The comical Ali act right before the Athletic article came out probably didn't help. I hope that was a line in the sand for him, we need reporters asking at least semi difficult questions given the clubs general cone of silenceOriginally Posted by Ultra & Proud
Torsten Frings?
I hope he learns but somehow I doubt it. Not the first instance where he basically had his TFC story refuted a short time after printing and lazily relied on someone’s word without thinking even slightly intuitively.
He could arrive at a house with smoke coming out of it and fire trucks sitting outside. If you told him it wasn’t burning in there he’d probably print it.
Seems like a nice guy. But I’ll trust my fortune cookie over his reporting.
I am torn about whether to renew on John's site.
On the one hand, he is kind of it (I suppose there is still Davidson - who is great but barely does TFC any more) and so I kind of feel an obligation to support him. Plus he is clearly a good guy.
The flip side is, he just seemed to be a hostage to the team. He cannot do what he does without constant access to the players, and it seemed obvious, to me anyway, that fear of getting that access pulled affected what he was saying.
Plus I hated, just absolutely hated, that he was using his site to do a ticket promotion for the team.
so I dunno, I have to think about it….
Last edited by ensco; 11-08-2023 at 10:49 PM.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
This is where I'm at with this too.
Really the team should just pay him for content on their website like they used to have back in the TFC.ca days.
For me he is essentially another form of TFC PR.
When I’ve read him he’s seemed to me somewhere between MLS.com - often critical of individual teams and players but not critical of the league overall - and TFC.ca which was/is never critical of anything TFC. So, some level of critique but often not.
For all the so called independence of the newspapers (and I do miss them) most of what was written was not critique but game and injury reports, general info, quotes, special interest. Molinaro may be from TV but there was plenty of that in the newspapers. I think we idealize what was there (in the sports sections at least… some of the other sections are a different matter).
There is, in one ten minute post game video of the managers press conference more content (or at least more detailed content) than there ever was in most of the Toronto sports sections on soccer. When a new manager was hired, for example, that was the focus but never as much as to be able to watch an hour and forty minutes - all journalists questions answered straight from the horse’s mouth.
But if you want journalist style write ups then it’s pretty much got to be Molinaro… who, to be fair, probably has more TFC content than any one sports section had.
Variety, I suppose, it’s what missing but you can’t fault Molinaro for that.
Perhaps with enough support he’ll hire other journalists.
Also, there is TV which, at least with de Guzman et. al, has lately been more biting than the newspapers often were and much more than TV used to be. It’s only 2 or 3 minute segments but often, lately, they’re almost full on critical of TFC.
Last edited by los sonadores; 11-09-2023 at 11:50 AM.
The dilemma such media face daily; not an ideal position. See/just go ask Filosa...
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/northtribune/status/1720829573124759706
BTW, an FYI...
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/NiltonJorge/status/1722333786208174474
'This morning on@BPMSportsRadio during an interview with@MaxLalonde
@MaximeTruman talked about the salaries granted by MLS / AppleTV. “AppleTV pays Canadian descriptors $3,500 per match.
This is a price that has no relation to what is given in Quebec.”'
Press conference is beginning. No idea if there is a stream or not.
I saw a picture from it and looked like John and Neil Davidson were the only two there.
This, unfortunately, seems so.
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/NeilMDavidson/status/1723005172979257419?s=20
TFC’s relevance in the market under Manning’s leadership, a visual.
You could make an argument that "Teflon" Bill Manning was the single worst appointment in TFC history. He inherited a championship team and essentially burned it to the ground. TFC is now nothing more than a complete laughing stock.
i find it shocking that Manning is still with the club after how many previous mistakes, Ali Curtis, Chris Armas and now Bob Bradley, if Herdman doesnt perform well im certain that MLSE will continously give out chances to Manning, while ignoring the problems which Manning is
I have a feeling that this is it for him. Either this works or he is toast.
I heard from a few people who know things that there is a decent amount of shock over the amount of non-renewals this year. Especially from a lot of day 1 people.
Even my rep was clearly a bit nervous to call me this week about getting my new VISA number. Probably got yelled at all morning before I got my chance.
The level of anger is high from the diehards and the level of apathy from the rest of the fanbase is huge. This offseason will be a time of great suffering at TFC HQ. I will go so far to say that if Herdman doesn't come out of the blocks with promise then I say Manning is jettisoned by May.
This is very true.
They read an email I wrote in to Footie Prime in the latest episode about Sharman misconstruing TFC's offseason, and in the course of discussing his lack of up-to-date TFC knowledge, they all mentioned that TFC is the only team from whom they no longer receive regular press releases or invites.
There's some incompetent shit on going on there. I'm going to mention it to someone I know who works there, but I've taked communications with them before and I can't say I'm optimistic the required impetus will be recognized.
J Loome, TFC is doomed after reading your statement. At least Tom Anselmi (sp?) knew he and his crew fucked up big time stated this fact publicly. I can't believe these clowns are burying their heads in the sand! Btw, I didn't renew my season ticket and I am have been going to games since game one.
Renewals is where rubber meets the road, they can pretend there was 27,000 people there on the last day of the season while the place looked like an Argos game and financially it's fine as they got the money up front, but if renewals tank next year, that'll be the big wake up call. I don't think Manning is as safe as people assume. I just can't understand how he can explain to the board why he's burning money at a rate nobody else in the league has ever done(Except the ones who have the literal greatest footballer of all time on their team) and has no income streams to show for it, which is what they care about. He could behind season ticket sales papering over the empty seats of this season, but he can't hide from a sea of non renewals, and if the actual bums in seats is an indication, that's what he's about to be faced with
He just has to be in trouble. Either that or the man has some kind of extreme dirt on some high ups at MLSE
I'm not sure of 27K but it was NOT an Argo game level. I would say about 24K - I base this on every section being about 80% filled (easy to see this from the middle of the South)
Argos are 13-16K, with certain areas unavailable.
I get the desire for change and am in with it all but lets not hyperbole things....
If there was 24,000 there I'll personally buy all 24,000 of them a drink. Not a chance. Not even close. But let's go down this road again.
Fair enough - agree to disagree etc.
Point is if you are basing Manning being on thin ice on attendance...that is open to interpretation.
Most of us think he needs to go for other reasons but that hasn't been enough yet for him to go.
Again, if they are crap in 2024 - and to my mind 2025 can't be a regression back to this either - Manning will be gone I'm sure.
Here's Neil Davidson's piece:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/mls/article...ugh-is-enough/
One thing about readers having access to the reporter’s material is that we can see when they get it wrong.
Hernandez, at least, was clear that they not only didn’t use the 2023 buyout but they don’t currently have enough room to remove Osorio’s DP status. That to do it they have to somehow move players and that even if they could move players (which they hope to do by various difficult or overlooked methods) it would be a DP “comparable” to Osorio. He said that this would only happen if it was “absolutely” the right player and that in fact it was “inefficient” to do this and implied that the way to go was to have “several guys at 750,000” instead of having two low DP wage players. No one suggested they are especially trying to sign another third DP.
Maybe Davidson is thinking of TFC of the Vanney and Leiweke successes… indeed it’s difficult to think of MLSE not being able to afford a substantial third DP.
Davidson did get the rest of it right including - to reinforce his earlier photo of the absurd media availability attendance - the club’s irrelevance in the city.
During the press conference it was sort of too bad Molinaro’s pointed questions to Manning were not really pointed. Instead of ‘how is it that you’ve presided over the best team in MLS becoming, for the last 3 seasons cumulatively the worst team in the league’? He asked a less fact-based question about whether Manning should be employed and attributed the sentiments to “a small number of fans out there”.
Manning may be a nice guy but he’s a wanker whose decisions have been ruining this club for too many few years. His part in the media availability didn’t suggest otherwise.
Last edited by los sonadores; 11-11-2023 at 05:25 AM.
Hernandez admitted that without a proper manager they were “treading water”. Again why his two acquisitions, while they might very well work out, hardly played and given that it added to the club’s many guaranteed contracts he should have waited to spend until he had a manager with an actual direction. Though naturally he was not the one appointing a new manager.
It looks like they’re certainly playing three at the back, the width coming from wingbacks. They didn’t really need to sign an untried winger and and an iffy striker while dead last toward the end of the season. Herdman also mentioned using “a lower intensity build up style” to get more out of the centre backs who had trouble playing in a back four. He also mentioned that things (the roster) “looked bad on paper”.
I hope some brilliant acquisitions are made but it sounds like all are aware that it isn’t going to be easy and they’re going to have to work with what they’ve got.
Interesting note. Herdman likes JMR at left wingback and it sounds like he’s hoping to start him or at least make that one less wingback that needs acquiring. I expect Petretta plays the left of the three centre backs. Rosted will probably also be better in a back three.
JMR’s crosses into Owesu? Doesn’t sound very exciting but I suppose it could work. Maybe more interesting to see what Herdman does with the Italians.
JMR should be studying Criscito… playing with him was the last time Insigne was effective and it wasn’t, I think, just because they were buddies.
I’m still not sure whether Herdman strongly prefers three at the back or if that’s simply his reasonable response to a lack of strong centre backs. He had them with Canada and again here.
Last edited by los sonadores; 11-11-2023 at 05:53 AM.
Who can name the former TFC player that just set a fairly impressive league record?
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Herdman said in his post game presser that 3 CB defences - and I'm paraphrasing from memory here - deal well with the strong DP level forwards pairings we see in MLS.
Sounds like its a tactic to create some defensive stability.
If we truly are not going to use our buyout in 2023 with this roster then that plus the messaging around osorio as DP tells me the days of MLSE seeing this club as a financial black hole as over
I really heard nothing out of that presser that suggested to me we are on the right track. I heard plenty that suggested the opposite.
And none of this is a judgement on Herdman but he has a lot of dumb people above him in management and their incompetence and historical failures are really an anchor on any recovery this team plans to make.
Suspect 2024 will be a write off (yet again) but MLSE might actually get off their butts and do the right thing with Manning.
Last edited by ag futbol; 11-11-2023 at 10:01 AM.
Posting Permissions
