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Damien
01-11-2009, 11:15 AM
Right place, wrong time

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/blogs/2009/01/10/johnston_blog_deguzman/

Reports of Julian de Guzman's demise were not greatly exaggerated.

In the wake of being named 2008 Adidas Canadian male soccer player of the year (http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/2009/01/09/deguzman_player_of_year/) the 28-year-old fielded questions from a handful of media during a Friday afternoon conference call. After the obligatory remarks about being honoured and reminiscing over the hot and cold year for the Deportivo La Coruna midfielder, I fired the leading question concerning his future in the game.

"There are some offers coming from Germany, Spain and England. We are still waiting to see which are the concrete ones," de Guzman replied from his home in Spain. "For me, after four years of playing here I think I have developed and learned a lot. I wouldn't mind staying another three or four years here (in Spain)."

In truth, de Guzman played himself out of a new contract in north Spain when he was named the club's player of the year in 2008. The perennial mid-table Deportivo face a massive team debt (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=607799&&cc=5901) and do not anticipate signing or re-signing any players out of contract. The situation means that de Guzman will leave town under the landmark Bosman rule (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marc_Bosman).

Already the suitors are lining up.

A few months back the rumour surfaced (as it generally does) that Toronto FC director of soccer Mo Johnston and head coach John Carver were interested in bringing the Canadian on board (http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/blogs/2008/09/18/dobson_designated_player_tfc/) in the magical designated player spot. It was laughable; but it also persisted for much longer than the usual navel gazing.

So in the second and final phase of the leading question, I asked JDG about the MLS interest, TFC in specific.

He confirmed.

"Only one (MLS offer). (It) was from TFC; that is the only one."

The awkward silence that followed the confirmation spoke louder than the 10-word response. It confirmed that Major League Soccer is not the place for a current La Liga club player of the year to continue his career. It is a simple case of expectation falling well short of ambition. The North American league of nomads, collegiate promise and last-ride paycheques will have to wait for JDG's talents to diminish that little bit more where a reserve spot with one of Europe's notables is indeed a lesser option than a starting 11 spot in Toronto.

It's too bad; because while JDG is not bigger than Beckham, he is better, and could inflict some serious damage in this league.


--


Chelsea FC vs Manchester United - Game of the year, Jan 11th 2008 Thread (http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=8789)

Sunshine Girl (http://www.torontosun.com/sunshinegirl/)
Page 3 Girl (http://www.page3.com/index2.shtml#main-image) :D

Sonny Cheeba
01-11-2009, 11:19 AM
i wonder if TFC made an offer just to appease the supporters. i mean there's no chance they could get him.

Billy the kid
01-11-2009, 12:09 PM
i wonder if TFC made an offer just to appease the supporters. i mean there's no chance they could get him.
They have nothing to lose by offering.;)

wzhxvy
01-11-2009, 12:20 PM
I really do not see why its so outlandish to expect him to come here. After all, money talks. If they offered him a $10M per year contract, you think he wouldnt come ? Of course he wont come for equal/similar money. The issue is that MLSE have to see a way to get their money back. Absent of a stadium expansion, they have no reason to offer that kind of money because they wont recoup the $10M. When they expand the stadium (on someone else's dime) they will be looking to spend serious money to actually get someone here that would not have come otherwise. Nothing laughable about offering him a contract...its laughable to expect him to come for similar money.

wzhxvy
01-11-2009, 12:21 PM
:eek: SSG

Pigfynn
01-11-2009, 01:34 PM
i wonder if TFC made an offer just to appease the supporters. i mean there's no chance they could get him.

Our managament and people in the front office at TFC should always make offers for the players they want.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to support a club that thinks so little of itself as to not even make offers to players it wants. It doesn't matter if someone will come or not, it doesn't matter if in fact we aren't a big enough club to attract a player like JDG. The club can never act second class. There are enough people around the world and even within this supporters group that think this whole MLS operation is a laughing stock...the club can't ever behave that way.

All clubs had to make their start.

Beach_Red
01-11-2009, 01:45 PM
All clubs had to make their start.

This is exactly right. There are a lot of reasons why players don't want to come to MLS or TFC - over time many of those reasons will fall away. But there won't be any clear cut dividing line, it'll happen slowly, so the team has to make lots of offers to get a few acceptances.

wzhxvy
01-11-2009, 01:49 PM
Oh cmon guys, how about saying what you mean, and meaning what you say. That is a pretty basic requirement. TFC FO has been a joke and has had so many mishaps. So if they want to make a start...lets make a start by developing a tradition of winning, and not yap to the media about all the great things they plan to do, and then do very little. I am expecting big things out of the draft in terms of trades etc...so I have a wait and see attitude right now. Lets see.

jloome
01-11-2009, 02:36 PM
:eek: SSG

Man, I know both the photographer and the model and I don't know how they managed to make her look dismal. She's smoking.

You get a better idea from the closeup in shot 7.

Marc"2L"
01-11-2009, 02:45 PM
Page 3 could use a chip butty

Beach_Red
01-11-2009, 02:57 PM
Oh cmon guys, how about saying what you mean, and meaning what you say. That is a pretty basic requirement. TFC FO has been a joke and has had so many mishaps. So if they want to make a start...lets make a start by developing a tradition of winning, and not yap to the media about all the great things they plan to do, and then do very little. I am expecting big things out of the draft in terms of trades etc...so I have a wait and see attitude right now. Lets see.

Okay, I'll say what I mean. TFC FO isn't a joke. It started off small - almost a one man operation and that was a joke, but no one had any faith in pro soccer in Toronto as it had failed so many times in the past.

Over the past two season the FO has improved - in size and in quality - they just added a new goalie coach a couple days ago so it's still very much a work in progress and it still has a way to go, but they have made more proper steps than misteps.

I expect this year the team will win the Canadian Championship and make the playoffs and after next year it will be very rare for the team to miss the playoffs.

Mojo
01-11-2009, 04:31 PM
SSG =

http://www.horizonmagazine.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/gourmet-butter.jpg

wzhxvy
01-11-2009, 07:32 PM
Man, I know both the photographer and the model and I don't know how they managed to make her look dismal. She's smoking.

You get a better idea from the closeup in shot 7.

Agree, shot 7 is much better.

Yohan
01-11-2009, 07:54 PM
SSG: hot body. face like she's molded out of play doh. put a paper bag over her head plz

Razcle
01-11-2009, 10:39 PM
^ That would be a fantasic option. Click an icon to put a bag over her face. Then you can judge how much the face actually hurts the body.

mohawk
01-11-2009, 11:05 PM
I always love the comments when it comes to the SSG. It either sounds like a total lie, or too good to be true. Plus, when they mention the age, it's usually about 10 years off. I like a football message board that comments the SSG. BRAVO!