Couldn't agree more. I've been worried they'll just call it quits and we'll end up with Hanni. By no means is he a bad player, but after watching some highlight videos you can see why Pozuelo would be first choice. Honestly, I have a hard time seeing Genk turn down the proposal for him to come in March, as this has already caused quite a debacle (or at least it's seemed that way) and I don't see Poz being content at all if they say no to this new proposal. Not sure, obviously, but I think it's a reasonable compromise. We shall see. Maybe Curtis bamboozled them with his negotiating skills, but odds are that you're right, it feels sloppy to me.
(New member to the forum, been reading for months, constant refresh, the usual. I really appreciate the info from everybody, great community. Man, our journos really need to wake up)
With all due respect, I don't buy that. You're selling fans of Italian ancestry short. Agreed, some may have come to BMO Field for the first time to see Seba but I think the vast majority or TFC fans.
I have a 70 year old Italian barber who's a Raptors fan. Go figure. One time, in his think accent, he said something like, "That P.J. Tucker, he's a one tuffa guy." Man, that so so funny and impressive at the same time.
Last edited by snowcrash; 02-18-2019 at 04:16 PM.
BMO wasn't half empty before Seba. The expectation is good attacking football - where those players come from matters way less.
I struggle sometime falling for the stereotype of the Ex-pat fans (of which I am one)...but it is an unfair stereo type overall, just like the CONCACAF nations stereo-types are as well. If Poz helps us get back to winning ways then there will be plenty of support for the team. It's exciting time in Canadian soccer...finally we might see the development of players from 15 through to pro and develop our own golden generation. But it's not all about Poz for Seba...we need to replace VV, VdW, Hagland and Janson with first team calber players.
I am an Italian Canadian and have been a supporter of TFC since day 1, I would also like to point out that there are about 15 Italian Canadians or so that sit around me in section 105. We all have been season ticket holders long before Seba and will be season ticket holders long after he is gone. No doubt that Seba brought more Italians to BMO but I am sure he brought a lot of other nationalities to BMO as well. Some of these fans might not be back but some might have fallen in love with being at BMO like us.
In closing I feel that Seba will be missed by all fans not just Italians, I also feel the club did the right thing by not caving to Sebastian's demands. Players come and go but the Crest on the Jersey remains the same.
Forza TFC ❤❤❤
[QUOTE=ManUtd4ever;1888906]If that's the case, then it says more about that particular segment of the fan base than it does about ownership.
To true supporters of the club, the badge and the on field product should be the only things that matter, not the nationalities of our DPs.[/QUOTE
It would be interesting to have the BMO attendance stats (bums in the seats not seats sold), comparing games with and without Seba. Anyway, this is moot. He is gone. And, I will not have trouble finding other things to do on Saturday afternoons.
Despite this, I am hoping they sign the three players they will need to make the playoffs, and look forward to the day when they are a contender again.
Seba was magic. Could make a goal anywhere out of anything. Who else could get the entire stadium on its feet expecting a goal for any free kick within 30 yards? All nationalities came to watch him perform. It’ll be a long time before we have that kind of player again, if ever.
The Italian thing is interesting. We endured mediocre players from every other European country for ten years, and not one Italian. Beckham shows up at BMO for a game, and scalpers were besieged by young female English expats. So frankly speaking, nationality and soccer do in fact, matter.
While many avid Serie A fans will give MLS a pass, many turned to the TFC when highly regarded Giovinco signed here. At one time, he was the highest paid Italian pro in the world, who wouldn’t notice this? Then, he becomes the best player in the league, again, who wouldn’t notice?
He didn’t stay long enough for a sustained Italian following (over 300k in the GTA)
and this, is where MLSE screwed up. Jesus, look at the impact of an aging, barely walking, and disinterested Pirlo, in New York. Same with Henry, and Kaka in Florida.....You need these players to sustain interest in an otherwise third tier league. Painful for some, but a reality nonetheless.
SKC sells out
Atlanta sells out
Heck NER, with nobody on that team of note, on plastic, in a football stadium, in the burbs, draws 18K on average.
RSL draws 18K
Heck, Columbus, with ownership actively working to make attendance figures as bad as possible, drew 12K on average.
The days of gates being driven by European players from big leagues is over.
https://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2018-mls-attendance/
^The whole thing is moot. Had a good look at all the job offers Leiweke got in MLS post TFC?
This league is not going to get elite Italian players (same for other big footballing countries) for a very long time. They cost enormous sums, and they will not give up their national team chances
This stung Giovinco very hard when it happened, and it contributed to his leaving here- knowing he really is tainted by playing here, he may as well be a full-on mercenary and go to Saudi
https://www.theguardian.com/football...s-consequences
Last edited by ensco; 02-18-2019 at 08:47 PM.
"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
Lost in all this talk about Pozuelo is we failed to sign Menedez and that was a spot we badly need to fill.
Forget contract nuances, dealings with Genk, and all this other stuff we really have no way of knowing in terms of judging management. Not filling a hole that's been a clear need for the last twelve months, failing to sign your primary target in Menendez deep into the window, focusing so much on one guy when the type of player we are looking for is largely a commodity, and not having the new player integrated into your team for the start of the season, that's inexcusable.
Game plan for defending TFC this year is basically the same as last year: jam the middle, respect nobody out wide, outrun them on the counter. They don't even need to worry about Seba up top anymore.
I don't think people entirely realize how much whiffing on VDW and Aketxe screwed us. That could have been a million dollars towards each of a CB and a wide forward, instead they were spent on the wrong spots and on the wrong players.
The Van der Wiel and Aketxe signings are painful. They are a reminder of just how fickle this games is...how important chemistry is over talent on paper. Both players looked like big upgrades over who they replaced...both were failures. I still wonder if Aketxe's two left footed blasts that hit the crossbar had gone in...both wold have salvaged games and changed the confidence factor for him..if they go in do we have an entirely different season? I don't think anyone thought they were bad signings. So for me - I stick with the management team and move on. We have to get the replacements right.
^Aketxe would have shot 5th in PKs in Guadalajara. He came damn close to being a TFC legend.
"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
https://m.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20190...gn=twitterfeed
TFC to send or sent a delegation to Belgium after deal not complete over weekend. Genk want player longer than March 18.
Poz missed last training session due to supposed foot bruising from last game. (Hopefully his agent will order a medical for him )
Last edited by DinamoTFC; 02-18-2019 at 10:10 PM.
Mavinga posting multiple
weird messages today online. Liam Fraser liked the most recent one. Hopefully nothing.
I struggle with the whole thing start to finish. The idea of upgrading those spots as to other spots and the profile of the VDW in particular. What on earth were they thinking?
Who makes a RB one of the highest paid players on their roster? and pays them more than either one of their CB's? When one of their two CB's is getting well into his 30's and spent significant time off with injury in the last year? Then, when you do find your RB, you decide a guy whose attitude problems and question marks have chased him around for a good chunk of his career is the way to go?
We then decide, for some explicable reason, that in a team with an excess of slow and diminutive midfielders we should go out and buy another one? How was he supposed to fit on the field with Vazquez? Neither one of those guys puts in a shift defensively and Seba doesn't exactly track back much either. And we somehow just overlook the fact our first choice target man basically never plays a full season and his backup is a track star with cynderblock feet? And still, nobody respects you out wide. Is it so crazy that signing a wide forward, that could forseeably plug both those holes, makes more sense than finding another generic midfielder? I know Vanney pictures himself as pep guardiola-lite but still...
Maybe we had rose colored glasses on at the time but in retrospect these were entirely forseeable screwups. VDW especially.
Last edited by ag futbol; 02-18-2019 at 10:35 PM.
If we can pick up a couple of TAM players (given they're hits rather than misses) we can really make it to the semis of CCL. Think our chances after that, even with Pozuelo, would require more than a single stroke of luck. Our side of the bracket is weak aside from Monterrey and Atlanta.
those fans , as true as they are don’t buy those (too) high $$$ seats , that really pay the costs .....why would they bring their complete family , at a huge cost when the kids unfortunately need ‘stars’ . Sad fact . Those very inexpensive yellows are a loss leader , where many of the ‘true’ fans sit . I’m very worried about this seasons attendance. Tell me I’m wrong at seasons end .
ALL HELL'S BROKEN LOOSEhttp://gfycat.com/SharpKindArrowana
someone with sense .......spot on , our problems were like a sore wound last year but no one could see them or they were ignored . And now ? Mgmt seems reactionary to problems without foresight . If we have to weather a descending storm , I don’t want to do it with this mgmt . Who in the world do they have contacts with ? Look what contacts did for Atlanta .
ALL HELL'S BROKEN LOOSEhttp://gfycat.com/SharpKindArrowana