Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
Also, I am pretty sure Alex Bono will be here forever.
Be interesting to see if anyone comes in for him with another offer. My suspicion given the seriousness of the injury is no, and that he'll be back.
I don't think Fraser will get re-signed. He hasn't shown enough here. Columbus fans liked him but I'm not really sure why, as he didn't do much there, either. He played in a lot of losing games, and if he didn't contribute to the losing, he really didn't help them win, either.
Tsubasa is likely gone, too. I think we can all agree he's not good enough for MLS, effort notwithstanding.
Dunn is interesting as he might get looks elsewhere. We need SOME depth at CB even if we sign a new corps. He looked increasingly good in the CPL and then showed well for us against Atlanta, so...
Interesting that they kept Q. Given that we are stuck with Bono's deal for another year they might've seen it as necessity but I can still imagine them bringing in someone young and competitive to go up against both.
It's better to loan Bono out of the league than keep him on. Play Westburg and get a new young GK prospect for next season.
Bono isn't good enough for MLS, nobody is going to pay his ridiculous wage, and he will absolutely cost us games. If we want any outside chance of playoffs you do not play him.
Our offensive crew is almost as woeful as our defense. One prove goal scorer at this level, and he's always crocked. Did anyone watch the NYFC game last night? We are a long fucking way off that pace.
Again, this is why I will agree to disagree with the notion we have a competitive core roster. We have a competitive core MIDFIELD, albeit lacking some bite in the tackle. Everywhere else is a fucking shambles.
Let's keep in mind that our most effective forward in the last two months, Jacob Shaffelburg, is 22 and wouldn't be considered a starter at most of the good clubs in this league. He's not ready, not near his potential yet. He's an impact sub, an occasional rotation starter as he develops. But because he's fast and can cross, we're left with no choice.
Achara I'm not convinced has the on-field intelligence. He's fast and has great technique but he looks to me like a striker who's playing wide when he should be central. Rutty and Nelsen clearly aren't ready to start. Dwyer is cooked.
Peruzza's upside has yet to be determined but he led USL in scoring, had one for us, missed one for us. Just from the look and industry of his movement, if he can finish regularly, he's probably a seven-to-ten sort of guy at this age and experience level, at most.
So basically, to compete, we need:
* A starting keeper
* two starting center halfs
* two strikers
* a right-winger with pace who is also a goal threat
...which is basically the list several of us made up before the start of last season.
Then there's the matter of where we play Pozuelo and how much he'll contribute. We can put him in the hole as a false nine, but we only have one effective scorer on the pitch if we do that, as we know Soteldo isn't going to put up big goal numbers.
We have to replace six starters but the remaining roster we have is also unbalanced and effectively competing with each other. Priso, Osorio, Delgado, Bradley, Okello are all competing for the two central midfield roles, or three in a 433.
Laryea and Auro play the same spot. We could move Richie up the field but he's already shown that he's much more effective coming from deep. IF we move Auro inside on a wide three, like Alistair Johnston at Nashville, it might work for the numbers but limits his utility and our setup.
To my recollection, he can play both sides but is more effective wide right. If BRadley decided Lawrence is more valuable as a CB than wide, as he's a fullback in a wingback league, we maybe could use AUro and Richie as wingbacks who switch sides when it's effective and come inside.
He has some tough decisions to make.
Be interesting to see if Raheem ends up back here.
Last edited by jloome; 12-01-2021 at 02:01 PM.
This is also what I noticed. Towards the end of the season the feeling was really that there needed to be a change in goal. Alex was being Bono, and Westberg really seemed to have lost his sharpness compared to the past. Now we're stuck with both of them after picking up Q's option and Bono is still under contract. Maybe they're planning to trade Bono; or maybe they'll find somebody decent in place of Silva to push Bono. Q does seem like a good backup who would help to mentor a younger keeper coming in. But they really can't spend more on that position. We're already paying way too much overall for mediocre goalkeeping.
The other thing that stood out for me was Dom Dwyer still being under contract. I never thought about it really, but I was just hoping he was on a short-term deal. What a bad bit of business that was, considering the decent backup strikers that other MLS teams find on reasonable salaries, that aren't totally crocked. It will already be a struggle for TFC to deal with the Altidore and Soteldo contracts.
At least BB knows what he's getting into, having watched all TFC games in the past 8 years. He really can't claim to be surprised about any of the players that are staying.
+1 to bringing Edwards back. We can use a backup LB with Morrow retired, and maybe we can rebuild him, give him a fresh start playing at home like Laryea had. Edwards was never as good for any MLS team he's landed on as he was with us.
steve buffery
Re #TFCLive roster changes: Have been told that the club is trying to hammer out a new deal with Akinola and are still talking to Fraser, Dunn and Endoh. DeLeon is done in Toronto and Gallardo is gone #MLS
No reason to bring Endoh back. He takes up an international slot and might be as injury prone as Jozy.
Why was Dwyer given a multi year contract? The guy had literally no leverage. Curtis is awful.
Endoh is now 28. His window to be a dependable first team player has closed. Time to move on and free that spot up for someone from the academy.
Last edited by ag futbol; 12-01-2021 at 03:12 PM.
Shocked Westberg got his option picked up, was genuinely atrocious this season as was Bono.
Dwyer is finished and I’ll pissed to see him steal any more time from Perruzza.
Endoh and Achara spend more time on the treatment table than the pitch and their international spots are worth more than they are.
This club is still incomprehensible and Ali Curtis is gone.
I told yall they gave Dwyer two guaranteed years and nobody believed me
That's how bad Curtis was
I think the suits are going to give Bob some time to review the players and let him figure out which spots he want to fill given his system. It's going to be interesting offseason if Bob starts complaining that he isn't able to get the players that he wants/needs.
Just here below one is looking at roughly 2 mil. That could translate into 5-6 very decent additions.
[Toronto FC has not exercised options on goalkeeper Kevin Silva; defenders Omar Gonzalez, Eriq Zavaleta, Rocco Romeo, and forward Patrick Mullins.
Defender Julian Dunn; midfielders Liam Fraser, Nick DeLeon, Tsubasa Endoh and forwards Erickson Gallardo and Ayo Akinola will be out of contract at the end of the year.]
At least Dwyer is only getting 80K so its not a huge hit on the budget, but two guaranteed years was just dumb.
Dom Dwyer will soon be our starter. No worries.Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/tombogert/status/1466155385878941707?s=20
That sucks for us but it sounds great for Ayo. I wonder which clubs are interested.
Remember the young guys like Dunn, Akinola, and Fraser are not free agents, so they can't go elsewhere in MLS without a team trading for them. They can go internationally I think, but not anywhere else in MLS. There was something about you can give those guys "bona-fide offers" to keep their rights. There's also the re-entry draft where those players who don't get bonagfide offers go into. At least I think that's how it works. MLS rules are complicated
(Edit: Yep, that is how it works, https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/2021-mls-re-entry-process-rules-procedures )
I don't think MLS allows one year deals. I think they require all deals to be at least 2+1. So Dwyer was always known to be on a multi year deal (he also wasn't on the Free Agent list the MLSPA released weeks ago).
Replacing Silva, I wonder if they get Andreas Vaikla from TFC2 to replace him. 24 years old. He played in Europa League and got 3 caps for Estonia (last one in 2017 when he was 20 - so technically he can still switch back to Canada if he regains his potential).
Last edited by rydermike; 12-01-2021 at 06:48 PM.
With Omar gone we are down to just one guy over 6’1.(not counting Bono) I hope our new CB have some height
Can't believe we're in a position where Akinola is unsigned heading into the off-season. What was Curtis doing, how is it not priority #1 to extend him so we can collect a transfer fee if he wants to go to Europe. Ridiculous.