Mo Jo; Hindsight is 20/20

[trane]

Maybe we were wrong, maybe we should have given Mo Jo his five years??????


Maybe not.

[Abou Sky]

Five years is a very long time in sports, I can't imagine any club giving any coach five years.

That said...

Ya, if he had the squad for five years he would have figured SOMETHING out eventually.

I still think Winter is the best coach we never really had.

[jloome]

Maybe we were wrong, maybe we should have given Mo Jo his five years??????


Maybe not.

Somewhere out there, there's a weasel with myopia and a congenital eye tick who's still somehow less twitchy than mo.

[OgtheDim]

He would have had 5 years to get more people signed from his own agent.

Schuyster.

[jabbronies]

Mo had no plan. he was not good for this franchise. Getting rid of him was a mistake.

Letting go of Cummins was a mistake
Letting go of Preki - Mistake
Letting go of Winter when they did - Mistake
Mariner was a mistake
Letting go of Nelsen when they did - mistake

Getting rid of Mo - Not a mistake.

[ensco]

I think Mo's inability to catch on anywhere in any capacity says a lot. It's not like there are a lot of people out there with deep MLS expertise, and there is a lot of recycling out there.

The way Mo was managed by Anselmi is exactly what current MLSE management is doing with Bez. We'll see what happens post-Leiweke, but you can't do this without knowledgeable governance. It always ends in tears.

[Phil]

Mo worked week to week to improve the team. We did the right thing in moving on.

[Beach_Red]

Somewhere out there, there's a weasel with myopia and a congenital eye tick who's still somehow less twitchy than mo.

Well, I knew him because our kids were friends so I saw quite a different side of him. But there was no doubt he was in way over his head trying to build something from scratch. As Ensco says, Mo was "managed" by Anselmi and did what he was told. The fact that an expansion team could put a guy virtually no experience in charge and still sell tickets is still a big part of the problem in Toronto.

[jloome]

Well, I knew him because our kids were friends so I saw quite a different side of him. But there was no doubt he was in way over his head trying to build something from scratch. As Ensco says, Mo was "managed" by Anselmi and did what he was told. The fact that an expansion team could put a guy virtually no experience in charge and still sell tickets is still a big part of the problem in Toronto.

I'd say that given a propensity at most of his jobs to be more full of crap than is healthy, Mo was no scapegoat. Lots of people seem nice when their kids are around. Anselmi was a martini lunch exec who couldn't keep track of a Newton's cradle.

[Beach_Red]

I'd say that given a propensity at most of his jobs to be more full of crap than is healthy, Mo was no scapegoat. Lots of people seem nice when their kids are around. Anselmi was a martini lunch exec who couldn't keep track of a Newton's cradle.

You would have said at the time that he never should have been given so much responsibility to build an expansion team. Everyone knew it but we were so happy to have "our own team." Nothing that happened was a surprise, except maybe how good the ticket sales were. The only lesson MLSE learned from the debacle.

[spark]

I think Mo's inability to catch on anywhere in any capacity says a lot. It's not like there are a lot of people out there with deep MLS expertise, and there is a lot of recycling out there.

The way Mo was managed by Anselmi is exactly what current MLSE management is doing with Bez. We'll see what happens post-Leiweke, but you can't do this without knowledgeable governance. It always ends in tears.

I recall meeting a guy who was associated with AEG and the whole Beckham tour who was pretty connected with MLS and whatnot. At the start of 2008 when we met he bluntly said TFC will fail because 1) Mo 2) Barry MacLean - ditch those guys asap. I actually didn't know who MacLean was at that point. He said no GM in the league wants to work with Mo, he doesn't return calls, and added there were some good MLS Canadians who knew/knew of him and would never come here.

[ensco]

Mo had a very good first year which many forget. He was not bad at the talent identification part of the business. As part of a legit management operation, with checks and balances and other football people around him, maybe he could do a job.

But there are some people whom you just cannot just hand the keys to. I have some friends that are "great guys" and that I have known for 30 years that I would not really trust, and I suspect Mo is in that category.

I see this thread and I think of Peddie, smugly recounting these episodes in his stupid book, as though it wasn't totally his fault. He wrecked our team for a decade with the casual decisions he made, appointing Anselmi and then leaving him alone, who then did the same with Mo. It still makes me angry, because we are repeating this mistake. The fact that Bez may be more "trustworthy" isn't enough. He is four years removed from getting coffee and photocopies in a law firm, and should not be solely responsible for anything, because that is how vacancies (ie the manager job) get filled without processes.

[MartinUtd]

Too bad Mo never had the financial backing. We could be saying Gilberto is the new Dentinho given their respective form.

Or are we all still sucking Gilberto's dick because he scored 5 goals in a month? /s

[jabbronies]

Too bad Mo never had the financial backing. We could be saying Gilberto is the new Dentinho given their respective form.

Or are we all still sucking Gilberto's dick because he scored 5 goals in a month? /s

Why didn't Mo have the financial backing?

[Damien]

I've heard unsubstantiated rumors that Mo pocketed money from inflated contracts.

[Derko]

Too bad Mo never had the financial backing. We could be saying Gilberto is the new Dentinho given their respective form.

Or are we all still sucking Gilberto's dick because he scored 5 goals in a month? /s

That's a bit harsh, at least Gilberto did score 5 goals in a month, which was the month that our golden boy Defoe was nursing a tampon up his ass.

[MartinUtd]

Why didn't Mo have the financial backing?

It could have been anyone in charge but for the first two years we were being run on the cheap by MLSE and then when we did get a DP we overspent on JDG as part of the "Canada's MLS team" marketing gimmick.

And yeah I was a bit harsh on Gilberto. I'm hoping that flash of brilliance is more enduring now that he's had a full season to adjust to the league.

[jabbronies]

Not sure why you are sticking up for Mo, but the team wasn't run on the cheap. It was just poorly run so maybe it seemed like that.

By 2009 we had over spent on a head coach who left us and a world class trainer.
We upgraded from lower level Canadian talent and over spent on American and international upgrades.

By then we had overpaid on guys like, Cunningham, Robert, Ruiz, Rickets,
We picked up Guevara and Dero - which were good moves, but cost $$$
We were paying the max cap salary

After that we got DeGuzman and Mista were in the top 5 DP salaries in the league

Upgraded to grass in the stadium

This team spent cash - it just did it poorly.

[ag futbol]

Mo had no plan. he was not good for this franchise. Getting rid of him was a mistake.

Letting go of Cummins was a mistake
Letting go of Preki - Mistake
Letting go of Winter when they did - Mistake
Mariner was a mistake
Letting go of Nelsen when they did - mistake

Getting rid of Mo - Not a mistake.

Hiring Winter in the first place was the mistake. He was rightfully fired.

He was a year onto his tenure and the club was not competitive in MLS play, at all. That raises the question whether he is capable and worth continuing to back (he was not).

IMO: Winters philosophy = great; ability to implement in MLS = zero; solution: find another coach with a similar tactical attitude, not do another 180 with Mariner.

This is the thing about TFC: mistakes on mistakes on mistakes. Can't take anything in isolation.

Why is Mo coming up here again? Is it garbage day? It's odd anyone would bring this up, he's probably the worst manager in the history of the league. At best he's tied with Fernando Clajvio for dead last.

[jabbronies]

Hiring Winter in the first place was the mistake. He was rightfully fired.

He was a year onto his tenure and the club was not competitive in MLS play, at all. That raises the question whether he is capable and worth continuing to back (he was not).

IMO: Winters philosophy = great; ability to implement in MLS = zero; solution: find another coach with a similar tactical attitude, not do another 180 with Mariner.

I never said he shouldn't have been fired - the timing was poor IMO and the same thing happened with Nelsen.
Both should've been let go at the end of the season and a replacement should've been hired not too long after that.

Instead - backup plans were implemented. Plan B to a not so smart plan A

[Cashcleaner]

I'd say that given a propensity at most of his jobs to be more full of crap than is healthy, Mo was no scapegoat. Lots of people seem nice when their kids are around. Anselmi was a martini lunch exec who couldn't keep track of a Newton's cradle.

Mo wasn't without his faults and I think looking back it's fairly obvious that he just didn't have the know-how to properly build a team from scratch, but Anselmi was always this club's biggest obstacle to success. If you go back in time and replace Anselmi with an individual who actually had a good deal of soccer/MLS knowledge, who knows what could have been accomplished by Johnston or Carver or anyone else who coached or managed this club?

Also, if I had the power, I would make all mention of a "five-year plan" punishable by dismemberment.

[PopePouri]

From the OP, I guess we've hit all time low.

[MartinUtd]

haha
I wasn't defending Johnson I'm just staying we're competitively just as bad as the early days but now doing so on a larger budget. All I can do is laugh and hope things get better at this point.

[trane]

Dudes, I started this thread as a shit take, for old times sake. I was sarcastic. I am not crying to have Mo back. I was not a fan of that regime and I think that we are we are because of how we started under him. The foundation of the club was rotten.