I did. And I stand by it
Bradley’s role with this team historically is really important. It defies credibility to say that Omar signed with us and then spoke to Bradley only afterwards. He had to have spoken to him (and Jozy) before about the club, it’s ambitions etc etc given he openly says he did due diligence with them. The team also would have spoken to Bradley before approaching Omar.
Oh I thought the first game was when he and the team embarrassed themselves in the CCL against a semi-pro side from Panama. Would we be happy if Bradley signed for the same 6 million that he was getting? or do we feel like we are getting a bargain at 1.5. It says here that there are many more productive players that we could of signed for 1.5 million!
Last edited by Oldtimer; 01-16-2020 at 02:07 PM.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
Rumors on Twitter that Justin Meram may be joining TFC.
why and no
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/NicolasBenezet/status/1217912546499448833
Its media day down in LA and KJ has an interview with Vanney.
I expect a larger clip of this to be released later today/tomorrow.
Benezet has good relations with teammates and I suspect with the people here - didn't work out but no hard feelings.
The Rapids play us in preseason and in league this year - a lot of Colorado / TFC minglings now with the Fraser connections.
I’ll take a flyer on Justin Meram but hardly sounds like an answer longer term. Also would eat into the time of players we want to see develop (such as Shaffelburg)
Just to add a little fuel to the fire.... TFC boss Vanney won't rule out Giovinco return: 'Never say never'
https://www.thescore.com/mls/news
Love him, but if it were a choice of him for DP vs Bruma. I would take Bruma all the way.
Last edited by Bushmancan; 01-16-2020 at 06:31 PM.
No, but shifting the signing from a Curtis signing to a "Bradley and Jozy" convinced him signing just seems a way to move a good signing that Curtis did make during his limited time away from him. It smacks of a bias against giving Curtis credit for the good things he has done.
We must remember that he came into a shit storm. Giovonco leaves, Vazquez leaves. Curtis is the GM for
Pozuelo
Lareya
Gonzalez
Benezet
Gallardo
DeLeon extension
Mavinga extension
Bradley Tam deal
Some view the Poz thing as a negative for Curtis, after listening to the interview with Manning and Curtis on COYR, they seem to have a good working relationship and Manning was effusive in his praise of Curtis. Some will say that that is fake, but it is unnecessary for Manning to go that far. He does not need to heap praise on Curtis if he feels the Poz thing was a shit show that he had to save Curtis from screwing up. In fact if he thought Curtis was doing bad that early into his tenure Manning would likely be distancing himself from Curtis to hopefully save himself from some of the blow back from Curtis failing.
In my opinion we went to the Cup final in large part because Curtis did a good job of patching the sinking ship he was given to Captain. Without making very good additions to the 2018 squad, especially in light of the departures, we could not have done as well as we did. With a little bit of luck on the Gonzalez deal we could be talking about TFC having won the East. Given how little time he had to work with, getting a DP in place in 3 months was genius level work.
^ Very effusive praise, but very inaccurate. Manning had already done the legwork re: Pozuelo and assigned Curtis to work out the deal as his first assignment. If taking three months to get pen to paper and pissing off Genk in the process was "genius level work," then you're quite easy to please!
I'll evaluate Curtis once he's got this season under his belt. If he signs a decent DP before the actual season starts, I'll consider that he's earned some respect. If it's mid-season it had better be one special player.
BTW, extensions don't count the same as actually finding a good well-fitting new player. It's just basic cap management.
As a side note, I sometimes don't think Manning gets enough credit for some of the things that he does. It's not just running the business side of things.
Last edited by Oldtimer; 01-16-2020 at 10:02 PM.
lost his 2 best players in the 1st week of his job and the main striker missed half the season and they still made the finals..jus saying.
Yeah, sorry Oldtimer, no disrespect, but I don't quite see where this much distrust for Curtis would come from. I really don't think the Pozuelo transfer saga had anything to do with Curtis's abilities as a GM - it mostly came from Poz trying to force his way out of his contract and Genk not wanting that. If anything I think it's more accurate to say that Curtis saved the deal.
At worst, I would say one could be neutral on him so far, but I actually think it's unfair to be negative about him thus far.
Last edited by James17930; 01-16-2020 at 11:01 PM.
I don't buy this line from Vanney. This was not an issue a month or so ago and it hasn't stopped other teams. The league has spent an unprecedented amount of money this window to acquire DPs. And its team like SKC, DC and Vancouver that are spending money. LA is chasing Chicharito and Chicago is on a rampage.
Don't give excuses. If you want to wait until the summer or the deals we had going fell through then say as much. But, again, don't feed us bullshit. Because frankly my meter got broken after the 2 weeks fiasco.
I’ll probably be making this post every 4 pages for the entirety of Curtis’s tenure here but let me say this:
If we make a signing while Curtis is the GM, he should get the credit if it works out or the blame if it fails. The club doing diligence on Pozuelo before he arrived here or Bradley’s ability to recruit USMNT players shouldn’t count against him or diminish the credit he gets.
Ultimately, if he’s able to utilize people inside the club to do business, that’s nothing but a positive. Look how many stories there are of leaders that can’t get out of their own way or refuse to collaborate with those under them because they fear being outshone. He’s doing the right thing if others are involved in these deals.
Given his position, it’s ultimately his decision what happens or not. And if he’s accepting any less authority than that, he’s playing a dangerous game. Only a fool would let their reputation live and die on decisions they can’t control.
That said. He needs to be judged on what he hasn’t done in addition to what he’s done. And so far, that includes being pretty slow to execute on signings TFC requires, which has negatively impacted our ability to compete on several occasions. Last year “I’m new” was a lame but maybe acceptable excuse. This year, nothing of the sort applies.
Last edited by ag futbol; 01-17-2020 at 07:41 AM.
Chicago has 17 players signed...
This is just pure speculation, but the way Vanney was talking, makes me think they want to get someone with a bigger name this time around, and aren’t sure if they can, and they have backups (which aren’t house hold names).
Remember it was reported that management wanted Manning to go after a big name with this DP spot.
Chicago has been actively chasing names. Not just squad players, but difference makers. They fired Paunovic, there was always going to be heavy turnover.
Manning actually explicitly mentioned going in the opposite direction with the new DP. They're looking for another Pozuelo, not Giovinco in that regard.
If we don't sign someone by the 31st, I expect us to wait until the summer. It will become significantly harder to sign players afterward as we saw with Pozuelo.
I love what Poz brings to the team - i think he was an excellent choice to replace Gio on the pitch - however, off the pitch he hasn't gained the love of the crowd. I'm sure jersey sales are front of mind.
With that being said, getting that big name DP who isn't some over the hill European is going to be difficult. I don't want some guy who'll come here to live out his final playing days. I want a guy who could go to China or the Middle east after he's done here to live out his playing days.
Summer is always easier than the winter window to sign players. That's why with bigger names it always happens that way (Zlatan, Gerrard, Pirlo).
As for Chicago, yeah they're chasing names but that's all their doing for now. I'd rather our FO keep doing things quietly than have all the names tossed out and the rejections made public. Doesn't exactly make for a good team image when you get turned down a lot.
I'm perfectly OK with getting the right DP in July, rather than settling for whatever we can get in January. Sure, if we find the right guy in January, great, but if not, patience...
Toronto FC baby...best team everrrrrrrrrr -Jozy