If this is possible I would like to see us do it and then bring him off the bench after the 85th minute.Originally Posted by jloome
If this is possible I would like to see us do it and then bring him off the bench after the 85th minute.
Loan Fede to the CPL?
Can this guy just retire?
I agree he is past it at this level. However, I smell something unpleasant upon us. It’s management’s toe dip look-see under a guise; just the consideration by allowing him to train is suspect to me; all the hoopla created the last time. Reaching in that old bag of tricks, Circus Maximus style, giving the casuals another distraction, while bridging a gap to better days.
I think the demonization of Fede is out of control.
He looked very good for long stretches last year. He's not a bad player. All this "he's a one trick pony" stuff, I mean, cmon, he played 134 games at Juve. He doesn't get that kind of PT at a Juve being a "one trick pony"
It was not a good signing signing but, it's not his fault that Manning threw stupid money at him.
Unless something surprising happens, he is staying, and we should root for him to find the game he showed us when he arrived.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
I also do hope he turns it around but he really needs an attitude change and just to accept it. He needs to work hard and get dirty. If we lose some games, so what. Go work.
Insigne after the athletic article seemed to have this. He was working his ass off on the field, tracking back, winning the ball etc.
Berna needs to do this as well. His first touch and shot are better then most in MLS. But he needs to just put his head down and work... and pass the damn ball.
With Cassius here I do think his time on that wing needs to be done.
We are supposed to have an update to find out the status of Lollo today? Anyone aware?
Out indefinitely; pulled a hamstring running to his phone hoping it was the Saudis with a transfer offer.
Another thought on this, Gio is being brought in to try to bring Bernie back. What a great club Toronto can be, I went to Saudi but really should have figured out how to stay. Play your cards right and this can be a happy place. I do agree with Ensco, he is being villanized but it is completely up to him to come back... the fans will love him but his passion needs to be redirected properly.
I think he has severe maturity problems, is disruptive, gives up when things don't go his way, refuses to pass to his teammates and has two goals in 20 games at the MLS level.
He has bags of skill, yes. That's why he performed well when he first got here.
But all that demonstrates is that it's his own petulance and unwillingness to work hard on the pitch that is causing his problems.
He may not be a "one trick wonder" -- because clearly he has tons of vision and ball skill -- but he's playing like one. That's on him.
This is MLS, not the premier league, and he's a 29-year-old who had three league goals in three years prior to coming to us. He's being paid $6.25M a year, and instead of busting his ass and trying to lead, he's being petulant and ineffective.
That's not "demonizing", that's reality.
He has played really, really poorly relative to his ability level. To me, the only reason to hope he turns it around is that I'm not sure anyone else will take him at this point. At the best, MLSE is going to eat some cash.
But maybe he comes around now that we have a couple of forwards who can actually score goals and find space.
Here's hoping, but attitudinally, I suspect he's been a star so long, he's always going to see himself as bigger than the league he's in. If he does better, maybe he bolsters his numbers enough that we can move him and try finding an actual team leader.
My hope would be that I'm reading him wrong, he's greatly frustrated by being seeing as having to carry the team, and once we get a striker, he starts feeding that player instead of a) try to beat to guys b) cut to the top of the box c) hope a defender bites on the fullback overlap and opens up a shooting lane. Every team knows he's going to do it.
But if that's the case, he's a very fragile individual, because he's given fuck-all effort for a dozen games now.
Last edited by jloome; 08-15-2023 at 11:49 AM.
Apparently him, Bradley, Vazquez, prince and mailula all in full training.
He is not producing. I think the rest of this in bunkum. With respect.
He had 8 goals in a half season last year, and looked damn good doing it. I know half of those were PKs but it's not nothing.
It isn't a mystery why he is having issues. He was playing with teammates that were hopeless, in a stupid system that didn't work... Then Fede made a bad mistake going after BB. Nobody should ever do what he did, because what happens next is predictable. It made him insanely popular here for a week or two, but then the reaction - the vaping story, and the seeming lack of support from teammates for leading the insurrection - inevitably seems to have wrecked his mindset.
He is in a funk, for reasons that are obvious.
Last edited by ensco; 08-15-2023 at 12:00 PM.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Okay. We'll see. Because the only way this changes is if he plays well, and that's on him.
The fact is, if Hany Mukhtar, a career b-level player in Europe, can dominate this league with individual talent, a guy of his supposed pedigree should do the same. The defending in this league is Mickey Mouse compared to what he's accustomed to.
And "half" his goals weren't from penalties last year, SEVEN of them were.
A "funk"? Get off it mate, he's a spoiled child. He literally jogged for most of his last start, which is the real reason they sat him in the last game. He's promised to put in more effort, keeps saying the right things, then doesn't. After awhile, blowing smoke up your teammates' and managers collective asses gets more annoying than just being a dick.
Signing him was idiotic, given his production since his 2018 knee injury. Signing both of them at far beyond what they would've been offered in Europe was just nonsensical.
This league does not thrive on guys who are brilliant in a brilliant team.
The number of ex-Championship players who look mediocre in MLS because they're tactically astute but athletically average -- because without equally tactically astute players around you, that means nothing -- is pretty high.
Neither of these guys has the second gear they had when they were younger, neither of them is as quick as the defenders they're playing against. In a strong side, with tactical and positional consistency, that means far less.
But you pretty much never get that in MLS. We play open, South American style football, not tactically disciplined, planned movement. Without the extra gear, his vision and ball skill means fuck all.
Unless he can demonstrate otherwise.
Then refute the points you think are bunkum, don't lump. Because in this case, it's foolish.
You think it's "bunkum" that he's not putting in an effort? Or that he's playing predictably?
Please. I'm describing exactly what we're seeing.
Last edited by jloome; 08-15-2023 at 12:14 PM.
This season has been an absolute disaster. Unless we sign a DP striker and build the team around him then I don't give us much hope for the next season either. We'll likely start next season with the promise of firepower showing up in the summer by which time we're out of the playoffs. Rinse, repeat. Why not sign a DP striker now and use the fall to let him settle in and then plan what should be around him. Miami did just that with Messi. This should be our plan moving forward. I'm sick of building teams backwards. This is the MLS. It's ALL about top strikers.
Also, hope to see Giovinco play a few games this fall. At least there'd be a reason to go to BMO -- because the present players are all a massive embarrassment. Might as well have some fun and throw 150k at Giovinco as he requested. (Just don't forget the DP striker, or do, which would be SO TFC!)
I stand corrected.
I say he is demoralized, you say he is jogging. We will see. I just want him to have a chance to prove me right. Not sure that is possible.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Berna and Insigne are used to having super star strikers up front. Maybe the lack of that here contributes to them failing. Maybe.
Man... I don't disagree with that. Maybe it is being demoralized rather than petulant. But for a 29-year-old being paid to do a job, that's on him to fix, no one else.
He's demoralized, sure. But he's rich, talented. His entire life is a fucking dream compared to 99% of the people on this planet. Suck it up, buttercup.
Insigne I think gets it.
Berna doesn't yet.
Anyway, having Giovinco at the training grounds with them surely isn't a bad thing.
Would be literally the only fun thing that happens this season. Fuck it, do it.
I think if we really value his legacy, we wouldn't put him out there to potentially (and likely, frankly) embarrass himself. He's 36 and hasn't played competitively in two years, nearly three.
In Saudi, they switched him to being a central midfielder because his third gear is gone, which is why he didn't score a lot there. He has good vision and assisted things, but you couldn't get away with that in MLS, where central midfielders have to be defensively responsible.
A one-game sendoff if he announces he's retiring, sure. A testimonial match, absolutely a good tradition to start.
But not competitively. It's just unwise.
A Seba (And Vasquez? And Bradley!?) testimonial free to season ticket holders and cheap to everyone else with a fund raising aspect and give aways to the fans could be both a nice way to say goodbye to elite players for us and something to that fans might enjoy in this terrible season. Could be a nice way to do it.
I for one support bringing him back IF he proves to be good enough to at least make the bench. He'd have to compete as anyone else. It's basically a free signing, so I think it'd be SO TFC if we just miss up on this because we decided against the evidence that he's a bad idea (that's only IF he is actually good enough to make our bench, but that's why you test him out).
This is an incredible idea.
He wasn't over a year and a half ago so I'm not sure how he would have improved much by doing absolutely nothing between then and now.
It's debatable that we had a qualified coach making that decision. We all saw what Bob Bradley was all about here. Disaster! If Giovinco is not good enough, then fine, pass on the opportunity of course.
Dude, he cut out of training camp while being given a shot to sign in Italy. He wasn't rejected, he was given a shot and left in mid tryout.
Having said that, according to guys covering the camp the word was there was no way he was going to get signed. He just doesn't have the quickness anymore at his size to be effective.
I don't think you're wrong or anything, this is just way more thought than I'm putting into it.
Sports are entertainment at the end of the day and we're the furthest thing from it. It's miserable to watch us play. This would just be fun to have him back, one drop of fun in a miserable season.
We know he wants to return, he'd sign for league minimum, and it's not like he'd be getting in the way of any promising young strikers. A 20 minute super-sub role where he just tries to feed other players and score from free kicks? You bet I'm tuning in.
If he scores 1 goal it's literally the highlight of the season. That's my argument in a nutshell.
If he's not good enough to even make the bench, then pass, yes. We'll see what happens.
Scrolling through Facebook and got a chuckle reading the comments on all the pictures in the album. They love their "Cash No Deposit" ... lol
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid...03921838416454
BB was super pissed about the whole Seba episode last year and went out of his way to run Seba down when he left for Serie A. Frankly, BB had a point.
But I am not sure I put much stock in what anyone was “saying” about the likelihood of Seba's making the team. At the time, the issue was Poz, who was still here and very much part of the picture. But we now know BB was already likely thinking about moving Poz….
All that to say, who knows what Seba had in spring 2022? He didn’t get enough PT in Italy to answer that (although that itself is a partial answer)
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
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