http://whitecapsxi.wordpress.com/201...ver-whitecaps/
Seems Vancouver owns PJS's discovery right, according to this blogger...
“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
"Failure simply isn't an option at this stage. TFC pushed its chips to the middle of the table when it splurged on Bradley and Defoe and reinforced its bet by making savvy acquisitions elsewhere. This collection of players is capable of delivering on the promises made during the close season. There are no more excuses available for TFC. Only success will continue the process of atoning for the past and establishing a higher standard for the future." FOX Sports
Such stuff doesn't really concern me though. If PJS comes, he'll go where he wants and the league will ensure that happens. If it was Toronto, we'd probably end up shipping them a conditional pick or something low for the discovery claim.
As an aside, I've always thought this whole discovery claim thing was silly. What is the intended point of it?
Most likely it's about keeping salaries low and to prevent teams from bidding up each other for a player's services.
For a marquee player, as long as the player has an interest in a market and isn’t playing teams off against each other, the league will probably let him talk to who he wants. The league doesn’t want any more Brian McBride scenarios where guys are held hostage. They’d rather have a big name sign with a team rather than go elsewhere for fear of playing in Columbus.
“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 started an in-season thread now that the off-season is over. Includes new players we haven't heard of before.
http://forums.redpatchboys.ca/showthread.php?33641-TFC-2013-general-player-moves-speculation-etc
Jason deVos @jasondevosSan Jose wanted to, didn't have the $$$ RT @Juventus_TFC @jasondevos Is Bostock worth it? Seeing as SJ apparently didn't choose to sign him.
Interesting comments about TFC's attempt to sign Olof Mellberg:
ESPN: Much has been made about the league intervening in transfers like with Brek Shea. But I recall that there was an incident in Toronto last year where it was reported that they wanted to buy a player, Olof Mellberg, and the league stepped in and prevented it. Do you think it’s appropriate for the league to intervene in cases like that?
DG: At this level of our development, I think the league should continue to have enormous influence as to what kinds of decisions should be made so that teams don’t make decisions that can either compromise them, or have a negative effect on what it is we’re trying to achieve. Our view on Mellberg was that it was just not a decision that would be smart for TFC, or smart for the league as a whole. We are hesitant to ever say no but are really strong in assuring that we work with our clubs to have them make good decisions. It is that process that has put us in the position to be far more successful, and have accomplished far more than most people thought we would be able to achieve. That model works and will continue to work for the near future.
http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/soccerusa/id/1732?cc=5901
Mellberg would have been the best CB in the league. How they think that's a bad move for the league is really astonishing!
Clubs should be allowed to succeed or fail on their own without too much league interference. I agree with the idea of discovery signings, etc. but if Toronto had the right to sign him, the league should have left well enough alone.
If I ever see the Don in person, I will thank him personally for doing this. Mellberg would have cost 5-10x what comparable teams were paying comparable players. Frankly, I wish they had stopped Ecks and O’Dea too. We are paying them 3x what other teams pay international defenders.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Agreed. If TFC was operating within the confines of the MLS collective bargaining agreement, and not circumventing the salary cap or the DP limitations, the Mellberg acquisition should have been approved by the league.
MLS head office should have no influence over player personnel decisions.
Well couple of things:
1) I thought there was no way the league would have interfered at this level... I stand corrected. Credit to those who took the other side of the argument and were right.
2) I am not sure whether the league stepping in is good or bad. As time goes on "central scouting" is only going to get worse in comparison to the abilities the individual clubs have, should they really be calling the shots? Are they really qualified to be making these decisions?
On the other hand, ensco hits it on the head that our FO was ragingly incompetent, and clearly nobody within the organization from above had proper control over what was going on. If a bad deal ever got proposed in a club with proper checks-and-balances, somebody at the board level or with authority would veto it. Clearly that never happened at TFC, because we just went along with whatever the managers said. So for the league to step in, just really points out how messed up our club was. And what's the end result: he's playing a handful of games for VillaReal who are a good club, but were relegated to the second division of spain last year. I be inclined to agree that MLS FO saved our bacon on this one.
I quote Ryan Nelson on goal TV:
"When we got here, literally the club had done nothing. No recruitment, no scouting: nothing. We had to start from scratch"
I may be off by a word or two, but that is EXACTLY the crux of what he said. Pretty shocking but probably what we've always expected. We never built any process or system to deal with players, it was always fly by the seat of your pants.
Garber: Let's put Mellberg aside. The league hasn't nixed that, Toronto has decided that economically it didn't make sense for them, and at the end of the day it was a decision that they felt was in their best interest.
DG's half time comments from the 2012 All-star game.
Of course everybody knew he was lying but now it's just out there in his own words.
Thanks God the deal was nixed. Im very happy MLS has decided to call the shots and slap TFC in the face. MLSE were willing to go ahead with PM before the major shift happended, says a lot about how shitty a job Anselmi did and providing any direction for 6 years.
“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
That isn't the point though. The point it is a bit concerning that MLS can wield such power, to effectively nix a deal that didn't necessarily circumvent any rules that were currently in place, because the powers that be simply didn't see it as the right move for the club. I can't think of too many examples recently of a league interfering to quite that extent (I seem to recall David Stern nixing a Chris Paul trade in the NBA, but there were slightly different circumstances surrounding that, since the league owned the Hornets at the time). Never mind that I wouldn't personally trust Anselmi, Mariner, et al to look after my dog, let alone my football team - I just think in principle it sets a bad precedent.
“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
You would think this league wouldn't need rules on running your team like morons. Really, what would be the upside for TFC signing Mellburg? The team was in last and not making the playoffs. What would a few more wins gain? A worse draft pick? Some short term improvements to help sell tickets and make Mariner look better? If TFC had signed Mellberg the team would be in an even worse position moving forward then they are now.