How so? It’s not difficult to see how incompetent Curtis was (that might be said even before he arrived here) but I find the locking out of training what have been quite good players for us and unloading them at any cost strange. Lawrence is a Jamaican international who came from Anderlecht and we’re paying him to play for Minnesota and still also paying his transfer fee while Shaffelberg attempts to figure out how to play fullback on a roster of 18 or so players?
MLS is certainly a weird league (and I’ve been watching it since our first match).
It's because you can't have floaters, absentees, or attitude issues in training every day while learning a new system while you hope to properly develop and add youth players into the first team. Bigger picture > win now at the cost of later. We already did the latter last season and that's why we're paying for it now.
A couple things have become clear to me over the last few weeks.
1. Bob and Bill aren't going to rush any moves if they aren't the right players. They want to build a team that will win in 2023, 2024, etc. This year is a total rebuild (obviously)
2. Our new head coach cares a lot about attitude and commitment. I respect that.
3. We have the best crops of young talent this club has ever seen. Nelson and JMR will get a lot better this year.
4. We probably won't make the playoffs this year.
Some people were critical of him last match but I see a lot of improvement. I think people are comparing his performances to what they think the end product should be but compared to what he was last year, I think he was night and day better. It looked like he knew what he was doing and where to go rather than run around like my dog at the dog park. Obviously he made some bad decisions and tried to take too many guys on 1v1 but that's kids for you.
^ It’s was a little better. I noticed he was trying a lot harder to track back. Offensively he was disjointed and trying to do too much. I agree it feels more like he’s working on things as opposed to simply being thrown on the field for experience, as it was last year.
I’d like to slap his youth coaches, if I ever had the chance.
We are going from "two weeks" to "5 year plan"
Officially official. We got an unsigned draft pick who is playing for New England II. How long do MLS draft rights even last? Would New England need to trade us something for him if they want him? Plus the minimum GAM, but even that's a maybe
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/TorontoFC/status/1504548129114361857
We got Soteldo from Santos because they couldn't pay him. Wouldn't be surprised if we're paying Auro's salary on his loan to Santos.
We're also definitely paying Luke Singh at FC Edmonton considering that team doesn't even have an owner anymore and the other CanPL teams are paying all of FCE's players already.
Last edited by rydermike; 03-17-2022 at 04:28 PM.
To answer my own question, courtesy of Neil Davidson.
"His “college protected period priority rights” belong to Toronto until the end of 2022."
https://www.thestar.com/sports/tfc/2...ta-united.html
Unless we sign him now, we literally got nothing. His rights expire this year.
Don't expect much activity until July according to Bob.
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/MichaelSingh94/status/1504590338417176580?s=20&t=H5vICzN6gsA8qvmvWOF0tA
I don't think Insigne lasts more than a year at the club. He doesn't need the money and he doesn't need to deal with the idiocy either.
After reading that article, and also in response to other posts since then: I can understand that there might have been several issues and distractions with Lawrence, even though he looked good and committed on the field last year. I can even understand there might have been issues with multiple players -- although the total number gone, and the poor return on the transactions plus lack of coverage in those positions really gets me scratching my head. (At what point is it more likely that the problem is at least partly with the people staying -- players or staff -- rather than those going?)
But when I read stuff like "I think we’ve lost this amazing culture that we’ve built up over the years here at BMO Training Ground and it was reflected on the field,” said Manning. “The introduction of some of the players into the club and some of the guys that were here, it wasn’t seamless. Culture is a buzz word, but it’s also real. It comes down to togetherness, it comes down to alignment. … teams that win have fun.”
- I just want to gag. I mean what "amazing culture" is he talking about? The team was an utter gong show last year (and was very fragile for a couple of years before that). It's obvious that the problems started at the top, with major problems both in management and coaching. There are really too few old players left to talk about a "seamless" fit of players. It just gets me worried that Manning hasn't really lived up to the fact that Curtis and Armas were an utter disaster. It gets me worried that this might not be a real reset, that parts of the old management and structure and thinking still remain.
I mean, I would feel more confident if Manning just said "Sorry it was a gong show from the top to the bottom and we just had to blow it up."
Some information on Osorio contract negotiations:
https://www.theparleh.com/post/exclu...ith-toronto-fc
I have no idea how bad Lawrence's behind the scenes legal issues are, and the details there could change everything, but given what we know on the surface this looks like a horrendous deal. This isn't even about Curtis any more, I think even he could have probably gotten more from the team suddenly in desparate need of a LB than 50k and a second round draft pick for a still in his prime Jamaican international team-of-the-year quality player. I'm definitely blaming both Bradley and Manning for this since I don't know who's job it is to make these intraleague trades anymore, though more so Manning since he should have hired a GM in the first place and just let BB coach.
Hopefully we don’t run into more injury problems because the roster is looking very thin. I guess the heavy building plus tinkering is something that can be done in MLS (and certainly not with Swansea and in the Premier League). We do need to win some games, however. It’s possible to bring along the kids well but lose the involvement of the veterans (the players still on the roster, I mean). Pozuelo and Osorio need to be at their best otherwise it might be a very long season and a half. And not difficult to imagine that both will not be here next season.
Last edited by los sonadores; 03-18-2022 at 12:51 AM.
They have done that though, haven’t they? Blown it up. Whatever he says. It’s like BB said “time to clean house”
And it very much looks to me like this is a transitional year for MB. Whatever people here think, they need his presence, his work ethic, and skill if they are in a complete rebuild mode.