Never doubted KJ for a moment and I am happy he has been vindicated.Originally Posted by bgnewf
Never doubted KJ for a moment and I am happy he has been vindicated.
It's no secret I am not Preki fan...but I certainly would prefer a team that only has Preki over a team that has Preki AND Mo.
Mo needs to go. There just isn't any point in talking about it anymore, MLSE needs to simply do it.
Not about PLAYING on it.... being a spokesperson for it.
It's not about speaking out... a captain doesn't let stuff like rifts get out.
It's handled internally.
With the media:
- You defend your teammates even if you don't like him.
- You can motivate your teammates by calling them out in the media... without calling them out.
And it's about respect as well.
It's like Wagner says... you're the "union rep" for the team. If there is an issue with the team you go to management to rectify it.
For example, Cummins mentioned "bonuses" about the RM match. Maybe Mo said something like "you guys aren't getting bonuses" and the guys go ape shit tell Brennan to do something about it as captain and he doesn't. Or maybe Brennan and Dichio don't see eye to eye on something.
Long story short... you're the captain... your biggest responsibility to make sure most of the guys in the locker room get along and if they don't... you have to fix it or find a solution.
That's what irritates me about this locker room rift.
Should have read the whole post Wags.
It's a good one.
Did the players finally find out about Brennan?
Did he retire early because he couldn't face being in the same locker room with some of the guys who probably called him out the previous year?
Again, the early retirement was also odd.
QFT - I have heard this from several different people - that once Mo and Barry are out of the picture (and hopefully someone who has any idea of how to conduct themselves in a professional business-like manner comes in) we'll see a difference in the players who we could sign.
I mean, no disrespect to some of these guys, but Mo signs two guys who've already retired from football and from what I've been told Eastern Euros/Russians are generally the cheap/bottom of the barrel options when dealing with player agents. Cann held firm to his worth and would have walked away but Mo had no other choice but to sign him.
Anselmi, time is up. Stop hiding your problem and fix it once and for all. This is disgraceful.
It's too bad this interview is getting so much more interest than the article Paul James wrote about the difference in front office set-up between TFC and Vancouver.
It would be nice if Anselmi fixed the problem once and for all, as you say, but first it would be good to determine the depth of the problem. Maybe it all starts and stops with one guy, maybe not.
Listen I agree with you. This is a circus. To have Paul and Tom greeting the players after the win, is a joke. Paul has no business doing that and Mo should have been there instead or with Tom. That display tells me either Mo is already fired (or has been told he is until a replacement is found), or Tom thinks this kind of leadership is OK.
I hope for the sake of the team that its a signal that Tom is saying I am in charge until we replace the red headed monster. If Tom thinks its OK to act in that manner, then we have a bigger problem (aka signing Mo to an extension in secret)...if that is how he does business, god help us.
Just watched it..
Ouch..
I imagine when Mo was trying to persuade jimmy to give up on europe and come over, he was promised a management job when he was done, so he probably didn't want to speak out too much in case he pissed Mo off. Which is really not ideal in a captain who should have the players back against management.
as for dressing room splits, I'd love to know what was going on there, but De Ro certainly looks a lot happier and more productive now that lots of people have left and he's been made captain than he did towards the end of last year.
In Defence of Kristian Jack
My take on the interview today
http://www.tfcpics.com
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For the record, I have a few friends I have met through supporting Toronto FC that work at The Score Sports Channel. None of them are named Kristian Jack.
I have never met the man but I consider myself a fan of his work. I watch the Footy Show religiously and download/listen to the podcasts whenever I can. My only issue with the man is his choice of English Premiership sides he supports. He can’t be blamed for being a Villa Fan I guess.
Connected TFC fans will of course know that Kristian has been quite critical of many things Toronto FC, especially the product on the pitch. And he certainly has not been alone on that front. However I think some fans are not getting the fact that journalism and opinion are two different things. Sometimes outspoken journalists can at times appear to have an agenda and they use their reporting to push a specific agenda along. I do not think that is the case with Kristian Jack.
In the press conference announcing the retirement of Captain Jim Brennan, a reporter asked Jim and Mo to comment on a piece written by Kristian that stated that there were serious issues between groups of players in the locker room during the tail end of Toronto FC’s unsuccessful campaign in 2009 to get into the playoffs. Both Mo and Jimmy then proceeded to state that this was an outright lie and that the source of the piece (Kristian) could not be trusted to report the truth. It was arguably the biggest slap down a journalist has received from TFC since the inception of the team.
In the last 10 days Kristian has scored interviews with both Ali Gerba and former Interim Head Coach Chris Cummins that in both instances confirm what Kristian alleged about the dissention in the locker room was absolutely true.
Some TFC fans are questioning both the content of the interviews and the timing of their release. The Score confirmed that the interview with Cummins was done yesterday afternoon, so there was no inherent “plan” to try and get back at TFC for slagging them
It is not Kristian Jack's job to break news at a time and place of Toronto FC's convenience.
It is his job to try and get interviews and break news that others do not have. With Gerba and now Cummins, he appears to have done that. And the fact that in certain aspects of each interview two separate sources are publicly backing KJs previous assertion, that Mo and Brennan BOTH denied by the way, of dissention in the locker room last season is newsworthy is it not??
Some fans on the message boards are implying that he was sitting on this interview for a bit and intentionally posted this today just to take the piss out of TFC after a nice win yesterday. I don't buy it.
Ben Knight said in his excellent Onward Soccer blog last week that the talk in the press box, where he watches each home game, is that virtually all of the Toronto press that cover the club do not believe most of what comes out of the mouth of Mo Johnston. If that is again the case where is the "agenda"???
At the end of last season Anselmi gave an interview where he said they were pleased with the job Mo was doing and he talked about all kinds of stuff off the field. He said they ealuated all that.
From the very beginning people should have been more concerned that they had one inexperienced guy setting up the whole expansion team. Never mind the particular guy and how people feel about him personally, setting up an entirely new team shouldn't have been up to one guy.
Maybe MLSE think because they're in the sports business they didn't need more executives. Maybe they thought they didn't need to spend the money. How much is Vancouver spending on Lenarduzzi, Paul Barber and Soehn? A lot more than TFC are paying for one guy.
Who knows, maybe they have some scouts, too.
But hey, it worked. TFC hired one guy instead of three and he takes all the heat. Now all they have to do to "clean up the mess" is dump the one guy. And replace him with one guy.
Dos anyone think Vancouver is going to miss the playoffs for its first three years in MLS?
I'm not sure what you mean, but I can assure you, I have commented repeatedly, at the time it was announced and later, on how much it bothered me that Captain Brennan took the job as paying spokesperson for Fieldturf, in opposition to the true interest of the club and its fans.
And yes, I do understand his right to make a living. He was entitled to do it. You and I didn't have to like it.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Maybe it was Mancs v Scousers
Crazy shit storm. What bugs me is this Canadian-American rift thing. What the hell could that be about?
Uh no, we don't need fiction to cloud this already cloudy situation. Jimmy didn't deny a locker-room rift, he denied that HE had a blow up with Preki.
And Gerba suggested Jimmy was unhappy, he didn't say he'd blown up at Preki.
So we still have not seen a sourced version of that story.
But generally, yeah, he's doing a good job of talking to the right people.
Much as I appreciate his investigative journalism, a certain part of me would love to see KJs face if MLSE bought The Score
My question is this?
How much of this is the FO aware of? I must think that they know and this is not new to them. Is that 5 year contract signed with any clause that we have to endure the presence of Mo until the contract runs out?
and once he departs would the skeletons ever leave the closet?
rr
Again, I've had this debate on here before, presented numerous occasions where Jack and the guys at the Score and other channels have been too aggressive in non-sourced material that later turns out to be wrong.
So please, get off the high fucking horse. I've been a reporter and editor for over 20 years and nobody --- NOBODY -- covers this team well. Molinaro comes closest, but again, whether through limitations of time, experience or demand, he hasn't scored some of the interviews he should have.
Jack has. But that's a long way from being consistently accurate with public sources. And your explanation of his handling of the Jimmy blowup thing is just wack, because if Ali's interview was his source, he torqued it well beyond what Gerba said.
I don't think Kristian has an agenda any different from any other broadcast journalist -- to get tape, get a good story, keep their job. But that doesn't equate to good coverage. This team receives zero good beat coverage.
For an example of how it SHOULD be done, read Steve Goff at the Washington Post. For one thing, his accuracy track record over the last four years is right around 99%.
Well if KJ can complete the trifecta and get Robinson to spill the beans I'm sure he'd have the most damaging info yet.
Surely it'd be enough to toss Mo out on his ass
Last edited by Stryker; 04-26-2010 at 03:50 PM.
Maybe we should get Goff to look at TFC and figure out what's going on...
All due respect Jeremy, but (and I'm not a journalist), isn't it considered poor form to print a story with unnamed sources that aren't backed up by more than one source? Just because Ali was the only one who came forward (until CC anyways) doesn't mean KJ didn't talk to others who chose to speak off the record. As to KJ's level of competence/success, comparing everyone to the best in the business isn't really that fair. Goff's the best for a reason. The beat writers covering TFC are all fairly new to this, they don't have extensive contacts around the league (as Goff does), they're feeling their way out. And dealing with a front office that may as well be run by Goebbels. They'll get better.
Back on track: this whole mess seems like it won't get properly sorted out until the principles are removed. As was already mentioned, once Mo is gone I'd imagine we'll see quite a few more former players and possibly managers speaking out. Maybe one day we'll really know what happened in the first 3.5 years at TFC. It'd make for a hell of a book (HEY! Maybe that was Mo's master plan all along...)
Jloome, how accurate do you think CC's assessment of his TFC experience is?
This thread isn't about the quality of Jack's coverage…it's about what Chris Cummins said in his interview about his time at TFC.
Like any "former" employee there will be a degree of bitterness but what I find interesting is what Cummins has said, for the most part, isn't new(s). We've heard most of this stuff before.
As a journalist, if a key figure tells you something (especially on tape) you have to make a decision is this guy telling me the truth/do I run with this story? But this isn't a story…it's an interview…being told in his (CC) words not Jack's. If KJ had written this in his blog…I agree…its hearsay…but its an interview.
By the way…what’s the name of your horse.
“We changed the entire league’s opinion of the viability of soccer in North America. And then we blew it because we chickened out." —Tim Leiweke
Or who do you write for? I'd like to see what 20 years of experience gets you these days.
it looks like jimmy and dichio were both force off the team
They're aware of all of this. They just feel that for the money they're spending, it's acceptable.
If they wanted a better run front office, they'd spend more on it.
KJ has been trying to get Robbo to commit to an interview. Not surprisingly, considering he's still a player in the league (under MLS contract, not NYRB contract) he's got some professional concerns. What seems clear though is that with Gerba and Cummings already airing a lot of problems, the pressure is off Robbo to 'break' the story so hopefully the odds of him agreeing to an interview have gone up.
If you aren't yet convinced Mo Johnston should be fired, then Kristen Jack's interview with Chris Cummins should do it. Mo is the real cancer on this franchise.
TORONTO FC, 2017 MLS CHAMPIONS!!! (Still the greatest in league history!)
Anyway you slice it, MoJo getting negative press in the mainstream media is a very good thing.
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