Can't wait to read all kinds of sketchy foreign websites this winter trying to figure out who our new manager and DP are gonna be.
Can't wait to read all kinds of sketchy foreign websites this winter trying to figure out who our new manager and DP are gonna be.
What about Robo? I always felt next to Bradley he may have been the best leader to play for TFC.
Reading the comments here today and the sentiment of the majority is:
1) Everything good that has happened during the last 6 years is due to Vanney;
2) Everything bad that has happened during the last 2 years is due to Curtis;
3) Without Vanney as coach the club is doomed, never again to experience glory. The MLS equivalent of Sunderland.
Am I the only one that views Vanney's departure as yet another example of an American preferring to return to the U.S. rather than living in Canada? This is a story that we have seen over and over and over again in this city. We are a Canadian team, yet the President, GM, and Coach are all Americans. I guess you could argue that Canada has not distinguished itself globally in soccer, but then again neither has the U.S.
Personally I would like to see TFC become "more than a club". I would like to see TFC become the focal point in Canadian soccer. The club with the best academy, that attracts the best young prospects, and produces the best players for both the club and the national team. In terms of the roster, have it be made up of the best Cdn players available in MLS, mixed together with players from Europe and South America, but always retain a strong Cdn identity.
We have seen endless examples of American athletes not wanting to play in Toronto for a multitude of different reasons. Maybe TFC needs to position itself as the destination club for Canadian soccer players, and an attractive club for foreign players who have no ties to the U.S.
Guys like Vanney, well, I think being a manager of TFC just wasn't enough of a challenge. Got a bit stale. I think he would have signed another contract if TFC was in CCL next season.
Perhaps TFC needed a refresh. One coach for too long can stagnate a team. (See Arsenal under Wenger)
I'm sad that Vanney is no longer TFC coach. I hope that TFC doesn't look at Vanney's tenure as the Golden Age.
“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
Not sure i would sum up 1-3 the same way, but i completely agree on building TFC as the place for Canadian Soccer. 2026 is 5 years away.
I do think on your pt 2, it looks like Curtis is laying the right foundations for the academy and realistically isn’t totally to blame for the current first teams predicament, with that said he hasn’t shown me that he can fix it and i dread the thought of looking like the Red Bull’s in the interim.
Someone at MLSE/TFC needs to grab this thing by the throat re-tool and lets take a hard run at the Champions League (we need to finish the Canadian Championship). Piatti as a TAM, I’m in. If they can’t play at BMO (fans or not) it will be very difficult to attract top talent from USA (but who cares on that) or Western Europe (care more) but maybe Southern Europe or South America ... its a crap shoot and we dont have the best track record in SA but stop talking and go get our young gun. Trust some of the youth, keep people healthy and Bob’s your uncle.
At least it wont be a boring off season... or will it.
Last edited by Bushmancan; 12-01-2020 at 09:33 PM.
As much as we, the supporters, want Bell/Rogers to keep sinking money into TFC, the prudent business practice says the effects of COVID is going to tamper big spending, especially since TFC went basically a season without home revenue, and next season doesn't look too good either.
“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
Fair enough, but everything is relative...
BCE & Rogers aren’t like small business or other sectors, yes they have been hurt but their asset base is large and diverse. Not saying the GM has an open bank book, but ours is larger than most others and surely gives us room to negotiate from positions of strength.. one caution Vanney leaving might give a weaker leadership Manning/Ali a chance to sit back and do nothing and that’s why the fan base needs to stay strong and vocal.
“Rogers Communications shares rise after Q3 results top expectations” &
a little longer but from the Q3 media call...
“I'll turn now to Bell Media. TV advertising demand picked up in several key categories, especially with the return of live sports and increased spending by advertisers. Radio and out-of-home advertising have been slower to rebound. And on radio listenership, it's declined during the pandemic and some key out-of-home advertising faces as well such as restaurants, airports, those have been severely impacted by lockdown measures, but we're seeing momentum return to outdoor categories such as street furniture and billboards. On the subscriber front, TSN and RDS have remained largely stable, particularly with live sports coming back in Q3, as have subscribers across all Bell Media TV properties since the COVID situation began. TSN remains number one ranked sports channel for the latest broadcast year that just ended on August 31.
No excuse to let Manning/Ali of the hook.
COYRs
Is Bobby Smyrniotis be linked with TFC?
Ugh. The CPL is still miles below the MLS. We are supposed to be a big club, as Curtis and Manning said a million times in their presser today. You don't see Bayern Munich going down and taking a manager from 1860 Munich in the third division because they are a local team with some past success. Smyrniotis may well be a good coach and will get his chance in MLS if he is. I just believe that TFC should be a job you earn with your resume, not your birth certificate or what country you are currently coaching in. Ambition is needed in this hire.
Nothing against Smyrniotis but let’s see him replicate that success elsewhere or build on his reputation a bit more. It’s too early.
If you're Vanney and you're not sure if you're done or not and Covid hits and you think "I could go anywhere in the world for a break and when I'm ready cash in on 2017 in MLS somewhere" would you hang around Downsview for the winter?
California, LA in particular, was home for him & his family for a good long time. I don't begrudge him that move.
Atlanta? Then I'd be pissed off.
It's a little more complex than that. Vanney has his eyes on managing the USMNT. What he does in Canada is largely ignored by the US Media. In order to get the highest prize, now that he's got the top awards at the club level, he needs to raise his profile in the US. He can only do that by managing a US Club, and what better location than LA, the capital of hype?
There's always been a minority view that Vanney lucked out and that TFC winning had little to do with him (this is part of the narrative that MLSE should have hired a "big name" manager, say from the EPL, and that a coach that hasn't managed in Europe can't be all that good). You'll see that the rest of MLS doesn't see it that way. Vanney will be in huge demand, and yes, I predict he'll likely someday manage the USMNT.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
All very good points. Also good to remember that Vanney's senior coaching experience was very limited when he started at TFC. He had primarily been a youth and academy coach before. He was an assistant coach at Chivas USA from 2011-2012, and after the demise of the club that isn't going to be a highlight on a resume. I'm not even sure what he did between 2012 and when he started at TFC in mid 2014. So it makes sense he wants to build up more varied experience. Not everyone thinks Toronto is the centre of the universe, and especially the footy universe. Outside of the USMNT, he'll also want more on his resume if wants to coach in France or somewhere else some day.
Also I noticed he's 46. Not old for a coach. However he was in Toronto from age 40 to 46. If he's hoping for a couple more steps up in his career, it's time to move on at the end of this contract, rather than sign a multi-year extension now. This all fits in with his pained decision-making of the past year, and his pained expressions during his presser over Zoom. (I loved the fake wood panelling in the background BTW: quite outdated, but so on-brand for an important announcement in the Year of Covid.)
Interesting Galaxy thing if that happens; will Klein give way to Vanney and let him make roster decisions or will he do what he always does and sabotage the balance of the squad for fancy names to try to keep the team relevent?
Why does our club never have proper succession plans they let Bezbatchenko go and rush to sign Curtis, now Vanney has left and we are only starting our search for the next manager, that doesnt look good for the club
We don’t have a clear indication of what’s really happened despite public statements. Curtis might say, for the sake of optics: “searching for a new coach starts today” as declaring he knew Vanney was out for a while makes him look less than transparent. But, realistically, if he had an unsigned contract for that long he should have started thinking about alternatives otherwise he’s being naive.
My expectation would be he’s done his work in advance (despite what he says publicly) and we have our new coach before 2021 hits. If we don’t, I would mark this down as another example of this front office being poor at executing things on time.
Bez leaving might have been less telegraphed so harder to be ready to act. Just speculating.
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/joshuakloke/status/1334171557321715712
Let’s hope this is outright speculation. Otherwise it clearly signals a downgrade in the ambitions of this team.
Last edited by ag futbol; 12-02-2020 at 11:39 AM.
I don't understand this obsession with coaching the USMNT as if that were the pinnacle of coaching achievement. That program has been stagnant for the past 15 years. The Man City reserve squad playing with 10 men could beat them. For the most part young and highly regarded coaches manage at the club level. A national team coach sees the players for a week or so once every few months. If Vanney were really interested in building his resume he should be pursuing a job with a 1st division club in one of the top 5 leagues in Europe. Success there would raise more eyebrows than anything that goes on at the USMNT, where the only serious competition is Mexico.