Onward! -- A Designated Player bedtime story

[Ben Knight]

http://onwardsoccer.com/2009/01/09/tap-water-and-prunes/

;-) // Ben

[Nodoubtguy]

hahahahaha......Ben, Thanks for making me smile this morning!!

[TorontoBlades]

wow!

[Velvet Elvis]

:lol:

Fantastic !!!!

[CoachGT]

Brilliant!

[wzhxvy]

Very nice..all it need was the mother to call the neighbour to explain why the DP is a bad thing...ala TFC :-)

[TFC OZZ]

Ben, you always impress me.

[denime]

This article made my day.:smilielol5:

[Cambridge_Red]

Very good point. A great example being LAG

[BuSaPuNk]

This article made my day.:smilielol5:

I second that. Great one Ben! :hump:

[scooter]

thanks ben made my day two
good aliteration
keep up the good work -- your articles are way better now that you got away from that globe and mail place -- were they restraining your blogs?

[Parkdale]

I drink tap water and like prunes (and dates too).

[Keyman]

Although I don't agree with the sentiment displayed in the article, and basically this boards attitude toward DPs..... That was still a very entertaining article, keep up the good work!

[TFCREDNWHITE]

Nice read Ben.

But with all the allocation we're sitting on, there is more than enough room for a DP.

You think DeRo is our 30 year old, NON DP, but i want DP money, saving grace!? I regretfully think that his addition alone cannot bring us the Hardware that we should be gunning for....

I'm basically saying i want DeRo and a DP.

[flatpicker]

^ by counting on allocation money to make room for a DP, would we not be setting ourselves up for a salary crash in 2010 when much of that allocation money is no longer available? Unless there is a way to make some contracts a little "front heavy", and thus have a smaller payroll after this year, I don't see how it can be productive beyond one season.

[TFC Cityboy]

kin ' ell...Ben...time for a kids book, mate. Class!

[TFCREDNWHITE]

^ by counting on allocation money to make room for a DP, would we not be setting ourselves up for a salary crash in 2010 when much of that allocation money is no longer available? Unless there is a way to make some contracts a little "front heavy", and thus have a smaller payroll after this year, I don't see how it can be productive beyond one season.

Yeah but lets worry about that when we get 2010. A new CBA should be in effect for 2010...In the mean time, lets play some WINNING footy!

[brad]

Yeah but lets worry about that when we get 2010. A new CBA should be in effect for 2010...In the mean time, lets play some WINNING footy!

And when it doesn't allow enough room, you'll be happy with watch players like Marco Reda and Adam Braz again?

Mortgaging your future based on speculation of that nature is never a good idea. A bit like racking up your credit cards - fun while you do, but eventually you're going to suffer.

[flatpicker]

^ well that's just it... you are gambling that the salary cap will go up enough to cover the extra expenditures. Believe me, I hope it does, but given the current economic times, it's hard to say what will happen. I would just hate to see TFC screwed in a year and lose key players because of big spending in 2009. Perhaps MLS has given teams some secretive insight into where the 2010 salary cap might go, which would allow clubs to make moves this year with and eye on the future.

[Beach_Red]

^ well that's just it... you are gambling that the salary cap will go up enough to cover the extra expenditures. Believe me, I hope it does, but given the current economic times, it's hard to say what will happen. I would just hate to see TFC screwed in a year and lose key players because of big spending in 2009. Perhaps MLS has given teams some secretive insight into where the 2010 salary cap might go, which would allow clubs to make moves this year with and eye on the future.

Yes, it's gambling, but really, go big or go home.

If the big spending in 2009 pays off, great. If it doesn't start over, but I hate the, "perpetually planning for the future team," that never quite wins anything.

Would you rather have one Championship team every 5-6 years or a 2nd place team every year?

Now, of course, you may say the third year of the team's existence isn't the year to try and go big, and you may have a point....

[JonO]

Yeah but lets worry about that when we get 2010. A new CBA should be in effect for 2010...In the mean time, lets play some WINNING footy!
Yeah - but that means signing people to 1-year contracts. Good luck with that one...

[Beach_Red]

Yeah - but that means signing people to 1-year contracts. Good luck with that one...

Yeah, you're right. I always forget on here that there's actual negotiation - it always seems on here that it's entirely up to TFC and if they don't get what they want it's because they screwed up.

[Cashcleaner]

Digested the article, but I don't buy it. Just as one player isn't likely to carry a team, he's probably not going to destroy it either.

There's no reason to talk about the DP in absolute extremes.

[kelzag]

So when the day arrives and we do sign a DP can we toss prunes on the pitch and blame Ben? ;)

Great read as always, Ben!

[rocker]

but I hate the, "perpetually planning for the future team," that never quite wins anything.


sure, but TFC doesn't really have a past (2 seasons is nuthin) so planning for the future is all we got.

if we had 10 seasons and still hadn't done squat, and we were still getting the "planning for the future" line I'd be pissed. but very few teams in sports history talk in that way for more than a few seasons. at some point all ownerships want to win and the line gets old.

with TFC we had 25 points first season, 35 points second season... that's quite a nice trend in improvement (40% gain in points). If we have a 40% gain next season, we'd be near the top of the league. but trends take time to observe.

the prudent thing would be to see if you can have success without a DP.. that would be sweet.

[LucaGol]

Lucky for us, Mo got us some extra oranges and gatorade by trading away players that could have been in our starting 11, helping us make the playoffs last season.

[Mark in Ottawa]

very few teams in sports history talk in that way for more than a few seasons.
Isn't it usually "the five year plan"?
That seems to be the "make it or break it" period for most sports franchises in North America. 5 years to capture the fans imaginations and then their hearts. If they don't then they are either history or just a stagnant shell.