In the history of ineffective contract hold-outs this has to rank right up there. Adrian Cann is returning to TFC after sitting out about a week and, apparently, is going to play under the terms of his 2010 contract, which pays him about $40,000 less than what TFC had offered.
Cann says he was promised a raise to about $140,000 this season by former manager Mo Johnston. Johnston made a lot of promises. They keep popping up like little surprises that your elderly dog might leave you behind the chesterfield.
Reaction to Cann's hold-out were mixed. Although many fans were turned off by the player taking the dispute public, others felt that TFC was being cheap in not offering a more substantial raise.
We can all sympathise (and believe) Cann when it comes to a broken Mo promise. However, as I've written in this space before, you simply cannot overpay for players like Cann. He's a good worker bee. Surrounded by the right group he can be a useful player. And TFC does need him this year.
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But he's not special. An average centreback salary within MLS standards is appropriate. TFC offered an average salary.
Aron Winter has said that Cann will be welcome back to the club, but that he must "apologize" for leaving camp. That's likely going to cause some to howl that Cann is being disrespected.
Others may look at it and decide that it represents a new type of professionalism that is expected by the management. TFC managers have tried to be buddies with the players (Cummins, Dasovic) and they've tried to be tyrants (Preki). They've even been a little nuts (Carver) and they've been Mo. However, they've yet to find the middle ground of being approachable while demanding professionalism from the players.
I'll let readers decide what side of the argument I'm on.