He looks little better than Jarrod Smith, lol. There are some real beauts in there. Guy looks like a natural predator.
He looks little better than Jarrod Smith, lol. There are some real beauts in there. Guy looks like a natural predator.
Pretty hilarious "marking" in that Brockie highlight video (if you can call it that). Encouraged by his shot accuracy though, then again, we don't know if there's a 100:1 ratio of Chad Barrett moments in RL.
First of all, I thank you for your discussion of Eckersley and your observations of his strengths and weaknesses on the field. I think we have common ground in one area, the Toronto history of taking to the "hustle" player over the skill player.
But when you say
"This whole thread is about people giving personal opinions about players. Making personal attacks on someone who doesn't agree with the consensus isn't cool."
I ask you to take a step back and think about the area of personal attacks. I think that throwing around comments about players not being worth their salaries is a personal attack. I avoid sports talk radio and sports talk tv because I think that kind of talk has taken over the sports fan like a virus. If you and I and Ecks were having a beer in my backyard and you expounded on all of your observations of his playing weaknesses, we could probably have a great conversation for hours. If you said to his face, you're not worth your salary, I would ask you to leave or apologize to my guest.
I will go a few steps further to give you some background. I work in the public sector. Yes, you guessed it, I am a teacher. I don't think ten people together could imagine how sick I am of hearing people saying that other people are not worth their salaries (or their pensions, holidays, sick days and on and on)
I think I had better stop before I get the all time award for hijacking a thread....and I did go overboard because I saw a facebook TFC thread yesterday where others were going on about Laba's salary as comments on his very first post game interview!
If we don't contribute to his salary, then yes, whatever the valuation of his talent to salary comparison is pointless... but considering his performance leads to my overall utility in the Toronto FC product that i pay for, and that ticket sales are involved in the overall revenue of Toronto FC and therefore probably re-invested in to the player's salary, i can see how people believe they have a right to make these comments... but no one is making this accusation to someone's face, because this is exactly the forum for this type of venting - i wouldn't take it seriously, but noted
I wish MLS teams could support that level of depth, but it seems unlikely IMO. The international spots and dollars this will take up I'd rather see used elsewhere, or at the very least look in the cheap-domestic category.
I agree it has utility, but looking across the roster the wing play is a disaster and we have other places to fix up first.
I don't expect much out of Brockie. Other former A League players that made the jump to MLS like Fred and Danny Allsopp were some of better A League players, but they were quite crap in MLS.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Brockie is going to play as a striker or winger? Well at least with this signing, this could mean Wiederman's days are numbered. As for Scottish defender, he is capable playing as a LB? If not, then I am assuming he's here to replace either O'Dea or Califf in starting line up.
As a Birmingham fan I've watched Caldwell a lot over the last 3-4 years. He was club captain and a very solid defender in the EPL.
This year he seems to have lost any pace he had and was dropped from the team. This is on a team that was struggling to stay in the Championship.
He was substituted in the 31st minute of a game back in March when Hull were already 3-0 up and George Boyd was running circles around him and didn't play again this season.
Let's hope I'm wrong.
I think Brockie will.....wait for it....
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
tear this league apart
:P
There are a few tweets from the UK floating around saying Caldwell is a permanent signing not a loan.
The Steven Caldwell to TFC deal is official according to Birmingham's website:
Steven Caldwell will spend the remainder of his current Blues contract (due to expire on 30 June 2013) on-loan at Major League Soccer outfit Toronto.
http://www.bcfc.com/news/article/new...ed-809794.aspx
If he's slow for Championship, he's going to be slower then Califf. I still don't get this. (insert obligatory Big Trouble in Little China Quote)
Last edited by OgtheDim; 05-07-2013 at 01:53 PM.
Funny enough, Gary Caldwell is starting for Wigan today. They better effing lose.
Allsop you could have predicted that from his English career. He's always been shite. Fred, I thought, had some really good games for D.C. There seemed to be work ethic issues there.
I don't know; there are a few really audacious, skillful goals in that package. He might have something. Hard to say until we see him at MLS speed.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Another aging lower English league player who isn't starting and a young player who played for a shit load of teams already in the Australian league.
Not expecting much. Infact I'm expecting much of the same...
People shouldn't be so eager to get rid of O'Dea, Califf, and Ecks. Right now our back line is the most solid it's been in a long time. Yes, Califf has made some gaffes, but he's proven himself to be a solid CB. If O'Dea gets injurted we need him to step up as the experienced leader on the back line. And his salary isn't as bad as people think. He's essentially a direct replacement for Cann, and a heck of a lot better.
If we cut these guys just because they make a gaffe now and then, we're going to end up filling half our roster with CBs to try and find a good combination. Then if we decide on the best ones and cut the rest, people will complain that we can still find better CBs after they make a couple errors, and we'll be back where we started and probably worse.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Adrian Cann's 2012 guaranteed salary: $134,750.
O'Dea's 2013 guaranteed salary: $456,250.
Are you saying O'Dea is more than three times as good as Cann? Because I'd beg to differ and continue to say that O'Dea is terrible value for dollar. Is he better than Cann? Yes - definitely. But that doesn't justify his extraordinarily high salary for this league.
Just like if you were buying a house, you'd look at comparables to determine if you're overpaying. So in this instance, point me to someone with a comparable salary and we can debate his skill level/value. I'm willing to bet you won't be able to come up with anyone.
One of the problem our defense has had (among many other issues) is that it is just not very intimidating. I like Califf in there, despite his declining form, because he presents a bit of menace. Not saying I want him to fracture someone's leg but there is some value in opposing strikers even for a split second thinking about avoiding him.
I am concerned about him not being happy about dropping down the depth chart. He may prefer to leave, which in that case he should go.
Puretty sure he was talking about Califf who's making $165k and yes I'd say Califf is at least 20% better than Cann.
O'Dea is also a Mariner signing... Which means you have to take his salary, and divide it in half to see a more realistic picture of his value.
Was because he wasnt playing so much.. he was belong to porsmouth which couldnt handle hus huge salary so they didnt let him play for about a year, but he is back now, and he was chiosed for the MOTM against portugal a month ago and he is great, i mean how many players has so many tears in the premier league, and also in his NT.
he also played in chelsea and was a lineup player untill mourinho left..
Caldwell is 5'11'', I don't know if he's tall enough to play CB, maybe try him at LB, better players usually contribute with their positioning ability, not pace.