TFC 2012-2013 off-season general player moves/speculation/etc.

Personally I'm a bit shocked RE Garber's words about the Mellberg situation. I'll eat some crow on that one. I never thought last summer that the league would have interfered so judgmentally in a specific player signing. I figured if the league had interfered, it would have been due to TFC's overall DP situation (e.g., Frings + Koevermans injured but still on the books + JDG to Dallas but a big chunk of his salary still covered by Toronto + the hasty Hassli signing + Mellberg???).

Now mind you, MLS probably did interfere more vigorously in the case of TFC due to our history -- overpaying JDG; Mista; overpaying for Ecks & many others since 2007; the Plata signing & not knowing there was a hefty transfer fee due for him; etc. etc.

Also, it does seem like Garber lied, changing his story between this interview & his earlier words quoted above. I'm generally not happy with the league's lack of transparency. However, there is one explanation that would tie these changing stories together somewhat: likely Mariner & Co. wanted Mellberg, but perhaps MLS went to the MLSE owners and convinced them that Mellberg wasn't worth it: too much money for a defender in a lost season.

Firstly: why aren't we posting in the "in-season" thread.. or is the OP for that one not cool enough?! You can tell me; I'll let him down easy on the news. =p

Right.. I wonder if this revelation puts a new face on the infamous DeRo fiasco. Many, then, thought it possible that, as he was promised they would, management, indeed, approached the league RE: his becoming a DP. I suppose it's no shocker that they step in when it comes to these sort of major designated player signings, especially given our track-record. They might have thought that the DP initiative would be compromised, with many teams possibly being frightened off from employing it, after seeing all the abject failure for signings that have come through. Not to mention that the league must have been reluctant to set the precedence of a life-time MLSer becoming a DP -- understandable for them to have a moment's pause, before allowing a club doing as poorly as ours to set this precedent (v.s. their most winningest club in DCU); they seem a bit more open to it since then, mind.

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Originally Posted by Auzzy

Personally I'm a bit shocked RE Garber's words about the Mellberg situation. I....

Also, it does seem like Garber lied, changing his story between this interview & his earlier words quoted above.

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People in management positions lie sometimes. They have to. What does a manager say to the employee who has heard a rumour that he is going to be canned, when the manager knows it could be true but can't say anything yet? 99% of the time the manager lies, and it's usually not because he/she is an asshole, or trying to cheat the employee.

It's a question of context and motive. Some execs think that, because you have to lie on rare occasion, what the hell, it justifies lying all the time. It's a slippery slope. We've seen a couple of those associated with our team. (But that's a different topic.)

Garber understood what was going on here and was obviously working on getting the message through to MLSE's new owners. These things couldn't be done through the newspapers. Remember, the sale hadn't closed. There wasn't a lot he could really do other than protect us the way he did. He had the long term interest of our franchise at heart when absolutely nobody else in the universe did. He was our only friend in 2012. (Let's be clear, this wasn't altruism, he also didn't want these clowns to continue screwing the league salary structure up. That was his other motive, and it was a biggie.)

I salute him for it.

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Originally Posted by JuliquE

Firstly: why aren't we posting in the "in-season" thread.. or is the OP for that one not cool enough?! You can tell me; I'll let him down easy on the news. =p

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We'll continue the discussion here, in Lucky Strike's thread:

http://forums.redpatchboys.ca/showth...peculation-etc