i dont follow the gram.so i dont know what this is
i dont follow the gram.
Last edited by reggie; 02-05-2022 at 02:29 PM.
Looks like Auro has taken it off his story (or it expired). But I think those are his agents. Something up for sure
Well he's now posted a photo on his Instagram with the (translated) caption: "Every positive thought pushes you in the right direction"
Marky Delgado replied "Stay positive bro! The comeback makes you stronger. Sending you a big hug"
If anything it seems like he doesn't want to leave, but is being forced out. (I'm completely speculating)
He was always in photos with Soteldo and Gallardo. I wonder if they're just trying to do a clean sweep of all of that, even though to me it always seemed like Auro got along with everyone.
In other news, the TFC roster page has a blank number for Ralph Priso. Guess he might be changing numbers from 97 to an actual soccer number
https://www.torontofc.ca/roster/
I love high number.Originally Posted by rydermike
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
Guessing he'll take Delgado's 8.
I’m not sure I care what other clubs are doing. There was a lot of time to get shit done since September/October and they’re only now making the moves. Walking into the season worse than before on paper isn’t acceptable to me because it isn’t necessary nor a result of uncontrollable factors. This FO under Manning has been entirely inefficient in attending to and anticipating on-pitch needs. Every deal takes an inexplicable amount of time to confirm. It doesn’t matter if it’s Perruzza re-signing or Kemar getting traded, Jozy’s buyout, Soteldo’s swap, Delgado’s trade, JJ coming in.
This looks to me like some combination of understaffing and unnecessary bureaucracy. They clearly don’t have the capacity to pull off this amount of moves and their attempt to do so is going to cost us the first half of the season.
I don't disrespect your opinion in the slightest but I have to disagree. This offseason has been pretty exceptional so far. They've landed us a world-class player, a line leading center half, they've resolved (allegedly) the Jozy issue, they've resolved the Soteldo issue and they've done it in a month and a half, because of the early start.
We're not worse on paper, not by a long shot. Our biggest, overwhelming issue for two seasons has been our porous defense.
The only place we're short right now, really, is a confirmed striker, a better starting keeper -- although Westberg may still be up to the task, he started last year coming off COVID -- and maybe, maybe an overlapping wingback, depending on how they see our current options.
I think it's been pretty impressive.
Why would anyone assume they are doing nothing? This is exactly like the Altidore situation, there was no news flow at all, when it broke it broke elsewhere, but what appeared to be "doing nothing" wasn't that at all.
In the case of Auro and Lawrence, a couple of hypotheses...
- BB hasn't brought in anyone yet from LAFC (or from his network). But he is going to....
- there are always guys in the bottom half of Ligue Un, or in the Championship, or better teams in Poland or Austria now it seems... that aren't playing and come into MLS in February or March. We could easily have something like that lined up. (It's not clear to me that this would be a disaster when compared to Auro)
Last edited by ensco; 02-05-2022 at 04:07 PM.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Couldn't do anything until
a) Bradley in place
b) Contracts move to the next year
c) the trade / transfer windows open up
^This man is speaking all kinds of truth lately. We’re definitely flirting with half a season of pure survival mode.
Yes, and to be fair any areas of “inaction” requiring attention seem to be followed by action. It’s not like Curtis where inaction is followed by silence followed by promises things are happening. They have done a huuuge rehaul here in one window. It’s almost to the point where I question if they can do any more this period. There’s already so many changes.
So now we need a LB, RB, DM and RW just to fill out the roster and the season is starting in 3 weeks.
My expectations:
We were 26th out of 27 teams in the league last year, and turned over the coach and GM. We were never obviously going to be “ready” to compete with the best teams on opening day.
I think BB won’t have “his” team in place for two more windows (ie 2023).
I am spending the year hoping we are competitive, and other than that mostly watching Osorio and worrying about his readiness for Qatar. That is how I am spending 2022.
(Will be doing the same with Miller and Johnston for Montrealand MAK)
Last edited by ensco; 02-05-2022 at 05:19 PM.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
I use to go see Bromley play quite often at this level and I always felt their central defenders could do I job for Toronto.
Portu, jloome, and Ensco, you guys are framing up a pretty interesting debate here. Specifically, how well (or poorly as the case may be) are we going to do in the first half of the season (We have 17 matches before July 1)?
I wonder if your opposing views are a matter of glass-half-empty-vs-full or whether it’s a matter of short term vs the medium and longer term.
Portu is suggesting the short term is shaping up to be ugly. If we were start the season today, with what we’ve got, I’d wager Portu is right. We do look to be a worse side than the one that fought for the wooden spoon just a few short months ago.
Clearly, the unknown is what our roster looks like on Feb 26 and whether there are a few more recruits coming after the season starts (let’s hope so).
But just for the sake of argument, let’s take stock. To avoid the home-supporter optimism bias I’ll treat unconfirmed departures as done deals, and unconfirmed arrivals as just that, unconfirmed. And, I’ll ignore the churn of depth-pieces for this. Here we go:
Departures:
- Altidore
- Solteldo (I wasn't a fan, but love him or hate him, he was our best player last year)
- Delgado
- Lawrence
- Morrow
- Laryea
- Auro
- Gonzalez
Arrivals
- Salcedo
- that’s it, just Salcedo
There is no possible XI we could field today that is anything other than far weaker than last year’s rag tag collection. So, if we’re done adding talent until the July window opens, it’s likely going to be a soul-destroying front half to the season. Personally, I'd have to look away if this were the case.
I think this is all Portu is saying. We’ve got work to do. Now, like others, I fully believe Bradley has identified the specific players with specific attributes he wants and the collective recruiting and accounting team is working overtime to get things done. I’m optimistic. And excited. And I love the additions of Salcedo and Insigne. And I like every rumour I’m hearing. And I’m sure Bradley has his eyes on some wingbacks.
But….. it’s February 5 already. So in the words of Roy Rogers, giddyup.
You're missing a lot here. We've brought in Shane O'Neill, Lukas MacNaughton, Greg Ranjitsingh, Deandre Kerr, Luca Petrasso. Even ignoring Ranjitsingh, it's reasonable for O'Neill, MacNaughton, Kerr and maybe Petrasso to be involved materially this season.
Plus, if you're including Auro/Lawrence as departures (despite being unnannounced), you could also likely include Gio and Jimenez as an arrival if you want.
Last edited by noxx98; 02-05-2022 at 06:55 PM.
The yutes will play this year - I fully expect Priso to be a nailed on starter by mid season.
Yes, for sure you're right about all this. I was just trying to emphasize known changes to first-choice starting XI, which I confess does have me a little uneasy as it sits today. But I agree, there has been a notable upgrade to the depth-pieces all over the pitch, and the expected signings also represent exciting upgrades with a lot of prime years in red. I'm bullish.
has much has i like auro s tatts.i think he is kinda meh,doesnt really bring much on the O side,and not athletic enough to play BB style,i rather keep lawrence if we had a choice.
Pretty much this - I think the pessimism comes from a lot of new, unknown variables plus some straight up nostalgia of players of years past doing well a few years ago. I'm glad we cleaned house and I think this team's going to have an exciting learning curve in front of them rather than the same old guys eating up the same old minutes.
yes this is so refreshing,i was sick of seeing endoh,mullins,achara dywer getting starts when they really did nt deserve it.what a waste it was last season.
Last edited by reggie; 02-05-2022 at 07:21 PM.
Unless these kids we have play above what should reasonably be expected from them, the first half of the season is about staying in the playoff race until Insigne, Criscito and potential DP 2 can arrive. How quickly Jimenez and Salcedo settle will decide a lot.
im sure they have a fewof these
Much as I generally agree with jloome, I mostly agree with portu on this. I just predict I am going to be less vexed about a poor start than he will.
I don’t think there is any way to accelerate a strategic overhaul like this.
One possible way we could all be wrong: we may have been a lot better than our record last year, and getting rid of unhappy people is always good for any locker room.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Agreement??
In all seriousness though, I do believe that this team will *eventually* get sorted out. My primary concern is that they end up bombing the first half of next year irreparably (and unnecessarily) because they are so slow to move on things. I personally don’t see why it takes so long to finalize every deal, even re-signing players. This has been an issue I have complained about since Manning joined, and was likely exacerbated by Ali Curtis’ arrival. They take ages to identify, negotiate and confirm roster moves. And there are too many instances to blame Covid or situational BS every. single. time.
My pure speculation is that the front office is understaffed and, after watching them fuck up obvious due diligence on the Pozuelo deal, underskilled (courtesy edit: not for normal responsibilities just this kind of work). The other end of things is I think Manning is spread far too thin between Argos/TFC/general commercial activity and at the same time is trying to anally manage details that should be delegated to a dedicated and experienced individual at management level. (I believe much of this has been pointed out by you before on the Manning thread.)
Anyway, the frustration in this is that if you’ve got this level of budget and the months upon months to capacity plan, you should have invested to mitigate your risks. This is not a league where you have to bomb out while you rebuild. And this is not a business where deals move slowly, unless (1) you don’t know how to do them, (2) you don’t have time and/or (3) are anally retentive with QA.
Last edited by portu; 02-05-2022 at 11:07 PM.
This is not true.
a) You have an entire scouting department to be ready to present actionable recommendations from the date of BB’s appointment. As well as moves that are so bleedingly obvious and overdue. BB appointment does not prevent them from planning and anticipating risks. Insigne move also began far before appointment.
b) Deals in football are 24/7, negotiations happen all the time regardless of contractual year or transfer window status
c) I am not personally familiar with procedure for dealing in MLS trade windows, but for transfers/pre-contracts/buy-outs/loans these negotiations are again year round and the transfer window is simply the date by which the player is able to register with his new club (generally). TFC could agree a transfer for a German 16 year old in October 2022 and have him join July 2025 theoretically, the rules on movement are looser than some think, but annoying to familiarize and understand in practice which leads to the impression of a strict regulatory environment.
A couple points to add to the mix.
- Bob Bradley started a franchise team of players all from other teams as one of the best franchise starts and arguably one of the best teams in the league for their first couple seasons. A big mix up players is not a major risk given his history.
- our weakest spot last year was defence, we still managed to score and the only goal scorer (on paper) we really lost so far is Altidore. So on paper we are stronger by A LOT in defence and barely weaker in the goal scoring perspective.
- we are allowing the manager to mould his team with the type of players, and it appears the types of personalities he wants. Armas was given a squad designed for an scenic road and he tried to play them like a drag race car. I am glad he failed fast, but the lack of payer in/out was not a good thing for success.
I will concur with the side saying we are better on paper. I am truly shocked that anyone can see the changes so far and is complaining. I can see wanting more, who doesn’t, but saying it hasn’t been good enough is unfair in my opinion.
Let me put it this way, if you are a fan of 90% of any of our competition, you are jealous of our offseason.
I respect where you’re coming from but I think the difference between our thinking is that I view this on a 4 month timeline (ongoing) as opposed to since January. I don’t think our midfield (subtraction only) or backline look any better right now (no fullbacks???). The keeping is a major issue and the frontline will be much worse off without any major quality there and Shaff being the only starting quality player who can play along a front three right now. Different strokes maybe, but I think they are incredibly slow to make things happen for whatever reason. Insigne absolutely impressive, but signing him can’t be used as a shield for not being able to field a competitive (not amazing just competitive) team by end of Feb. Hopefully I’m wrong about everything.
FTR I don’t think they’re doing nothing I just think they’re doing everything very very slowly. Jozy has been a thing for over a year and just now is getting resolved (but obviously still no confirmation because reasons I guess?)
interesting and thoughtful post.
thank you
lets follow up.
in Two Weeks
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