TFC 2013 general player moves/speculation/etc.

[Auzzy]

I don't care how much they're playing O'Dea... If it wasn't for that dude, TFC would be walking away with Saputo scores every game.

Personally I really like O'Dea. I think he's a great character & a decent centre back. I just wonder what Nelsen and Payne think about him. In the San Jose post-game interview, Nelsen mentioned that there "will be changes" and also gave Doneil Henry a big compliment (w/o mentioning the other defenders including O'Dea). Yes O'Dea is key for TFC's defense at the moment, but there are better centrebacks in MLS for less money. So he's not irreplaceable if they can find someone better and/or cheaper. No idea if that will be happening, but you have to wonder what Nelsen and Payne think about him. He's not their signing.

And I also agree that defense is far from TFC's only problem. I hope that Nelsen doesn't focus too much on it -- I'm a bit worried after his interviews. If you give up a million corner kicks & throw-ins in your own half, especially with someone like Gargan on the other team for their throw-ins, and if you don't manage to maintain possession to protect your defense, inevitably your opponents will pot some goals, doesn't matter who your defenders are.

[Ivy]

Personally I really like O'Dea. I think he's a great character & a decent centre back. I just wonder what Nelsen and Payne think about him. In the San Jose post-game interview, Nelsen mentioned that there "will be changes" and also gave Doneil Henry a big compliment (w/o mentioning the other defenders including O'Dea). Yes O'Dea is key for TFC's defense at the moment, but there are better centrebacks in MLS for less money. So he's not irreplaceable if they can find someone better and/or cheaper. No idea if that will be happening, but you have to wonder what Nelsen and Payne think about him. He's not their signing.

And I also agree that defense is far from TFC's only problem. I hope that Nelsen doesn't focus too much on it -- I'm a bit worried after his interviews. If you give up a million corner kicks & throw-ins in your own half, especially with someone like Gargan on the other team for their throw-ins, and if you don't manage to maintain possession to protect your defense, inevitably your opponents will pot some goals, doesn't matter who your defenders are.

mind naming me a couple? And from that list give me at least 1 who might be willing to leave the team/city/country they're from to go to TFC... Then the next question is if team that they play for would ever want to let them go?
im not saying O'Dea is the best of the best, but for the job that he does: control the entire defense, captain the team, and boost moral, this dude deserves every dollar. Would I think it was better if he made 100k? Absolutely... But I'm sure that if TFC ever tried to give him that offer, he would walk out the door - and I'm doubtful he'll have a hard time finding a club that'll pay him 400k.

[West220Side]

I really like the Tal Ben Haim pickup but, guys, other then the game against Philadelphia to an extent, what other road game did we not get steam rolled in the middle of the pitch, not being able to hold the ball and just giving them the ball back. Laba is a good start but we need better options in the middle of the park. Hall doesn't cut in for me, neither does lambe or ehpriam. I was really hoping some help in the middle was coming. Koev's back will help, but my option on the late goals starts with the midfielders, not defenders.

The way i'm looking at it isn't the middle of the pitch if we can sit Henry & Agbossoumonde on our bench and partner O'dea with a more experienced centreback in Caldwell or Tal Ben Haim goals coming from the middle of the pitch should dry up. Nelsen said it himself on the weekend "Nobodys been scoring blasters from outside of the area on us." its always just chaos in the box, perhaps a strong centreback can settle that down. O'dea is a leader, but remember he's still young. Eckersley is returning and will be very strong on that right side, and Emory will be our weak link but he's still better then Morgan at the point in time.

As for our midfield pairing in Laba & Hall. Well Hall has been playing the best football of his career. He'll bash, knock, hit and tackle anybody who comes close to our centrebacks and that will really help with pressure (You saw this against San Jose at certain points) and Laba will try his best to utilize men running up the pitch with great passes.

Its our wingers that are our weakness, in my opinion not our centre backs. Here's my 'argument' towards you. If Lambe is always busy defending for Richter when he makes a run, when can Lambe get forward? He's not effective offensively, but has been great defensively which is okay but at a certain point he's a winger he needs to score/assist. Our other wing? Bostock well he should really be in the center of the pitch and Ephraim in my opinion has been VERY poor. Brockie is a nice addition but I'm seeing Payne go in for a really good MLS winger in the summer. Come the summer i'm hoping to see a more stable lineup who can handle the 90 minutes of pressure.

----------------------Bendik---------------
Eckersley--Caldwell/Haim---Odea-----Emory
---------------Hall--------Laba------------
Brockie-------------------------FutureWinger
------------------Silva---------------------
--------------Koevermans------------------

You'll see players on the bench like Earnshaw who will probably share time with Koevermans, you'll see games where Koevermans starts, and games where Earnshaw starts, maybe games where they both start, who knows!

Henry and Agbossumonde will provide great youthful coverage and get a few minutes.

Osorio will come on late into games and show some more sparks of brilliance.

Braun probably will get a bit of time, but most likely will drop to the reserves.

I'm probably one of the few hoping we can sign Bostock on the cheap, I really think he's going to improve.

[mowe]

im not saying O'Dea is the best of the best, but for the job that he does: control the entire defense, captain the team, and boost moral, this dude deserves every dollar.

The defense he controls has had zero clean sheets all season. Captaining the team and boosting morale sure hasn't helped the team win games or stop letting in late goals. Listen I like the guy too, but the fact is his salary does NOT match his worth.

O'Dea is the 16th highest paid player in the league, and the highest defender. In this league you just can't tie up so much of your budget on a player who doesn't win you games. You're right that he could get an offer in Europe for the same money, but unless he takes a significant pay cut he's not a good fit in MLS.

[West220Side]

Would I think it was better if he made 100k? Absolutely... But I'm sure that if TFC ever tried to give him that offer, he would walk out the door - and I'm doubtful he'll have a hard time finding a club that'll pay him 400k.

It sure would be nice if they could negotiate his contract down into atleast the $300,000 zone, every dollar helps in this cap system. Perhaps somebody can help improve his 'quality of living' here in the city. Cars, money, house, give his wife a new kitchen/bathroom/car, get at him through his wife.

[Auzzy]

mind naming me a couple? And from that list give me at least 1 who might be willing to leave the team/city/country they're from to go to TFC... Then the next question is if team that they play for would ever want to let them go?
im not saying O'Dea is the best of the best, but for the job that he does: control the entire defense, captain the team, and boost moral, this dude deserves every dollar. Would I think it was better if he made 100k? Absolutely... But I'm sure that if TFC ever tried to give him that offer, he would walk out the door - and I'm doubtful he'll have a hard time finding a club that'll pay him 400k.

You're jumping to a whole bunch of conclusions about what I think personally. I'm just wondering what Payne and Nelsen think about O'Dea, considering that Payne listed him as one of 5 very expensive players before the start of the season eating up too much of TFC's salary cap, & considering Nelsen's comments about TFC's ongoing defensive woes and there needing to be changes. They also mentioned a couple of times that they're trying to re-negotiate a few salaries, likely Ecks & O'Dea. (And why do you pick a ridiculously low amount of $100k? What if they offered him an early contract extension at $275k total? Maybe they've already tried that, who knows.)

If other MLS teams have found better CB's for less money, that in no way implies that I think that TFC could somehow get those same players here. MLS teams might give up someone like Andy Iro, no thanks. However, perhaps Nelsen and Payne decide they can find a better value player for the CB position somewhere in the world. Who knows?

Better CB in MLS for less money? Pretty easy actually. Omar Gonzalez for example. All of the defenders in this "top five" fantasy list for 2013 make way less than O'Dea: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/articl...-each-position

I don't follow other MLS teams that closely, but I think a few of those 5 guys aren't playing as well this season as expected, like Olave. However, I think that list gives you an idea that other teams have been able to find good defenders for much less money.

I bet that Yohan could easily name you 5 lower-cost MLS CBs who fit the bill. Here's just a few suggestions, compared to O'Dea ($350k base/$456k guaranteed):

Bobby Boswell ($220k/$220k)
Nat Borchers ($200k/$212k -- holy shit)
George John ($275k/$306k)

Again not saying that TFC could get those exact players, just that "there are better centrebacks in MLS for less money." Over time, I hope that TFC finds some of their own.

[T-boy]

I would definitely agree that there are better CB's in the MLS than O'Dea. Equally there are several equal or better right backs than Eckersley for less money.

The problem TFC has is that first, we need to be able to sign these players. We need to be able to trade to get these players at the club - but we have VERY little trade-worthy players we can offer to other clubs right now. And secondly, we need to be able to get rid of the high wage players we have, but I don't think any other MLS club is going to take them. So, we are fairly stuck at the moment.

Yes, there are better value players, but its going to be almost impossible to trade, and trade away our players, to sign them.

[Canary10]

We could have had Matt Hedges last year in the draft.....

[Yohan]

We could have had Matt Hedges last year in the draft.....

hindsight...

[Canary10]

hindsight...

Not that much. I think a lot of people, including on this board, questioned why we didn't meet our widely acknowledged need for a centre back. Hedges and Barry were the two obvious picks. We made a choice at the time to not address our number one need. Although I do like Silva so it may be half dozen of one....

[Yohan]

Not that much. I think a lot of people, including on this board, questioned why we didn't meet our widely acknowledged need for a centre back. Hedges and Barry were the two obvious picks. We made a choice at the time to not address our number one need. Although I do like Silva so it may be half dozen of one....

there were lots of good CBs in that draft. TFC expected to get at least one of them. while playmakers like Silva are harder to get out of a draft. it's just a bit unlucky that TFC ended up with Aaron Maund, and Hedges was taken just one above him.

[Ultra & Proud]

A lot of people pointing to needing defensive improvement and minus our typical last 10 minute f*ck ups, we've been better defensively than we've ever been. We could have won or drawn every match this season as they were all 1 goal matches. If we had any legit offensive threats then those would be wins/draws. Also our goal differential is -4 after 10 matches. Usually the last time we see a GD of -4 is at about the 70th minute of match #1 and is never to be seen again.

[Initial B]

Not that much. I think a lot of people, including on this board, questioned why we didn't meet our widely acknowledged need for a centre back. Hedges and Barry were the two obvious picks. We made a choice at the time to not address our number one need. Although I do like Silva so it may be half dozen of one....

I think the main reason they didn't go with a draft CB is because Mariner convinced Winter that Aceval and Caciedo would be the answer to the problems at the back. All part of the subtle sabotaging struggle behind the scenes of TFC at the time.

[burlington Red]

I think the main reason they didn't go with a draft CB is because Mariner convinced Winter that Aceval and Caciedo would be the answer to the problems at the back. All part of the subtle sabotaging struggle behind the scenes of TFC at the time.

Clutching at straws here lads. We were lacking quality in mid also, and as Canary 10 said we got Silva in that draft.You are lucky to get one quality player in these drafts.........

[Stouffville_RPB]

Clutching at straws here lads. We were lacking quality in mid also, and as Canary 10 said we got Silva in that draft.You are lucky to get one quality player in these drafts.........

That's simply not true. Multiple players come out of each draft that manage to be at minimum adequate depth MLS players. They all aren't at the top of the draft either (Graham Zusi and Geoff Cameron both in the 2nd round). Just because the local team can't draft for their life and doesn't know what to do once they have decent players doesn't mean the draft is irrelavent.

In 2007 Mo Edu, Brad Evans, Corey Ashe, Bakary Soumare, Michael Harrington, Chris Seitz, Robbie Findley, Wells Thompson, Omar Cummings, Ty Harden, Tally Hall, Nick Labrocca, Sinisa Ubiparipovic.
In 2008 Chance Myers, Brek Shea, Tony Beltran, Sean Franklin, Andy Iro, Patrick Nyarko, Roger Espinoza, Eric Brunner, Shea Salinas, Andrew Jacobson, Geoff Cameron, Steven Lenhart.
In 2009 Steve Zakuani, Sam Cronin, Omar Gonzalez, Rodney Wallace, Chris Pontius, Matt Besler, Michael Lahoud, Kevin Alston, Jeremy Hall, Stefan Frei, George John, AJ Delagarza, Graham Zusi, Milos Kocic,
In 2010 Amobi Okugo, Danny Mwanga, Tony Tchani, Ike Opara, Jack McInerney, Zach Loyd, Teal Bunbury, David Estrada, Corben Bone, Tim Ream, Justin Morrow, Ben Zemanski Sean Johnson.
In 2011 Darlington Ngabe, Perry Kitchen, Zac Mcmath, AJ Soares, Kofi Sarkodie, CJ Sapong, Corey Hertzog, Will Bruin, Jeb Brovsky, Chris Korb, Joao Plata.
In 2012 Luis Silva, Darren Mattocks, Sam Garza, Nick Deleon, Austin Berry, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Matt Hedges, Tony Cascio.

All those players have proved at the very least to be capable of being solid depth players. Heck some teams do very well in the draft. Dallas has one of the leagues best defenses and they drafted Hedges, John and Loyd. KC drafted Zusi, Sapong, Bunbury, Besler.

[T-boy]

Clutching at straws here lads. We were lacking quality in mid also, and as Canary 10 said we got Silva in that draft.You are lucky to get one quality player in these drafts.........

I think burlington means that you are lucky IF you get one good player in the draft. Usually most clubs gets 1 fairly decent player in the draft - pick up TWO good players in the same draft and you've got very lucky, not that there is only one good player in the whole draft.

[Wull]

I think the main reason they didn't go with a draft CB is because Mariner convinced Winter that Aceval and Caciedo would be the answer to the problems at the back. All part of the subtle sabotaging struggle behind the scenes of TFC at the time.

caicedo was signed at cochrane's behest and aceval was 100% Winter's choice

[Soccerpro]

TFC can sign all the defenders they want, if they have no midfielders, what's the point. They need wingers. Nothing will change without wingers.
A good start to helping the cap would be getting rid of Frei and his 200k salary on the bench. Sign a backup for 40k and use the additional 160k on more pressing needs.

[Abou Sky]

TFC can sign all the defenders they want, if they have no midfielders, what's the point. They need wingers. Nothing will change without wingers.
A good start to helping the cap would be getting rid of Frei and his 200k salary on the bench. Sign a backup for 40k and use the additional 160k on more pressing needs.

I agree 100%

But that isn't how the rules work.

We would need to trade him at his full price to get his cap space back.

Otherwise it would be trade him, pay $100k of his cap and be left with little or nothing

[Roca]

I'll be pleasantly surprised if Steven Caldwell does well for us. He was released by Wigan, where he was ineffective, after a short spell. Maybe it's down to the difference between the Prem and the MLS; hopefully he'll be good in this league. (I'm actually in Wigan tonight -- went to the FA Cup final today and will be having lunch with some Wigan fans tomorrow, who will probably express condolences on the signing.)

[burlington Red]

I think burlington means that you are lucky IF you get one good player in the draft. Usually most clubs gets 1 fairly decent player in the draft - pick up TWO good players in the same draft and you've got very lucky, not that there is only one good player in the whole draft.

Cheers mate, that is exactly what I meant.

[Dreadlocks]

Posted this in Sunday May 12th`s news but thought it should be here too.

Apparently Hogan Epharaim is not wanted at QPR by Harry Redknapp. I know he`s under contract until 2014 but does this mean he`ll be available on a free sooner? More importantly, do we take him?

http://www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/n...-at-qpr-555454

http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/lon...2029-33313542/

[Morlesio14]

Posted this in Sunday May 12th`s news but thought it should be here too.

Apparently Hogan Epharaim is not wanted at QPR by Harry Redknapp. I know he`s under contract until 2014 but does this mean he`ll be available on a free sooner? More importantly, do we take him?

http://www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/n...-at-qpr-555454

http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/lon...2029-33313542/

If we can get him for cheap than sure.

[burlington Red]

That's simply not true. Multiple players come out of each draft that manage to be at minimum adequate depth MLS players. They all aren't at the top of the draft either (Graham Zusi and Geoff Cameron both in the 2nd round). Just because the local team can't draft for their life and doesn't know what to do once they have decent players doesn't mean the draft is irrelavent.

In 2007 Mo Edu, Brad Evans, Corey Ashe, Bakary Soumare, Michael Harrington, Chris Seitz, Robbie Findley, Wells Thompson, Omar Cummings, Ty Harden, Tally Hall, Nick Labrocca, Sinisa Ubiparipovic.
In 2008 Chance Myers, Brek Shea, Tony Beltran, Sean Franklin, Andy Iro, Patrick Nyarko, Roger Espinoza, Eric Brunner, Shea Salinas, Andrew Jacobson, Geoff Cameron, Steven Lenhart.
In 2009 Steve Zakuani, Sam Cronin, Omar Gonzalez, Rodney Wallace, Chris Pontius, Matt Besler, Michael Lahoud, Kevin Alston, Jeremy Hall, Stefan Frei, George John, AJ Delagarza, Graham Zusi, Milos Kocic,
In 2010 Amobi Okugo, Danny Mwanga, Tony Tchani, Ike Opara, Jack McInerney, Zach Loyd, Teal Bunbury, David Estrada, Corben Bone, Tim Ream, Justin Morrow, Ben Zemanski Sean Johnson.
In 2011 Darlington Ngabe, Perry Kitchen, Zac Mcmath, AJ Soares, Kofi Sarkodie, CJ Sapong, Corey Hertzog, Will Bruin, Jeb Brovsky, Chris Korb, Joao Plata.
In 2012 Luis Silva, Darren Mattocks, Sam Garza, Nick Deleon, Austin Berry, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Matt Hedges, Tony Cascio.

All those players have proved at the very least to be capable of being solid depth players. Heck some teams do very well in the draft. Dallas has one of the leagues best defenses and they drafted Hedges, John and Loyd. KC drafted Zusi, Sapong, Bunbury, Besler.

wow, really, read posts properly before doing research, you would have saved yourself a lot of time

[Ajax TFC]

Posted this in Sunday May 12th`s news but thought it should be here too.

Apparently Hogan Epharaim is not wanted at QPR by Harry Redknapp. I know he`s under contract until 2014 but does this mean he`ll be available on a free sooner? More importantly, do we take him?

http://www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/n...-at-qpr-555454

http://www.fulhamchronicle.co.uk/lon...2029-33313542/

I hope not. Unless he comes at minimum cap hit, and even then is he even worth the international spot he takes up? other than taking a nice first touch he doesn't do shit. His second touch is usually way too heavy, or he trips over the ball trying to look like he's doing something while actually going no where, and his chips over the top and passes forward are always grossly overhit.
I really don't care about his resume, he's a waste of space IMO

[burlington Red]

I hope not. Unless he comes at minimum cap hit, and even then is he even worth the international spot he takes up? other than taking a nice first touch he doesn't do shit. His second touch is usually way too heavy, or he trips over the ball trying to look like he's doing something while actually going no where, and his chips over the top and passes forward are always grossly overhit.
I really don't care about his resume, he's a waste of space IMO

bingo, well said.

funny thing I watched this kid back homes yrs ago (15-17) and honestly I would have put the mortgage on being a world class player. Not sure what happens to certain players, but I guess some just don't step up to the grade that you think.

any way as OP said, get rid, not good enough

[valeo]

How do you guys feel about the signing of Tal Ben Haim? It's a strange one for me - I don't think that guy has been good at any club he has been at; definition of journeyman. Was amazed when Redknapp signed him up again.

[kuku]

There is a rumor floating around that Ashton Morgan is being cut by TFC.

[Richard]

^ Source? That would be retarded.

[burlington Red]

How do you guys feel about the signing of Tal Ben Haim? It's a strange one for me - I don't think that guy has been good at any club he has been at; definition of journeyman. Was amazed when Redknapp signed him up again.

terrible player, really bad, as bad as we have ever signed