Ryan Keay Posted April 24, 2004 Share Posted April 24, 2004 Wilde Weilds The Knife O'Neil Released, Baxter and Valentine On Trial Breaking news from the Toronto Lynx today it has been learned that Scottish winger Kris O'Neil has been released from his contract with the Toronto Lynx. Early reports from Lynx training camp had the speedy attacker finding difficulty in settling with the club, and while head coach Duncan Wilde did seem sympathetic to the player at the time, he has clearly taken definitive action with the release. With this move, the club has opened up an additional foreign player spot on their roster. Eager to fill this spot is young English trialist Darren Baxter. Baxter, a former Chelsea FC reserve has spent the spring in North America trying to find a club to latch on to. He was unsuccessful with both NY/NJ Metrostars of Major League Soccer and was involved with the final cuts of the Montreal Impact. Impact Manager Nick Desantis did rate the player, but did not feel that he was valuable enough to occupy a foreign player slot. Baxter played in a scrimmage with the Toronto Futsal Palace All-Stars today and scored a brace. Darren is a midfielder who has split time between Ryman Premier League clubs and the now folded New York Freedoms of USL's Pro Select League. The Lynx also have another player on trial, winger John Valentine who according to the all powerful search of google, has featured in Irish Premier League for Kilkenny City. Notable about Kilkenny is that the associated animal with the club is a cat. In other news, the friendly between the Brampton Hitmen and Toronto Lynx at Victoria Park scheduled for Sunday, April 25th has been cancelled due to apparent "denial of permission" by the CPSL. It is rumoured that after a closed door scrimmage rout of 8-0 against the Hitmen that the CPSL and the Hitmen organization were attempting to avoid the embarassment that a similar score would have in the public eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted April 25, 2004 Share Posted April 25, 2004 Geez, that was quick. Is it simply a case of his spot being taken by "Why don't you pass it to" Edgar Bartolemeu "and then our score'll be higher" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Keay Posted April 25, 2004 Author Share Posted April 25, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca Geez, that was quick. Is it simply a case of his spot being taken by "Why don't you pass it to" Edgar Bartolemeu "and then our score'll be higher" ? Ummmm, I doubt it because I get the feeling Edgar was always in the picture. Bartholomeu's indoor season ended about a day or so before the Lynx signed him so I doubt it was a spur of the moment thing I know Wilde singled out O'Neil as having problems in training in our interview with him (itll be up soon, we just need to get a reasonable compression of it.. right now the raw vid is hanging around 1.something gigs.. a bit large for web consuming), maybe the cut was due to him not settling in. Either that or Wilde saw something special in one of the two guys on trial and felt that they were better than O'Neil, or a mix of both? Either way, I think this helps re-inforce that no, the Lynx will not be carrying any Ryan Lucas-esque players this year, which is nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted April 25, 2004 Share Posted April 25, 2004 Wasn't O'Neil supposed to be the highest-profile of the collection of no-namers Wilde has brought over from the UK/Ireland? Also ironic is that Vincello was sent to Montreal to free up an import spot and now an import spot may be filled by a player rejected by Montreal. Ryan, you reported that the Brampton game is off but Robin reported that it's back on. [?] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Keay Posted April 25, 2004 Author Share Posted April 25, 2004 quote:Originally posted by DJT Wasn't O'Neil supposed to be the highest-profile of the collection of no-namers Wilde has brought over from the UK/Ireland? Also ironic is that Vincello was sent to Montreal to free up an import spot and now an import spot may be filled by a player rejected by Montreal. Ryan, you reported that the Brampton game is off but Robin reported that it's back on. [?] Id say O'Neil was the one that excited me more than any of the other ones, particularly due to his first team experience with Hearts. Since I write the stuff for the site, that probably came through. I have got the impression that post-tryouts Kris wasn't as impressive, whether it was a fitness issue or whatever, Im not sure. As for being brought over, those guys all came over on their own coin. I know a couple of them billeted with club officials for their time over here, but they weren't hand picked. That being said I know Duncan really, really rates Blois and thinks he will be the best left back in the A-League, which helps explain the Vincello situation much more.. just hoping that the premonition is accurate. Plus we did get Arango out of it which is nothing to sneeze at. Personally, looking at the background of Baxter it doesn't seem spectacular. Then again, I thought the same of Blois as well. Plus it does seem that he has done quite well in what time he has spent with both Toronto and Montreal (I read a game report where he set up a goal with what was described as a quality through ball if I am to trust babelfish). For a guy who has only been involved with an A-league team for about 6 months, Duncan seems to have a pretty solid grasp of what the standard of the A-League is so I am inclined to trust him on this situation. As for Brampton, it's now "closed doors" but basically its the same. My source is Robin so anything mentioned in there, is it. Looks like its to prevent a blowout from getting into the Brampton local media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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