I don't know much about Bent, but didn't TFC2 perform quite poorly when he was in charge? That could have also been due to it being boys vs men in USL.
A lot of people here are blaming Manning and Curtis for a lack of any big name DP signings. But if you look back at when Defoe, Seba, Bradley, and Jozy where brought in it was during the Lieweke era, who was not only a soccer guy but also MLSE President. As a result he was in a position to authorize big budget signings. Manning is not. Since Lieweke left we haven't seen those types of contracts anymore, with the exception of Jozy's extension. Even Poz's contract was only for $4M per year. I don't think we are going to see any $6M per year contracts anytime soon, especially when the team is bleeding red ink given 2 whole seasons with no ticket sales.
None of us know the budget that Manning has been given to work with. It may be a lot smaller than most of us think. Building through the academy may be the only option.
Last edited by NK Toronto; 01-16-2021 at 01:27 AM.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2021/...SFR2R2Wg3unagY
https://www.transfermarkt.us/trabzon...ew/news/377794
Trabzonspor interested in Ayo Akinola
“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
I totally agree with this post.
I'm afraid many years are coming when we'll not see any signing of any player who's is real worth on the market is more than about $3.5 million at the time of signing.
Anyways, any DP signing will be under Pozo's value.
And with this is coming the big question, like some posters already put it... is really TFC remaining a big MLS team, or will become a solid mid-MLS team in terms of spending on the roster.
I don’t think you can blame this on the board. I am sure there are other examples of teams in this league of teams owned under a larger sports conglomerate where things happen on time. We’ve never seen anything in the press about this.
In contrast, look at what we’ve seen reported about how Curtis and Manning do searches. Multiple interviews for each coaching candidate, triggering release clauses without the selling club’s notice, the mechanics are poor.
In my opinion, this is why everything is delayed. These guys have a flawed approach to searching for talent. It’s too much about details they believe matter to us, double and triple checking everything and not enough about making a deal and recognizing acquiring talent requires elements of both sales and negotiation.
"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
There were some significant TAM deals given out by Bez under Manning's watch which required buy-outs within a year, specifically Aketxe and VDW. I believe it is these types of deals that contributes to the overall caution exhibited. You can add Jozy's extension to the mix. Too many of these and the board starts looking for a new team president.
Last edited by NK Toronto; 01-16-2021 at 10:05 AM.
Evaluating how this club is going to stack up in MLS spending going forward is a nuanced discussion. We're always going to be pushing around the top of the league. This club will likely always be competitive. It's not going to be allowed to slip towards true MLS mediocrity. MLSE understands this club needs to maintain certain standards, which is why Poz got signed when Seba left. But if Seba and Jozy left we wouldn't have gotten two Poz level signings because it's not necessary to win in this league and the ticket bump is marginal.
We are an Arsenal. A big club run relatively cost-effectively with title "ambitions" and a budget that's massive for a mid table team, but small relative to those ambitions. This club is no longer a "bloody big deal" it's a "relatively big deal".
Truthfully, I think most fans would be fine with spending near the top of the league but not at 2014-2015 levels if the club were explicit about it. The issue is publicly lowering expectations without looking like a bunch of losers. The FO has fucked this though. You can't go out there and say "Hey we're not doing the high roller thing anymore", but you can sure as hell not go out there and say "We're rolling in money" when your pockets are dead fucking empty. That's why all this frustration is exacerbated: Publicly set expectations and standards that are never met. Two weeks, Pozuelo debacle, VdW, Giovinco, Jozy's personal unrest and fan unrest at his re-signing, Vanney gone, Viera offered but not really offered, Armas signed. A lot of this has to do with the bold part of this paragraph.
If they won't lower our expectations for us than we should for ourselves. That way we aren't pissy about the next Armas, in this case our new DP, when it's so obviously staring us in the face.
“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
“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
Oh absolutely, buy outs and those sorts of things will always be slow under our structure. I have no doubt there was some hand wringing after we signed Aketxe and VDW. Had we got those right, we would have gone on to completely dominate MLS in a way nobody has seen before, I think completely surpassing the 2017 team. But they both went south.
I do wonder how much Vanney contributed to those deals. It seemed like things that were very odd ball. Why was a fullback the burning requirement when Beitashour still had a year or two left playing at a good level? Why did we always force Osorio to prove himself over-and-over-and-over to justify his place in the team? Instead we sign Aketxe which was just a bad idea top to bottom.
All that said, they have to know the follies of being overly cautious. The market isn’t going to wait for them if they aren’t assertive enough. I fear they fall into the pitfall of finding deals that are too good to be true (and inevitably are).
Edit: either that or letting the clock run down so far they are pushed into some crappy, sub-optimal move.
Last edited by ag futbol; 01-16-2021 at 02:00 PM.
Would love to see Jonathan David play for TFC. I know it will probably never happen but it’s a nice dream!
https://twitter.com/onesoccerexpert/status/1350863840955740160?s=21
Apparently NYRB are shopping around Tim Parker. He would be a good CB defensively.
I'm assuming Tony Gallacher's loan was not extended, correct?
Saw a picture today of Nobel Okello in the CanMNT
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/TorontoFC/status/1350861364705816581
Guy has put on some muscle while getting games out on loan. I think he might surprise us this year in the midfield & maybe push Delgado a bit. A LOT of potential there for a guy that tall who can pass like he can.
I thought Gallacher was pretty good considering his age. Would have been a good back up left back to have. Laryea, Auro, Gallacher and a starting left back looks really good to me at fullback.
Mock draft by SBI
https://twitter.com/soccerbyives/sta...579773953?s=21
Achara we got last year & they reupped on Higgins
But, man the list of draftees is way more misses then hits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...FC_draft_picks
I'm surprised no one has thrown around the idea of signing Diego Costa as our DP. He seems to check all the boxes:
- Famous
- 32 years old
- Spanish
- Probably overrated, but could do well in MLS
Thoughts?