I looked up Saturdays game, Wolves vs Burnley, and David Edgar played the entire game, but I'm not sure if he was used as a central midfield like it says on yahoo.uk. Regardless, he still played the entire game.Originally Posted by nonc
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I looked up Saturdays game, Wolves vs Burnley, and David Edgar played the entire game, but I'm not sure if he was used as a central midfield like it says on yahoo.uk. Regardless, he still played the entire game.
Freddy Hall lived in America for 9 years; pretty sure he has a green card
good news. i didn't know about the most recent game, but leading up it seemed like he was on the outside looking in.
he's been a starter all year long...he isn't going to leave europe even if he lost his place at burnley
that's why even if the situation was bad (which it's not), i remained skeptical of his interest in MLS as per my post.
although starting can't be the best judge, Robson owned The Championship before coming to Whitecaps.
Robson played half a season. he really sucks if he bombs next season too. some players take a while to get used to MLS
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Robson was 33 and had played his part in the UK soccer scene...he'd be almost 35 before his first opportunity to play in the premier league, if his club got promoted; he saw the writing on the wall; he'd never be a premier league player...Edgar is 25 and has many years a head of him...comparing the two is not a fair comparison...playing in MLS is a fallback for the North American players over in Europe
buut...Robson was good for the Whitecaps. He's better than MLS-Frings and i don't think many would say Frings overall performance has been terrible.
IMO, the reason why Barry Robson and Kenny Miller failed in Vancouver was the field turf. They just weren't used to that type of playing surface. They will be gone though.
I thought Robson was pretty good actually, for him anyway. I expected little and never saw him as a legit DP.
Miller is overrated crap. Had one real good season with Rangers and then all shite. He is the Scottish Chad Barrett although his misses are even more aggravating. Saw him blow 3 sitters in the Celtic Cup last year in Dublin. Scotland should have had that match in the bag if only he could finish at all. Instead I got to see Keane doing his back flip thing. Terrible.
Thought id come here and just run through the state of our roster and whats on our mind. Basically I feel like soon we're going to be at a good group of players those players would be...
- Stefan Frei (GK) $120,000 $175,000
- Milos Kocic (GK) $44,100 $44,100
- Quillan Roberts (GK) $33,750 $33,750
- Richard Eckersley (DEF) $210,000 $390,000
- Logan Emory (DEF) $44,000 $44,000
- Darren O'dea (DEF) $330,000 $436,250
- Doneil Henry (DEF) $44,100 $45,100
- Ashtone Morgan (DEF) $44,000 $56,000
- Luis Silva (MID) $44,000 $79,000
- Eric Avila (MID) $125,000 $158,000
- Terry Dunfield (MID) $86,000 $86,000
- Matt Stinson (MID) $44,000 $44,000
- Reggie Lambe (MID) $60,000 $62,500
- Joao Plata (MID) $50,000 $50,000
- Justin Braun (FWD) $
- Quincy Amarikwa (FWD) $44,100 $44,100
- Eric Hassli (FWD) + (DP) $550,000 $790,000
- Ryan Johnson (FWD) $137,813 $137,813
That leaves us with eighteen players. That's 3 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 6 midfielders, 4 forwards. I think if we build up on this group of players we might have a solid season if you throw in the addition of players like a solid defender to partner O'dea, and a general midfielder from MLS.
I left out players like... trade or buy them out.
- Jeremy Hall (DEF) $100,000 $149,000
- Andrew Weideman (FWD) $80,000 $123,000
- Torsten Frings (MID) + (DP) - I just feel that even though he may have been playing injured he went from being a class above everybody on the pitch to just looking old and getting burned.
- Danny Koevermans (FWD) + (DP) - The fact that he may or may not come back healthy and in goal scoring form is to much of a 'maybe' to gamble on.
- Freddy Hall - Why on earth do we need four goalkeepers? Quillan Roberts has absolutely 0% chance of getting any playing time and growing as a player. $44,100 $44,100
You need to definitely build on that group of 18 players, mostly in the midfield and defence before the season starts. Then maybe if we have trouble finding goals take one of those designated player spots we'll have, and spend it on a player in europe.
^Asking MLSE to eat $4 million on Frings on Koevermans is tough. Payne is unlikely to want to have that conversation. Easier to just let them play out next year.
Payne hasn't promised much for 2013, and doesn't need to spend big incremental dollars next year.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
MLS is pretty specific in that you can only buy out one guaranteed contract during the year. If you do it in the offseason there is no budget charge.
You can waive as many as you want but they still count against your budget if they have guaranteed contracts. If you are over 24 and have 3 years in the MLS, you have a guaranteed contract. Semi guaranteed guys must be waived before July 1st to have their budget not count.
Jeremy Hall in guaranteed territory but I believe TFC did not exercise his contract option.
Wiedeman has 1 more year on his Generation Adidas contract. He incurs no budget charge.
Not sure about the status of Freddy. I suspect semi guaranteed.
Last edited by Pookie; 12-03-2012 at 07:06 PM.
no he graduates after 3 years, but has 1 (i thought maybe 2) option years, on his contract that do count against the cap if picked up
Bumping this with updated information. Our salary cap situation honestly looks pretty damn good. With the SuperDraft coming up, our draft picks will be no more than league minimum cap hits (if they're GA players, they'll essentially be "free" under the cap). This leaves a lot of flexibility.
Interesting to note that moving Ryan Johnson out and bringing in Justin Braun only saved $45K. Assuming Portland's first round pick is being paid the league minimum (as all non-GA rookies are), its perfectly balanced from a fiscal perspective.
Six spots left, assuming Eric Avila and Jeremy Hall still remain (only two remaining question marks for me, although I would prefer to keep Avila and trade Hall ASAP I'm sure Mariner and Payne have it vice versa). If we keep those two, plus sign two draft picks (assuming neither is GA), it leaves us four spots and $622K. We could sign another O'Dea-type non-DP max contract for a talented player and still have $270K remaining for three spots ($90K / per spot). Like I said before, our salary cap situation looks pretty damn good.
^ EDIT: Avila is most likely not going to be in Toronto next year and F. Hall is gone according to Larson.
If we sign the non-GA rookies, our cap looks to be around $660K with 6 spots remaining. Still looks good, but there are a lot of spaces to fill. No point in letting cap space go to waste.
Justin Braun is making over 100+ a year. The Impact and RSL didn't see anything in him. TFC decides to take a chance on him. Fine, no problem. BUT FOR OVER 100K A YEAR??????????? Come on!! He is the 7th highest paid player on the roster!!1
These are the type of things that kill Toronto. YOU CAN'T OVERPAY FOR MEDIOCRE CRAPPY TALENT
Now at 21 players w/ Califf
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
How many players do we need and how much cap space do we have? Any standouts on who we should mabye pursue?
I calculate using current salary list with 21 players at 2.8 mil using minimum salary figures. Now only top 20 salary counts, and we don't know what the new contract is for Morgan, Hall, Henry, Califf and Wiedeman. Add in a bit of allocation money, and TFC still has a little bit of wiggle room (cap for 2013 is 2.95 mil). Likely TFC will add a GA player from draft, maybe two players from overseas in Jan. I expect couple of min wage players to fill out the roster. Ideally I'd like to see 28 players, but I think minimum is 25 players going into pre season
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
The saga continues! along with the complete lack of any real scouting.
Depth chart 14 Dec
----------------------GK
----------------------Frei
---------------------Bendik
--------------------Roberts
RB------------CB---------CB--------LB
Eckersley----Califf------O'Dea-----Morgan
Hall----------Henry-----Emory-------?
RM----------DM----------CM--------LM
Lambe------Frings-------Silva------Plata
?------------Dunfield------?----------?
?------------Stinson-------?----------?
------------ST--------------ST
-------Koevermans------Hassli
----------Braun--------Wiedeman
--------Amarikwa-----------?
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Very well done image, probably going to sign or draft some wingers. Did you hear about Guevara?? Rumors linked to TFC. Could mentor silva at CAM
Very well done image, probably going to sign or draft some wingers. Did you hear about Guevara?? Rumors linked to TFC. Could mentor silva at CAM?
Our midfield is still a disaster..
agreed. We need wide midfielders, though I dont know what Mariner is looking for in a wi(e)deman (teeheee wiedeman reference... punny). We had just about every sort of player out there, and let go or traded away any actual wingers we have... We have Lambe.... wiedeman is more striker then winger.
Plata is a striker in a 4-4-2...... (he kinda only is effective in a 4-3-3......... woops).
I want to drop some names, but I dont know what Mariner truly wants. Are our wingers just going to tuck in as central midfielders, playing very narrow football... Houston esc....
right now TFC's best formation based upon lack of wingers is 4-3-1-2 or 4-4-2 diamond with Mariner's preference for 2 strikers up top.
but I think to get max out of Toronto's current squad, 4-3-3 may be the best since Plata is only good as wide forward and Silva is only good at AM role since he's not very good defensively.
and no good asking Silva to play CM since he's got good finishing ability so he's more adept as kind of a trequartista role.
still a lot of off season to go though. speculation on formation may change pending on who KP brings in/draft
Last edited by Yohan; 12-15-2012 at 12:12 PM.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Agreed. Everything needs to be fixed RIGHT NOW!!!
It appears you're making fun of me with my comment. I didn't say it needed to be fixed right now. I just said it was a disaster, which it is.
Lambe - Frings - Dunfield - Plata
That's the formation right now. Good lord. Weakest midfield in MLS by a mile. That's just with the hope Frings isn't even slower this year.
Last edited by Soccerpro; 12-15-2012 at 04:13 PM.
I'd rather have the midfield in a diamond. I suspect Payne will bring in some players to help improve our midfield, but from now here it is.
Frings = CDM
Lambe, Plata = RM, LM
Silva = CAM
Last edited by Morlesio14; 12-15-2012 at 03:11 PM.
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