2012 Pre-Season/Trialists/Signings Superthread

All's well that ends well?

Maybe?

Possibly?

Hopefully?

All's well that ends well?

Maybe?

Possibly?

Hopefully?

I don't know. He's younger than both Nesta and Mellberg though. He's not of their pedigree either though.

Nesta looked damned good for Montreal last night. :(

Watched O'Dea as a Leeds fan last season. He may note the young players he was on the line with, but he was no more consistent that they were and that's why he's continued to shuffle through Championship clubs and why Celtic have been uninterested in keeping him. Given his age and decent experience, if he come at middle money I'm happy to see him join the team, but he's not the commanding 'boss man' they've been searching for and if it's big money the team should pass. I'd rather see the young platyers we have continue to develop than lose time to him.

Fair comment. I haven't watched him enough recently to know. And I totally agree that the money is a huge concern if we're competing with Championship clubs for him. Or, if we're not competing with Championship clubs, you've got to ask why.

Who do we really have many young players at CB though? I know it feels like we've got a bunch but:

Eckersley continues to be played out of position as a stop gap.

Henry should still be a long ways away from being an every game player. He'd benefit from minutes beside a senior player and still have lots of opportunity.

Emory has some upside but isn't that young, isn't that big, and strikes me more as a fringe starter on a good MLS team at best. I see him more as a useful depth guy who can play multiple positions across the back longer term.

Cann, Harden, Williams? I love Adrian and I'll always stick up for him when people say we've never had a consistent CB at any point in the clubs history but it's looking like their time has passed.

I'm starting the mental mantra now though:

Scarf, jersey, website!

Scarf, jersey, website!

Scarf, jersey, website!

Money is a huge factor of course. I'd heard a rumour about Stephen McManus which sadly turned out to be nothing. Don't know if there was anything to it or not but I'd have taken him above this fellow.

The young CBs would be Henry and Maund, and O'Dea was playing LB all last season for Leeds, which would be Morgan's spot.

As depth, hey, I'd welcome O'Dea, and on that dollar, or as the second CB, as he's not the leader we need, but if he's not the leader and he's the second than that's time away from our youngsters.


EDIT: Then again, it would be a pleasure to see him prove me wrong and come here and lead the line, take us to the playoffs and become a league first XI. I'd be happy to buy his pint and apologize :D

This post has been edited by Lopper on Jul 29 2012, 06:16 PM

As per Molinaro on Twitter last night:

I am excite.

Looking through the newest salary figures I can see why, if rumors are true, we'd be interested in moving Avila. We get more production (and I see more upside) with Silva from a much lower base salary and have the possibility of Camargo coming through over the next year or so as well. That's two younger players who, combined, might not even add up to his budget expense even if Silva gets a raise.

I like Avila but he's more than a bit lightweight for this league. Woulda liked to have seen what he could have done last night against a small team giving us acres of space but the game was won so I can see why Mariner preferred to give the players he sees as the future more time to gel in what became a glorified training session after the fourth goal.

Wiedeman's got 'til his GA status runs out to prove he's worth that money. I don't rate his chances very high but we'll see if he shows something. In some sense that's exactly how the program's supposed to work.

It's interesting to see how much the DPs impact our ability to spread money around the rest of the roster. We're practically "Zidanes and Pavons" or whatever that philosophy was called from the Galacticos era of Real Madrid. I'd love someone to calculate the number of minutes our <$44,101 have logged in league play compared to other teams in the league. At least Morgan has reportedly earned a raise.

I am excite.

So since Darren O'Dea was there again last night in the press box then I assume that's who is being announced.

I know some folks 'over there' are freaking out as to why it hasn't been announced yet and why it's talking so long but after the Nesta and Mellberg bonerings, I'd wait until that ITC, Work Permit, MLS BS, and his name was on the contract before I said boo about who it was.

Larson:

No wonder we're being beaten to the punch by Ecuadorians and anyone else that would like to scoop the club, our communications department seems to be shit. If this in fact O'Dea, that release should've been written days ago.

What the fuck? :lol:

Maybe it's my line of work, but part of me thinks as shitty as the club's been on the pitch for, well, ever, it's bad PR work that's led us to 5300 in attendance last night.

We're bad with the football, but we're worse with the communications and audience engagement.

Also from Larson:

Could be interesting.

Possible news coming through about signing and or signings:

Kurtis Larson ‏@KurtLarSUN Paul Mariner to me: Just waiting for the release to go out on defensive signing. Fans will be pleased ... #TFC

https://twitter.com/KurtLarSUN/statu...38122648387584

And this one is strange:

Pete O'Rourke ‏@SkySportsPeteO
Sky Sports understands former Bolton defender Paul Robinson is in talks to join MLS team Toronto FC. #BWFC

https://twitter.com/SkySportsPeteO/s...38830227501057

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ro...cember_1978%29

This post has been edited by moralis on Aug 2 2012, 05:02 PM

Based on the evidence of the last few games (and past performance) I don't think it's unfair to suggest that this might be our best 11 right now (not counting players unavailable due to SEI):

--------------------------------Hassli

------------------------Silva

-Johnson------------------------------------------Lambe

---------------Dunfield--------------Frings

---Morgan---------------------------------------Hall

------------------Emory-------Eckersley

What I like is that there's some natural rotation possible betweetn Silva and Johnson. If Johnson breaks forward to the flank either Silva or Dunfield can cover him. If Johnson breaks forward into the box Silva can drop deeper or drift out wide himself depending on Dunfield's movement. All we're really losing is the ability for Terry to break forward but, if Silva can become a real two-way mid, they'd also be able to interchange with Silva covering for him as necessary.

The back line is the obvious weak link and I know we say this all the time but add a couple true starting calibre CB's (and let Eckersley return to RB) and that's a solid MLS line-up. We've even got some depth and cover along the backline with Emory and Henry available (and capable of playing fullback as necessary). Hall can move forward to the right flank, Avila (for now) is available as a backup for Silva, and Wiedeman and Amarikwa are cover for any of the front two or left wing.

All this is before we even entertain the idea of Koevermans returning. That's part of what I like about it so much. If he does come back mid-season next year we wouldn't even have to rely on him or immeadiately start throwing him out there as a starter.

Call it 4-4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1. It doesn't matter as it's somewhere in the transition where the two meet. And no one could complain that we're not playing a modern enough formation!

I continue to like the direction I see this team moving. Let's just get at least one CB in and settled in time for Santos!

Push Johnson and Lambe forward and withdraw Silva slightly and you'd call it a point forward 4-3-3. Largely lost in the "hoofball" rhetoric is the fact that Mariner's formations represent pragmatic tweaks rather than a wholesale rejection of Winter's philosophy.