brett Goldstein), the veteran team captain whose knees are rapidly deteriorating, making him chronically ill-tempered and resistant to change.
Rather than trying to master football tactics overnight, Ted focuses entirely on emotional intelligence and culture. He erects his now infamous yellow paper “BELIEVE” sign above his office door, creates a “Diamond Dogs” support group with the admin staff, and treats everyone with full and non-judgemental empathy. After witnessing his eye for strategy, he promotes the team’s introverted and bullied kit man, Nathan “Nate” Shelley (played by Nick Mohammed), empowering him to share his tactical brilliance with the group. Ted also befriends Keeley Jones (played by Juno Temple), a charming model and influencer dating Jamie, who quickly becomes Rebecca’s closest friend and a force for positive self-worth within the club.
Behind the scenes, Rebecca works tirelessly to sabotage Ted, leaking photos to the press and transferring Jamie back to Manchester City just as he starts learning to play as a team player. However, Ted’s unwavering kindness, highlighted by his daily delivery of homemade shortbread biscuits, eventually breaks down Rebecca’s defences. Guilt-ridden, she confesses her sabotage to Ted, expecting to be shut out or publicly humiliated. Instead, Ted instantly forgives her, revealing that his own marriage is ending and that he understands the irrational things pain can cause a person to do.
By the end of the first season, Richmond faces Manchester City in an intense match to avoid relegation from the Premier League. Jamie Tartt, learning from Ted’s earlier advice to “extra-pass” when cornered, sets up the winning goal for Manchester City, officially condemning AFC Richmond to relegation to the Championship division. Devastated, Ted offers his resignation to Rebecca, but she refuses it. Together, they pledge to fight their way back up and win the whole thing.
Season 2
Season 2 shifts it’s focus from the fish-out-of-water comedy to a more deeper exploration of mental health, trauma, and identity as AFC Richmond navigates life in the second-tier league. The team is stuck in a frustrating draw streak, which prompts the club to bring in Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (played by Sarah Niles), a sharp, composed sports psychologist. Ted is initially deeply skeptical of therapy due to past personal trauma, but her presence becomes vital as the pressures on the squad continue to grow.
Jamie Tartt returns to Richmond after a disastrous stint on a reality dating show leaves his career in tatters. The team is hesitant to accept him back, but Jamie works hard to earn their forgiveness, guided by a newly retired Roy Kent, who transitions into a coaching role alongside Ted and Beard after trying to be a Football pundit and failing to censor himself for daytime TV. Roy also begins a relationship with Keeley, though both struggle to balance their expanding careers with personal vulnerabilities.
Meanwhile, Ted experiences severe, chaotic panic attacks on the side of the pitch, stemming from deep-seated grief surrounding his father’s suicide during his childhood. With Dr. Sharon’s steady guidance, Ted finally opens up about his mental health, confronting his emotional wounds rather than suppressing them beneath his constant positivity. However, when his panic attack forces him to leave the pitch during a crucial match, the incident is leaked to the press by an unknown source within the club.
That source is later to be revealed to be none other than Nate Shelley. Over the course of the season, Nate’s sudden taste of recognition transforms his insecurity into toxic bitterness. Hungry for credit and feeling overlooked by Ted, who has been distracted by his personal crisis, Nate grows increasingly cruel toward the new kit boy and the rest of the team. Seeking validation, Nate secretly feeds information to the press to undermine Ted, forming a dangerous alliance with Rupert Mannion, who purchases Richmond’s rival club West Ham United.
On the field, Richmond rallies around a rejuvenated playstyle, securing promotion back to the Premier League in a nail-biting final match. The victory is bittersweet, however, as Ted discovers the betrayal. Nate tears the iconic “BELIEVE” sign in half, abandons AFC Richmond, and takes the head coaching job at Rupert’s West Ham United, setting up a bitter cross-town rivalry to kick off in the third season.
Season 3
The third season centers on the clash between the toxic win-at-all-costs philosophy of Rupert and Nate at West Ham and the compassionate, holistic culture built at AFC Richmond. Pundits overwhelmingly predict Richmond will finish dead last in the Premier League, but Ted remains unwavering in his non-traditional approach.
Early in the season, Richmond struggles on the pitch. In a desperate attempt to compete, the club signs Zava (played by Maximilian Osinski), a world-famous, wildly eccentric superstar player. While Zava brings immediate victories, his dominant presence stifles the team’s unified growth. When Zava suddenly retires to focus on avocado farming, Richmond falls into a massive mid-season slump, forcing Ted to reinvent their tactics.
During a trip to Amsterdam, Ted conceives “Total Football”—a fluid, position-less system that relies entirely on total trust, selflessness, and communication among the players. The team fully embraces the system, embarking on a remarkable winning streak. Jamie Tartt steps into a leadership role as the engine of this new system, mentored by Roy Kent in a bond that evolves from bitter rivalry into deep, genuine friendship and some of the series best scenes between the pair of them.
Elsewhere, Nate experiences the hollow reality of success under Rupert’s cold, manipulative regime. Realizing that his ambition has isolated him from the people who truly cared about him, Nate experiences a quiet moral awakening. After seeing the error of his ways and even managing to impress a young woman working at his favourite restaurant, he quits West Ham, apologizes to the people he hurt, and takes a humble job at said restaurant before Richmond’s team council votes to welcome him back to the club as an assistant kit man to earn back their trust.
Off the field, every character reaches a pivotal crossroads. Rebecca finally lets go of her obsession with ruining Rupert, realizing that true victory is finding peace within herself rather than feeding on spite as well as finding love in Amsterdam. Keeley overcomes a disastrous setback to rebuild her PR firm with Rebecca’s financial backing. Ted, having successfully built his supportive community and processed his personal grief, realizes that his ultimate responsibility is to his son back in Kansas.
In the series climax, Richmond plays their final match of the season against Manchester City, needing a win to secure the Premier League title. In another iconic moment in the series, the players assemble the torn pieces of the “BELIEVE” sign, realizing they no longer need the physical paper because they internalize the sentiment. They reveal they each held onto a piece of the broken sign somewhere on their person or in their locker. Richmond wins the match in heroic fashion, though they ultimately finish second in the league by a single point—a triumph of spirit regardless of the trophy. Meanwhile Rupert finally has his true colours shown to the world with an outburst on the side of the pitch and is last seen skulking off while the crowd mocks him.
With his mission complete, Ted bids an emotional farewell to Richmond and returns home to America to coach his son’s soccer team and live a simple, present life. Roy Kent is named the new Head Coach of AFC Richmond, entering therapy with Dr. Sharon to work on his own personal growth. Rebecca sells a minority stake of the club to the fans and remains as owner, content and surrounded by family. As the original chapter closes, Keeley presents Rebecca with a proposal for a new project: an AFC Richmond women’s team, setting the stage for the next step in the story.
Season 4
Season 4 looks to bring Ted back to the UK and back to Richmond to help coach the new Women’s team that Keeley and Rebecca have been working on. While a few familiar faces are set to return, it does see the departure of the vast majority of the original cast we saw grow over 3 seasons of television. Time will tell if this move is a good one or bad but as long as we ‘Believe’ and carry the same heart as Ted then we cannot go too far wrong. As Ted once said “be curious, not judgemental”
Ted Lasso Season 4 is due to drop onto Apple TV from the 5th August 2026.
