As has been argued here before, it's too early to truly evaluate whether the two men are up for the task. It's difficult to even fully evaluate them on last season since there are conflicting reports about what moves Nelsen was responsible for and what moves Bez did.
The Nelsen firing, obviously, is an exception and it's a move that has tarnished Bez in many fan's minds. We've discussed that move enough (and we agree there were troubling aspects of it. Aspects that reminded us of the TFC of pre-2014). Regardless of your position on that move, it did accomplish one thing. It removed confusion about who was running the club (maybe. More on this in a bit) and it allows us to evaluate and interpret the moves since.
So, what if anything have we learned about Bez and Vanney's plan? And, should TFC fans have hope that they can finally turn the club around?
The latter question depends on what you take from the former and whether you're on board with it.
What it suggests to me is that the two men are looking at a “domestic” solution to TFC. That is to say that they are favouring MLS experienced signings over big name flyers. No team is universally going to only sign one type of player (thus the Juve rumour I refuse to say out loud just yet), but the Altidore move combined with many of the smaller roster moves they've made suggests that they believe that MLS experience is important. Even today's re-signing of Mark Bloom speaks to that idea.
Although mocked in places for their suggestion that TFC's core is good enough to compete in MLS, it's clearly a something they believe. There has been a noticeable effort to keep the same group together and to not go after sexier sounding discovery signings to fill out the grinder spots on the roster.
Although a DP, Altidore fits into that narrative. They will point to his past MLS experience as evidence that he represents less of a risk than a player without MLS experience would have. Altidore is familuar. That fimilarity leads them to value him.
Of course he's also a US national team player. This matters as well for several reasons. One is negative – he's clearly overvalued in MLS because of his US caps – but put that aside for the moment. The question that needs to be asked isn't whether he's worth a (rumoured) $6-million contract, but rather if he's worth a DP spot and cap hit.
Time will answer that question. What's more interesting now is the possible reason Bez and Vanney think he is (and, clearly they think he is. You can question their skills, but it seems unlikely they are purposely sabotaging TFC by signing contracts they think are bad).
From what I've been told the biggest supporter of this move has been Michael Bradley (see caveats about who is running things above) . Apparently he's been a big player in the signing and the front office is committed to building around Bradley. That means getting players he's interested in and feels he can play with.
The idea of Bradley having influence over player moves is going to cause some to be concerned. That's understanable. This is a city that remembers Vince Carter's influence over the Raptors back in the early 2000s and how badly that turned out.
Even putting those memories aside, the question of whether a player should be involved in management decisions is legitimate. What qualifies him? How does it play with his teammates?
With Bradley, the looming presence of who his father is adds a layer to the situation. Does he eventually force Bez and Vanney out to bring his father in (although, in fairness, there is no evidence Bob is interested in leaving Europe) and if he does that is it not an example of even more dysfunction and turnover at TFC?
As stated, there are legitimate concerns.
For now, however, that is a situation that deserves monitoring rather than outright panic. For now, Bez and Vanney deserved to be judged on what they do without speculating on future dysfunction, nor tying them into the mistakes of the past.
It needs to be stressed that comparing TFC in 2015 to TFC in 2013 and earlier is illogical. Understandable – it's the same damn strips giving up late goals since 2007 – but illogical.
*Simply put, TFC's management in 2015 has literally no connection to the management that was in place from 2007-2013. There isn't a single person still with the club that was there before. Even ownership is different. Yes, it's still called MLSE, but the people that own MLSE changed as well.
The new management took over a team that was legitimately among the worst in MLS history (TFC was the first MLS team to fail to break 30 points in two consecutive years in 2012-13). Yes, a lot of money was spent last year, but it was still the same flawed roster they were adding to. Although it's possible to turn things around quickly in MLS (ie DCU in 2014) it shouldn't be expected.
TFC had the second biggest points improvement in MLS last year, behind DC. So, it's inaccurate to suggest they were the "same old TFC" or that they didn't take some strides forward. A balanced evaluation of last season would look at the loss of Caldwell for a long stretch -- thus forcing TFC to play a a centre back pairing that had a combined age of 42 for several games -- and the lack of depth that exposed as huge reasons for the late season slump that meant another year without playoffs.
And then there was Defoe. When he was healthy and motivated he scored. And, TFC was solidly in the top 3 in the East. Hindsight allows us to know that it fell apart. Recency bias helps us forget that the *idea* of Defoe (an elite MLS scorer) was working. If Defoe is healthy and scores at the pace he did all year TFC is a playoff team. Probably no more, but they are top 5 in the East.
Could TFC have predicted Defoe would be as big an issue as he was in the second half? I'm not convinced they could have. I'm not convinced any MLS team could have.
Did TFC dysfunction play a role in Defoe's attitude? Well, that's the narrative but the evidence is, at best, mixed. Again, you can't point to TFC pre-2014 for evidence because no one is left that was there then. TFC was effectively an expansion team last year.
This is the context that you have to evaluate Jozy's (likely) signing in. Can he score at the same pace as Defoe? If he can then is it not unreasonable to think that TFC will perform near the same level as they did with Defoe in the line-up? As stated, that level was top half East last year.
Although I've not convinced Jozy can score at that level, I think it's possible he could. It's not a complete fantasy, right? I am almost certain that he won't pout for half the year, and at 25 you'd think he'd be more likely to stay healthy than Defoe was.
Obviously, TFC has to address the shortcomings at the back and in depth to truly become contenders. Clearly, they can't be the same disorganized, constantly changing direction, club they were under old management. New management deserves to be judged on their actions though rather than prejudged by what Aron Winter or Mo Johnston did wrong.
In judging Bezbatchenko it's fair to stress that he wasn't perfect in year one of "new" TFC. His handling of Nelsen's firing deserves to be criticized and it hearkened back to the worst of TFC 1.0. But, he has weeded out some bad contracts, made tough decisions on cutting a player like DeRo (although he did also bring him back, to be fair), drafted well, hasn't made widespread changes to the roster and, apparently, managed to actually get some money back (along with Altidore) for a player the whole world knew wanted out. These are good things.
TFC fans know better than anyone to take a wait and see approach here. Burn us once shame on us, burn us eight times and, well...
But, is there enough evidence to have some hope that, at the very least, TFC can become a functionally average MLS club?
It says here yes. But, it's fair if you want to take a wait and see approach.
If you're still supporting TFC after seven years of dysfunction (and one Bloody Big Collapse) you have absolutely earned the right to question everything about this club. It's not Bez and Vanney's fault TFC is historically, nearly impossibly, bad but that's the environment they are working in.
Fix it and they'll be heroes.
Can they? I don't think it's impossible, but I do have major concerns about Altidore's form and Bradley's influence that, when combined with the Nelsen firing, make me worried.
But, I don't think it's impossible.
So, basically, I'm saying there's a chance...
*Part of this story was published under my name eleswhere