Ideally I'd like that too. However, if this rumour is true, you'd have to assume the front office has a plan. If they are looking at a guy who has been capped 52 times by France its likely he will improve our squad. This guy is DP level, but may be a bargain in a salary capped world. Bez has built the best team in MLS history, I think I'll trust him over anyone on here.
I'm not disagreeing though, I'm hopeful they will address our defensive depth. I'm just happy to see TFC linked to another start player.
We shall see... for the amount the team has invested I think the results are mediocre, at best. Compare the impact of academies like RBNY, FCD, and arguably LAG, we’re not transitioning many players and those players are generally having difficulty sticking at the pro level.
But as you said, i’m not getting too bent out of shape considering the success of the first team.
Quillan Roberts also got a look there.
I expect more ex TFC guys to land at LAFC.
Michael Bradley has to be one of Bob Bradley’s informal talent ID resources. If we let a guy go, and Michael liked him, Bob is going to take a look.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
^ While I wouldn’t rule that out in entirety, majority of the credit goes to Marc Dos Santos as LAFC assistant.
You know, the guy who should probably be coaching canada but is either uninterested or discounted, despite having an actual track record of performance.
Dos Santos wouldn’t have a serious read on TFC Academy guys, though... am I missing something?
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
The Ottawa Fury had Weideman on the roster and a loose affiliation with TFC at one point, so MdS might have known about academy players who might get seasoning with the Fury. Kaye could have been on his radar from that time.
Yeah, letting Kaye leave the club was bad decision on TFC part.
It seems like TFC is losing a lot of quality young Canadian players these days. Not only that, it seems like they're not putting any effort to sign more Canadian players to first team.
Edwards was a potential for TFC, better than Kaye and he was let go, yet we keep Hamilton? WTF
I don't know about this. One player doesn't make a trend. Since TFC II started here's a list of at least semi-notable Canadian players we've released and their current club:
- Chris Mannella (Vaughan Azzurri - League1 Ontario)
- Manny Aparicio (CD Izarra - Spanish 3rd division)
- Quillan Roberts (Woodbridge Strikers - L1O)
- Skylar Thomas (Charleston Battery - USL)
- Mo Babouli (Al Ittihad - Syrian Premier League)
- Anthony Osorio (Unattached as far as I know)
- Sergio Camargo (Unattached as far as I know)
I don't think I'm missing anyone, and no disrespect to any of those guys but I don't think we're missing out on much. Kaye is the obvious exception, thus far.
On the other hand, a majority of those guys were given first team contracts. In fact our record of signing young Canadians to the first team is pretty consistent, with at least one signed every off-season since 2010.
2010: Doneil Henry & Nicolas Lindsay
2011: Ashtone Morgan, Oscar Cordon, Matt Stinson, Keith Makubuya
2012: Quillan Roberts
2013: Manny Aparicio
2014: Jordan Hamilton & Chris Mannella
2015: Jay Chapman
2016: Mo Babouli
2017: Raheem Edwards & Sergio Camargo
2018: Liam Fraser
The argument if anything should be that we haven't developed enough of these guys into impact players, not that we don't give them chances. And there's probably some truth in that.
But I think having TFC II available now has already helped and will continue to help young players further develop before they try to break in at the MLS level. I personally think Fraser is ready this year to play MLS minutes, and the next crop of Homegrown hopefuls has a few worth keeping an eye on (Hundal & Okello leading the way).
We lost Petrasso, Tiebert, Aleman (Who I feel will might a jump to MLS like Kaye in the near future) and Afolayan
However, my main concern is that TFC didn't make much an effort to sign Canadian players for first team in the off season. Petrasso and Henry were available and could have been good and cheap depth to have on the first team this year. Plus, they got plenty of potential to become starters in the league.
Not that it will make much difference for or against but just in case people like to keep track of ex youth players.
Marcus Godhino has been starting for Hearts the past few weeks.
Gabriel Boakye is playing for Energie Cottbus as a striker.
Tyler Pasher is with Sporting KC / 2nd team
Sure there are others that I can't right now.
IF kaye can start for LA, that's a great thing. He was never going to get minutes here anyways.
It's important here to differentiate between the early years and the recent ones. I would bet Tiebert looked around at the dysfunction of TFC at the time and said he was never going to maximize his potential as a player trying to develop here. The Aleman / Petrasso crop that decamped for Europe seemed to be more of an aspirational nature but TFC still had problems. While I think that level of shit show has completely passed by the club at large, TFC II / III still look directionless.
What is the actual goal of these teams? What is their target player pool? Those seem like straightforward questions until you start to look at what we've been doing. Pipelines to TFC II have been everything from the Academy, the CSL, NCAA, and other routes internationally. Starting lineups have varied between guys who can't get first team minutes, players rehabbing injuries, and players in early or later stages of development. If we're going to get the most of this resource the staff needs to make their vision more clear and stick to it.
My concern is we hear blanket statements floated like the young guys can't compete on a physical level; then we bring in the older guys and it turns out they can't compete either. So where does the buck stop? I think its time for the current academy management team to give it one last solid try or simply move on. We deserve better and this ownership group which has invested significant resources deserve better. Right now we're doing the equivalent of sending guys for their Harvard MBA only to see them graduate into an entry level job at Dunder Mifflin.
Last edited by ag futbol; 03-13-2018 at 06:07 AM.
I have bolded the parts I have questions about:
How do you know that we didn't try and sign any Canadian players? No offense, but there is a handful of Canadian players that could make us better and none of them are going to come cheap. We have the best team in the MLS ever, we need to continue to get better regardless of nationality. (if they are Canadian bonus)
Could you please list Canadian players that could improve this team and still keep be in compliance with the cap
No offense to Petrasso or Henry and they are not an upgrade over VdW, Artur or in Henry's case Moor, Mavinga, Zavaleta or Hagglund. For a 22 year old (Petrasso) or 24 year old (Henry) they are who they are they might get slightly better but not world beaters. They are depth/spot starters on shitty teams. For TFC they would be TFC II material no better.
This fascination of some posters that we need to sign Canadian talent is absurd. TFC should sign the best players to put them in a position to win titles. If they are Canadian great, if not that's ok too...
Last edited by TheGoodson; 03-13-2018 at 07:40 AM.
Valbuena rumored to TFC. Nice addition if true. Take it with a grain of salt.
I agree with all the points from that article. Especially if he's a liability defensively - what are they thinking with adding this guy? Surely there's 500+ other options globally that could be as good or better, something more in line with how we could deploy them.
Not even what works for us, This guy isn't coming over here to be a starter - and we dont need another discontent on the bench.
Disagree with that article.
I think our fullback depth is solid 3 at each position.
Left: Morrow, Auro, Morgan
Right: VDW, Auro, Hasler
I agree that we need a 6/8. I feel like the Aketxe signing manifested itself when it did because the front office simply didn’t want to miss out on the player.
6/8: Bradley, Delgado, Fraser
Osorio isn’t the two-way player Delgado is.
If they aren’t going to fill the position with an international would feel more comfortable if they brought Okello up to the first team. Think he’s ready.
Also: From the end of September to now we’ve been witnessing the decline of Drew Moor. If this club is looking 3 years in the future they’ll find his replacement this summer.
I'm happy he matured into a decent no. 6 but do you have insight into why he left. From what I saw, he lost his place of left wing to Raheem Edwards and he played left back for the remainder of the season. When I left for Louisville, he was their starting left winger. This transition to no. 6 was very recent.
He is in the latter stages but in a defensive 3 he still is positionally solid enough to get the job done. If I were TFC I would forget about another midfielder and look at trying to find another Mavinga type CB for the opposite side of the back and use Hagglund as Moor's replacement when the time comes. Zavaleta would take Hernadez's spot as the main CB bench sub.