Originally Posted by
Gogon
jloome has always had a great cut-to-the-chase instinct for explaining how and why the chips may fall.
At the same time, TheGoodson has a solid track record of prognostications that seem to come from an authoritative source.
Far from wanting to see these two great board contributors tee off, I’m inclined to put a lot of stock in what each says, and see where it leads me.
And it leads me to asking this question:
Does Andrea D’Amico have too much influence with roster construction at TFC?
Some musings follow that only the conspiracy theorists among us (as well as Mr Inbetween) might want to read.
What do we know?
(1) D’Amico and Giovinco had a nasty falling out three years ago. And they seem to have an ongoing axe to grind with one another and are happy to slag each other off
(2) When Seba signed for Al Hilal, Manning waxed poetic about his ongoing great relationship with D’Amico, even though it was D’Amico who steered Seba to Riyadh and left TFC/Manning red-faced and in a pickle. I always found this a bit weird. It's like D’Amico has some Svengali thing going with Manning
(3) Manning clearly leans heavily on D’Amico to this day. Didn’t he say, right after he scouted Insigne on Transfermkt, the first call he made was to D’Amico? And D’Amico now gets credit as the intermediary who brokered the deal. And obviously when Manning jets off to Italy, it’s D’Amico that sets the agenda for whom they’re scouting and meeting
So, I think we can conclude that D’Amico has a lot of influence over roster building at TFC (without him, Manning’s ability to recruit top talent would be D.O.A).
But yet, Seba pitches up at camp in Cali as a trialist or something of the sort. That could easily have been influenced by powers more senior than Manning who aren’t naive to the potential marketing benefit of having Seba on the team. Seba lives here. His kids go to school here. He’s not planning to live elsewhere. It is actually conceivable he would be at peace with having a lesser role (although not certain). But I can see that there were senior influences saying to Manning and Bradley, see if you can make this work.
And then things transpire in two separate bubbles; the Maning | D’Amico bubble, and the Bradley | Bradley | Seba bubble out in Cali.
Manning & D’Amico - For the sake of conspiracy-theorizing, let’s say D’Amico really has his nose out of joint over Seba’s return (which I believe). Let’s say he pulls back on offering to grease the skids on these Italy trips. Let’s say the reason Manning cancelled his last trip was actually because D’Amico all of a sudden became a bit less helpful. D’Amico basically has Manning over a barrel as best I can tell. Manning doesn’t have the relationships nor savoir faire to recruit in Europe.
Out in Cali - To nobody’s surprise, it doesn’t seem like Seba hit it out of the park in training. I’m guessing Bradley Sr was scratching his head trying to figure out what to do with this version of Seba (who was never fast to begin with). Let’s analyze what Bradley said about Poz just a couple of days ago - he’s trying to get Poz to change his game in two major ways (1) quit chasing after the ball, let the ball find him when he’s in good places, and (2) contribute defensively. Now imagine Seba’s game. Seba is even farther away from being a Bradley style player, and offers less now than Poz. I’m sure Bradley looked at him and thought there is no way this is going to work. So then Bradley Sr talks to Bradley Jr and asks him whether it makes sense to create special dispensations for Seba in order to accommodate him in the team. Bradley Jr remembers Seba for his mercurialness, selfishness, and petulance, so he says, given Seba's diminished athleticism, and his ball-first game, it’s just not a good fit.
So, when Manning asks how it’s going out in Cali, neither of the Bradleys is willing to go to the mat for Seba. This lets Manning off the hook. He reports upwards that while the marketing idea was genius, it’s going to hold back the team. D’Amico now feels like he’s stuck it to his nemesis one more time, and so he gets back to work organizing the Italy trip where he can make some money.
So my query is, does Andrea D’Amico have way too much influence over TFC?
