De Vos - Please STFU

[boban]

There may be fans of the guy but he has to start keeping his mouth shut. I know that's hard with him being a colour guy for soccer and all.
But he is nothing more than an MLSE propaganda piece right now. His comments on today's game make him sound like he is totally clueless to this teams history, direction its going and soccer knowledge.

Somewhere in the 2nd half he talks of Toronto having direction with Ryan Nelson that they didn't have a plan before. Say what you want about Winter, but he had a plan. You may not have thought it meshed well with MLS style of play but it was a plan. Not only t,hat he brought in a style of play, that even when he was fired, many were concerned it would be done away with with Winters sacking. Sorry De Vos, there was plan and MLSE said they would it see it through with Winter (turned out to be a lie in the end).
Then, with Toronto holding on to a 2-1 lead today De Vos mentions how this team is more disciplined and mentally tough not to break and allow a late goal to cost points. Sorry bud, but at that point we only played 3 games and were tested only 1 once with holding on. In any event, TFC did blow it eventually. What's your reasoning now Jason? To me he sounds like a mouth piece of the organization without much integrity. Every new coach that comes to TFC, he just jumps on the bandwagon praising them for no other reason than the coach is the new guy.
Add some insight Jason or don't say anything at all.

[Manager87]

Pravo boban legendo

jason DeVos is the stupidest guy wen it comes to soccer

[OgtheDim]

Truth be told, he likes Nelson because he gets relative results compared to the past. And if he was a true MLSE mouthpiece, he wouldn't have called out Dunfield, Bostock, Ephraim, Russel, Hall, and Lambe like he did during the game.

If you listen to the in house announcers of other teams, you begin to appreciate how TSN is, in comparison, objective. I spent 3 minutes after today's game listening to New England's three reporters rabbiting on about a bit of inhouse youtube schtick - nothing about the game.


I am not a fan of Devos.

But he's no homer.

[Jpexxx]

I was at the game so I did not get to hear De Vos on TSN.

That being said, I never got the impression from him that he was a MLSE "mouthpiece". I have heard him be extremely critical of that way things were being done at TFC in the past.

I'm certainly not a big De Vos fan to begin with, by any means, but I do appreciate his efforts to try to change the way soccer is played and understood in this country at a grassroots level.

He gives a shit about it, as far as I have seen.

[Bluenose13]

I was at the game so I did not get to hear De Vos on TSN.

That being said, I never got the impression from him that he was a MLSE "mouthpiece". I have heard him be extremely critical of that way things were being done at TFC in the past.

I'm certainly not a big De Vos fan to begin with, by any means, but I do appreciate his efforts to try to change the way soccer is played and understood in this country at a grassroots level.

He gives a shit about it, as far as I have seen.

Devos is leading the way to change in youth soccer across Ontario.......We need more people like him that see the big picture.

[TFC Cityboy]

he was as critical of Mariner as he could be last year without crossing the line. I respect his input on long term player dev too.

[Daze]

No, Ephraim deserved his fair share of shit being thrown at him. Having nice little touches is great when your heavily involved all the time in games. It's fairly useless hen you ghost through games like he does. De Vos suggesting Ephraim should drop deeper is completely logical. Ephraim was doing fuck all up top and should drop deeper to find some space and connect play.

Anyway, I was at the game today so I can't say how bad De Vos was overall. But I did like him during last years euros. He was concise, specific and spoke well. None of this Ray Hudson, "THEY HAVE THE HEARTS OF PIGS!!!" " HE'S LIKE A WATER BUFFALO, SET FREE FROM HIS MASTER!!!!" "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL WHAT A THOROUGHBRED, WHAT A MAGNIFICENT GOAL FROM A MAGNIFICENT SPECIMEN!!!, shit with De Vos. He's very direct and he understands the game. I for one prefer to watching him than the massive majority of British football pundits.

[DOMIN8R]

I'm conflicted about Jason. I have deep admiration and respect for his commitment to fixing Canadian soccer. But his colour commentary has irritated me more than a few times.

However, I don't think that we/I represent the silent majority. We/I are extremely opinionated. When people/media/posters express themselves in a way that contradicts our own views - we turn sour very quick. I have a greater fear of a JD replacement than JD today. This may change. But for now. I prefer the devil I know.

[notthesun]

In talking about the management having a plan, he introduced the topic by saying that now it seems like TFC management is "all on the same page". Isn't this a fair point? Winter had a plan but he also had to deal with incompetent management (useless president, Mariner having a completely different view on how to play, Cochrane and Mariner signing players he didn't necessarily want, etc.). All Jason seemed to be saying was that now it appears as though TFC management is finally working for each other, everyone wants to be there and everyone believes in the new direction of the club, etc. I don't see what's so wrong about that.

[jloome]

No, Ephraim deserved his fair share of shit being thrown at him. Having nice little touches is great when your heavily involved all the time in games. It's fairly useless hen you ghost through games like he does. De Vos suggesting Ephraim should drop deeper is completely logical. Ephraim was doing fuck all up top and should drop deeper to find some space and connect play.

Anyway, I was at the game today so I can't say how bad De Vos was overall. But I did like him during last years euros. He was concise, specific and spoke well. None of this Ray Hudson, "THEY HAVE THE HEARTS OF PIGS!!!" " HE'S LIKE A WATER BUFFALO, SET FREE FROM HIS MASTER!!!!" "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL WHAT A THOROUGHBRED, WHAT A MAGNIFICENT GOAL FROM A MAGNIFICENT SPECIMEN!!!, shit with De Vos. He's very direct and he understands the game. I for one prefer to watching him than the massive majority of British football pundits.

He wasn't saying he should drop deeper to link; he was saying Hall and Dunfield couldn't keep track of Sarvas and Juninho and that Ephraim should drop back more to help defensively.

[ensco]

I don't think deVos is an MLSE mouthpiece. I think he knows soccer. He generally sees the game well, yesterday he got the calls on the goals pretty much exactly right. eg I hadn't realized that first LA goal was setup by a mishit shot, but he did.

But over the course of a game I don't think he is a good colour man. He's not able to turn a phrase, I'm not saying he needs to be Ray Hudson, but he can't find the compact little way of making a point. He seems to have arrive at the game with his POV already established, and is repetitive, says the same things 6 times in every game. He also seems to have favourites, or whipping boys. (His harping on Ephraim yesterday was ridiculous. Ephraim didn't have a good game, about 7 guys didn't, but deVos was after him repeatedly. When Ephraim turned a defender and had a sublime solo effort from the corner of the box that just missed, deVos had nothing to say.)

Finally, deVos' behaviour at the press conference when Nelsen was hired was graceless, embarrassing, awful. He called him "the most bizarre hiring in MLS history" and more. He won't live that down for a long time.

Wileman is growing on me. He is improving, better all the time. DeVos isn't.

[Wooster_TFC]

DeVos is the anti-MLSE mouthpiece. Until Nelsen came on board, he couldn't say a good thing about TFC in any way shape or form. When Payne and Nelsen came on board, he was immediately critical because they weren't Canadian. He is a HUGE supporter and drive of Canadian soccer, and didn't like the fact that people like Dasovic (and maybe himself) didn't get the proper chance they deserved.

Then, he talked to Nelsen. And, all of a sudden, he loved Nelsen. Ever since he had that sit down hour chat with him, he's been glowing praise about where they are headed as a team. He has faith in Nelsen it appears, even though he's inexperienced and will make mistakes.

I think the difference between Winter and Nelsen and their plans is that Winter couldn't, or, even worse, consciously chose not to, communicate his plan effectively. He was also super cocky when he first came to TFC, saying that they'd be winning championships 2 seasons in. Nelsen is almost the polar opposite, a players coach who is realistic about the level of play in MLS.

As for an actual colour man, I think DeVos needs work. When given time to think about his comments, they tend to be very well thought out and communicated, as indicated by everything I've heard on the TSN FC podcast. When he is going "off the cuff", the comments tend to be a lot rasher, and sometimes seem very odd.

[Flipityflu]

i couldn't agree more about his 'ability'...i even said something duing the match when he said those exact things boban mention in the first post. its horrible commentary because it feels like he is just saying things to 'sound' like a commentator instead of actually saying something relevant or even acurate. i really don't like the broadcasts, and devos is the main reason.

[Wull]

de vos was the one championing mariner and cochrane for the gig when we started poorly last year. He has as many bad ideas and stances as he does good ones. He was throwing his rattle out of the pram about the lsck of coaching badges until he had a chat with Nelsen then all of a sudden it was all good. Try chatting with him about youth development, he can't discuss opposing views without resorting to insults or extremities or playing the "I've studied it for years, I know" cards. However, his commitment to righting the wrongs in terms of the structure of the Canadian structure and its overseers can't be understated.

I'd be more impressed with his analysis if he would call out our centrebacks too. Ecks, Earnshaw and Bendik would be the only players I'd say have done well this year so far every week

[LinfieldFan]

Instead of going after Jason DeVos we should be going after the main stream Media that give Toronto FC little
or no coverage. Toronto Star for example and Most Toronto local TV and Radio Stations.

[jabbronies]

MLSE mouth piece? I wouldn't consider him that. He was one of the more critical media people in the past couple of years.
I remember a game last year where for the whole broadcast, he talked about how backwards the club was being run. Literally, the whole freaking broadcast!

But - I do agree that his colour commentary is horrible. I hate the way he says "What a..." like "What a shot" or "What a goal"....it just irks me.

[dutch]

I never heard a commentator I really like in MLS. Boxing taught me, dont listen to the talk, watch the feet work. they all got opinions that make you wonder who they owe allegiance to.

[Soccerpro]

I don't know what the problem with DeVos is. He calls it as he sees it. He called out Dunfield and Hall as not being the answer at CM for TFC yesterday. He criticizes TFC on set pieces and giving up late goals. He doesn't pull any punches usually. I like his honesty.

[Ajax TFC]

De Vos is one of the best footy pundits in this country. He's the #1 advocate for improving Canadian soccer, and he has his own opinion. No, he's not the greatest colour commentator, but at least he knows what he's talking about and he deserves some respect. Him having a different opinion isn't grounds for starting a thread about how he should STFU. I dare any and everyone to try to find a poster who's opinion agrees with yours on every matter. You won't. Now are you going to start a thread raging about the poster that you disagree with every time you find one? Of course not. You attack (for lack of a softer word) the post, not the poster. I don't see why it should be different when a Canadian soccer Pundit (unless that guy is Kurt Larson which is a whole different matter) has an opinion that you don't agree with. Yes, Winter had a plan, but TFC didn't and wasn't built to support Winter. I don't think it's unreasonable for de Vos to say that this is the first time that TFC has a plan, since it is in fact the first time that there is one camp in management, and if after talking to Nelsen he believes in him, than it's his right to express his confidence in him.

[Fort York Redcoat]

It's colour commentary. It shouldn't be focused on anyway. It should be interesting and more often than not it's a strong opinion much like this OP.

[Commie Red]

Although I too hate how incestuous the relationship between supposed sports "journalists" and the teams they cover can be, I disagree that DeVos is a good example of this. In fact, I think if you compare him to almost any other colour commentator of a Toronto sports team you would find him to be quite critical.

I like DeVos. Just out of curiosity who would you replace DeVos with? You only have to view other MLS team's broadcasts to see the quality here.

I echo LindfieldFan's sentiment: if there's anything we should be complaining about in our media coverage is its general sparseness.