I think the international slot, to be used on someone who for sure will be fit for the next two months and well beyond -- unlike Danny, who may or may not be fit by June, and who knows in what form -- is plenty enough merit for this. I'm not slagging Danny, he's done well for us, but he's hurt and if we're talking about what's best for the club, it's to use that international slot on someone else. Unless, of course, we have some international slots we're not aware of.Originally Posted by Skinn
I don't think he'd be happy by any stretch, who's gonna be happy about something like that?
Yes it would be more fair to his value though, I do agree.
Perhaps a lower salary for an extended term to compensate. That being said, Ecks has been outstanding this season.
Fair enough. But I think if the club were thinking about buying him out, they would have wanted to maximize the result of doing that by doing it before the cap-hit deadline. Appears to me they're hopeful Danny can contribute something in the second half. In terms of freeing up an international spot, I think we're more likely to see T. Morgan go out on loan (or be released) or the club acquire an international spot.I think the international slot, to be used on someone who for sure will be fit for the next two months and well beyond -- unlike Danny, who may or may not be fit by June, and who knows in what form -- is plenty enough merit for this. I'm not slagging Danny, he's done well for us, but he's hurt and if we're talking about what's best for the club, it's to use that international slot on someone else. Unless, of course, we have some international slots we're not aware of.
I'm pretty sure that they've decided to let Koevs play out his final year with the club. He'll probably be gone after that, so it won't affect 2014, which is the year that Payne is aiming at to finish his rebuild. They aren't seriously aiming to win the MLS Cup this year, just to be reasonably competitive by the end.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
Knowing that either he won't be picked up by any other MLS team on his current salary, OR he has to start over his career with zero reputation back in Europe, he may well sign up for lower salary just to guarantee he stays with the club. Last I heard he has a Canadian girlfriend, so I'm pretty sure he wants to stay here long term.
CONFIRMED BY NEIL DAVIDSON (CP Reporter)
TFC "says they have 9 (Int'l Spots) and are currently using 8."
There we go.
Not sure where they got the 9th spot from, but I sure won't complain!
(By the way, the 8 spots in use are: T. Morgan, Earnshaw, Bostock, Ephraim, Ecks, O'Dea, Lambe, Russell.
Koev's does not count while injured, but would take up the final spot upon his return)
I had wondered about signing an Argentinian, as I thought that the international transfer window was closed.
So, I looked it up, and here is what Wikipedia says, in case anyone else is similarly curious:
The transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other countries into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer window" is the unofficial term commonly used by the media for the concept of "registration period" as described in the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Player.[1] According to the rules, each national football association decides on the time (such as the dates) of the 'window' but it may not exceed 12 weeks. The second registration period occurs during the season and may not exceed four weeks.
The transfer window of a given football association governs only international transfers into that football association. International transfers out of an association are always possible to those associations that have an open window. The transfer window of the association that the player is leaving does not have to be open.
O, Maple Leaf around the world, You speak as you rise high above,
Of courage, peace and quiet strength, Of the Canada that I love.
Remind us all, our union bound by ties we cannot sever,
Bright flag revered on every ground, The Maple Leaf forever
Yeah Koev still has value for this team. Even if Earnshaw turns out to be a regular goalscorer we'd still have no other proven MLS scorers on this team. Injury or international duty would leave us thin up front. We could have some good competition for the attacking positions with Urruti, Silva, Bekker, and Bostock in the mix.
I'm still worried about the midfield though. Hopefully Cesar lives up to his billing but Payne is probably looking to bring in reinforcements during the summer. A quality box-to-box mid (Peralta?) would help this team a lot.
If all goes well that Argentinian DP striker will take that 9th international roster spot. Hope Russell and Taylor Morgan are both loaned, so we can get another two international roster spots. Remember, still waiting on news from the two Honduran players.
Larson: "Payne: Hogan on loan... Both Bostock and Earnshaw permanent deals with options to extend past summer."
I can see us letting one of Ephraim or Lambe go by the summer, depending on which does better.
I'm just curious about our lineup if we sign Urruti. Surely if we think he's DP quality he's going to be a starter whenever he's 100% fit? And he seems best suited to a ST or CF role. Also taking into account here Payne's quote above and Nelsen saying on the MLS podcast he expects Bostock and Earnshaw to be with the team on more of a longer term. So Urruti would either...
a) Move Earnshaw to the bench and play ST.
b) Move Silva to the bench and play CF.
I'm all for depth, lord knows we've needed that over the years, but I'm also for getting the best out of the players we have. Being forced to sit one of these guys every week doesn't seem like great management of resources.
I don't know. Bostock's got RM. Move Silva to LM and drop Ephraim/Lambe to the bench while Urruti takes the CF role? Or could they be planning on using Urruti as a full time LM?
Last edited by notthesun; 03-12-2013 at 01:33 PM.
Think that ship has sailed. Alfredo Mejia was the latest workhorse Honduran midfielder we were supposedly looking at.
If it all works out as it seems to be going then we should have our best squad, on paper at least, ever.
-------------Bendik/Frei--------------
--Eckersley--Califf--O'Dea--A.Morgan--
-------------Cesar-------------------
--Bostock------Silva------Ephraim----
---------Earnshaw--------------------
----------------Urruti-----------------
Bench: Bendik/Frei, Russell, Osorio, Bekker, Lambe, Gale A., Emory, Hall, Dunfield, Henry, Wiedeman, Braun.
I do not see how the have 9 spots? We had 2 SJ Inti spots One expired at
2013-01-01
The other Int spot Expired this at the end of this year wich we traded to Vancouver Shit Caps.
Can someone Please ask how do we have that 9th Int spot from?
http://sports.ca.msn.com/top-stories...south-american
President Kevin Payne says assistant coach Fran O'Leary and chief scout Pat Onstad are both currently in Argentina...
"We're pretty close to announcing a new signing. I hope it will happen in the next day or two," Payne told reporters after practice Tuesday. "And there's a couple of other players we're looking at as well that we think will really help us...
Payne says the South American recruit 22-year-old Maximiliano Urruti of Newells Old Boys is reportedly a TFC target could be a designated player. "Possibly. We're trying to figure out if there's a way for us to do him now and not necessarily make him a DP or possibly have the option to decide later in the year whether he's a DP. "But he would be DP level. Whether he's actually a DP or not, we maybe have some flexibility there..."
Toronto FC currently has nine international slots on its roster and is using eight, so it has one available...
Manager Ryan Nelsen declined to identify what area he wants to strengthen....
Payne says the club is also looking at renegotiating one or two contracts...
"It's safe to say we'll end up with at least one contract renegotiated," he said. "But we've made some progress on the cap and we expect to make more."
The idea would be to have a player agree to a lesser amount this year, perhaps in exchange for a longer deal...
English winger John Bostock is on a short-term contract with Toronto, with club options after that. "So we'll talk with John. We'll see how we feel," Payne said. "But obviously based on the first game, based on everything we've seen, we certainly hope that John will be with us for the full season and hopefully beyond that." Payne said the club would speak to Bostock prior to exercising any option to "make sure he's enjoying his football here..."
Earnshaw has a six-month contract, with Toronto's option to extend for the balance of the calendar year, as well as two more one-year options. Attacking midfielder Hogan Ephraim is slightly different in that he is on loan from Queens Park Rangers with the English club still owning his contract "so we don't entirely control that situation," Payne added...
Toronto FC acquired one slot from San Jose Earthquakes on July 14, 2011. TFC has use of this spot through the end of the 2012 season, at which point it reverts to San Jose. Earlier, Toronto FC had acquired an additional spot from San Jose on July 14, 2008 for use through the end of the 2013 season.
What am I missing ??? Can't figure the 9th spot out.
Right - Danny's injured right now, for which the solution is to bring on the young Argentine DP to play alongside/instead of Earnshaw as needed. And this Argentine can ONLY come here because Danny's injured. He will take the last and final int'l slot, normally taken by Danny, who's not using it up precisely because he's injured. Once Danny is healthy, TFC will be one over on the international side. I think we're way less likely to dish a younger up-and-comer than to use our buyout on Danny. The writing is pretty clearly on the wall.
Payne interview now up on TFC-TV, covers the stuff summarized in the MSN article:
http://www.torontofc.ca/video/2013/0...-march-12-2013
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
Since we didn't buy him out by the March 5th deadline and it'll count against the cap anyway then I don't see Koevermans leaving unless he retires or just can't go when expected. I think the end game will be Koeverman's health vs. keeping Ephraim past the loan expiry vs. Lambe continuing to play well enough to warrant that roster spot vs us trading a supplemental pick or a dead weight player to someone for their int. spot.
Credit to Neil Davidson. He's one of the good ones in terms of reporting what people want to hear about.
Agreed!
When he reported this morning that TFC were close to signing the player in Argentina, I tweeted him and asked about the Int'l spot.
He replied to me saying he would ask the team.
Lo and behold, just a couple hours later he replied telling me TFC says they have 9 Int'l Spots.
Great reporting and fan interaction!
Hope he keeps up the good work!
We need Eks and Lambe to get citizenship so we can bring in those international players.Other teams are getting them for their international players.We need to get aboard.The British players can still maintain their British one as well.I am not sure about Lambe .I am not sure why we signed Taylor Morgan as we have alot of people who can play striker.
hehehehe
I actually giggled out loud when I looked at that...
The really amazing thing is that we would even have some depth!
Still counting on a loss this weekend, I am only going to be pleasantly surprised this year! I have a show to do this weekend but man I wish I could go!!!
This is definitely worth a listen. Lots of precise info there, about the contract details for some of the new guys & much more.
I believe Ecks can get his Canadian residency early next year while Lambe has to wait for 2015.
Loaning T Morgan would be a blessing. I would switch earnshaw and maxi (urutti)
yeah based on what was in KJ's article is sounds like this could be better. Also, Earnshaw is definitely someone who likes to play of the shoulder of the last defender and I don't think he would be as effective playing a little deeper.
"ESPN South American columnist Sam Kelly, who hosts the excellent Hand Of Pod, issued similar sentiments, saying: “Urruti’s decent enough, but at 22 he’s only played about 30-odd first team games for Newell’s so far – which doesn’t seem like many for Argentina – and hasn’t exactly been tearing up trees as far as his scoring record is concerned. Good movement and link play, though, and he could do well playing as a second forward."
Interesting that he says they're exploring the possibility of signing Urruti as a non-DP.
If we sign Maxi as a non dp. We have 2 open DP spots. Any American players to sign as a DP?
Who else is slowly seeing the team come together and become a decent team?
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