Originally Posted by
Defoe
Tim x 2 (with the blessing of MLSE) brought in the core players leading to those championships and finals appearances from 2014-2019. The Giovinco + Defoe (Altidore) + Bradley signings that put us over the edge were implemented by Tim. Definitely Giovinco, Bradley and Defoe (becoming Altidore) were the main pieces. Bradley and Altidore were also apart of 2019.
Management invested 100 + million in Defoe (Altidore) Bradley and Giovinco. That 100 million dollar investment was an attempt to propel us to elite status in MLS, put us on the map and become a top tier team in MLS.
Bill Manning likely had his hands on Pozuelo and Gonzalez, which is encouraging, but I haven't seen that tandem bring in an audacious move like a Giovinco type player and we do not make 3/4 finals or CCL finals appearances without a player like that.
This team is not "all in" and over committing like 2014-2018, that's just factual at this point. Piatti on a free transfer and a salary of 1.6 million is not even close to what management has spent on DP's in the recent past, so it's at the very least a temporary step back or pause.
Right now, I don't think anybody know's how this the team is going to be run long term. It has more to do with MLSE then it does Ali Curtis or Bill Manning.
Let's not judge this team based on what they have done, let's focus on the now - and the future.
They seem to be in a hybrid model similar to 2015-2018 TFC (still ambitious) with a little bit of the tamement of a good New York Red Bulls team.
The 2014-2018 hyper spending of TFC, (spending like mad men) which brought us our glory has no indication it will continue. If was likely an experiment, not a financial or club model.
It's hard to say what the results of that experiment were or if they were satisfied with the results.
Because the club is not communicating with the fan base, we don't know what type of investment or commitment will be here over the next 5 years.
We will still be top 5 in payroll but not sure if we will continue to be #1 after the Altidore deal