CPL General

[Kent]

I'm shocked by the lack of U Sports teams in Manitoba. Has this always been the case or did they drop out at some point? I could see if one or 2 drop out the others may follow due to a lack of local competition, but I'm surprised by this info.

[PegCityCam]

4 hours ago, K Edgar said:

FC Manitoba is not part of the USL2 this year but let's hope it is not folding.  Perhaps they will become part of League1? (in 2025?)  Have not been able to find any info on the team's plan for this year.  FC Manitoba has rarely been used as a development team by Valour.  I would have thought there could be more player development synergy.

As for the USports Soccer in this province the closest mens team is USask.  UManitoba, UWinnipeg, even UBrandon and URegina all without teams.  This does put Valour at a disadvantage - scouting, local talent, etc.  Interesting that UManitoba, UWinnipeg and URegina all have womens soccer teams.

FC Manitoba just posted this on their instagram:

 

[Aird25]

49 minutes ago, PegCityCam said:

FC Manitoba just posted this on their instagram:

 

Cryptic

[Cheeta]

On to bigger and better things, whatever that could be.

[Kingston]

5 minutes ago, Cheeta said:

On to bigger and better things, whatever that could be.

Winnipeg - the first city with two CPL teams!

[SpursFlu]

Not saying it would or wouldn't happen but could it be possible that having 2 teams in one city would improve everything for the team/teams?

Reduce costs, improve revenues, increase interest?

It flies in the face of traditional NAmerican thinking but would be an interesting experiment 

Edited March 15 by SpursFlu

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

1 hour ago, Kingston said:

Winnipeg - the first city with two CPL teams!

League One Prairies is the obvious destination if it ever gets off the ground. Could be tricky to do without Alberta being part of the equation given there's only three large cities available in Saskatchewan and Manitoba plus Thunder Bay, which isn't exactly next door for Saskatoon and Regina clubs. In Alberta they could basically just repackage the AMSL and pretend its suddenly become semi-pro but AFAIA aware Saskatchewan hasn't been able to sustain provincial level competition at amateur level in recent years.

[Kent]

1 hour ago, SpursFlu said:

Not saying it would or wouldn't happen but could it be possible that having 2 teams in one city would improve everything for the team/teams?

Reduce costs, improve revenues, increase interest?

It flies in the face of traditional NAmerican thinking but would be an interesting experiment 

In certain circumstances I believe that could happen. Another possibility is if a second team came in and was better than Valour (on the field, and maybe a more suitable stadium) that Valour could be completely abandoned. If the first team was already successful then the second team might not gain any traction. You probably need distinctive enough areas in the city so that one side will prefer one team and the other side prefers the other. Maybe not impossible, but hard to pull off.

[PegCityCam]

9 hours ago, Kent said:

I'm shocked by the lack of U Sports teams in Manitoba. Has this always been the case or did they drop out at some point? I could see if one or 2 drop out the others may follow due to a lack of local competition, but I'm surprised by this info.

Used to have a team at U of Winnipeg but that ended in or around 2016/17. Not sure why.

[PegCityCam]

 

[Big_M]

how sad about didic and aparicio...late twenties and instead of taking the combo of good pay and playing time they let it get to their head and miss most of pre season and still without a team (at least unannounced until now)...just sign somewhere asap and start preparing for the season

[Aird25]

20 hours ago, Big_M said:

how sad about didic and aparicio...late twenties and instead of taking the combo of good pay and playing time they let it get to their head and miss most of pre season and still without a team (at least unannounced until now)...just sign somewhere asap and start preparing for the season

I'm not sure what happened with Didic unless he somehow failed his medical. It sounds like a contract in Norways top flight was all lined up 

[Unnamed Trialist]

29 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

I'm not sure what happened with Didic unless he somehow failed his medical. It sounds like a contract in Norways top flight was all lined up 

But that was poorly managed on his part, he clearly did not have anything solid. I mean, a decent agent would go in with him on that but have a few options, even in 2nd tier Scandinavia, where you'd have comparable salaries to CPL. So if you "quit" a job be clear you have a few decent possibilities as you do your reset and look for a new one. 

[Aird25]

19 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

But that was poorly managed on his part, he clearly did not have anything solid. I mean, a decent agent would go in with him on that but have a few options, even in 2nd tier Scandinavia, where you'd have comparable salaries to CPL. So if you "quit" a job be clear you have a few decent possibilities as you do your reset and look for a new one. 

What do you mean by not having anything solid? It sounded like everything was agreed upon. The only thing left was a medical and paperwork. I don't think you get to that stage with multiple clubs, and it was the first tier

Manny seems to have chosen Ottawa for a league record salary. Do we know that he isn't training with the club currently?

[Unnamed Trialist]

16 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

What do you mean by not having anything solid? It sounded like everything was agreed upon. The only thing left was a medical and paperwork. I don't think you get to that stage with multiple clubs, and it was the first tier

Manny seems to have chosen Ottawa for a league record salary. Do we know that he isn't training with the club currently?

Which club did Didic have a deal with? Are you saying he went to their training centre, and did a medical, and they refused to sign him based on that? Or based on some last-minute negotiation problem?

I look at Norwegian sites (have done for Canadian players, on this site, for almost 20 years), and do searches using the Norwegian terms, and I never saw his name appear anywhere. I've even taken a keener interest lately as my son is working there.

Didic to Norway: it was only in Canadian rumours, which as you might imagine are not exactly the reliable source on Norway. If a guy is coming in to sign and just has a medical to do, it would normally be reported on, even with the relatively low-key football press in Norway.

Some rumours say he may end up at Ottawa as well. 

Edited March 18 by Unnamed Trialist

[Aird25]

2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Which club did Didic have a deal with? Are you saying he went to their training centre, and did a medical, and they refused to sign him based on that? Or based on some last-minute negotiation problem?

I look at Norwegian sites (have done for Canadian players, on this site, for almost 20 years), and do searches using the Norwegian terms, and I never saw his name appear anywhere. I've even taken a keener interest lately as my son is working there.

Didic to Norway: it was only in Canadian rumours, which as you might imagine are not exactly the reliable source on Norway. If a guy is coming in to sign and just has a medical to do, it would normally be reported on, even with the relatively low-key football press in Norway.

Some rumours say he may end up at Ottawa as well. 

The medical is just my speculation for why the deal fell apart based on what I've heard from Pacific circles. I was under the impression he was with Odds BK with a deal in hand, not to trial, but perhaps folks here got it wrong.

Are you suggesting he was there to trial? It seems odd to me that a player at this stage in his career would choose that. There's an awful lot of game footage of Didic out there and at least a few clubs on this side of the pond that would hand him a contract immediately. 

Edited March 18 by Aird25

[Unnamed Trialist]

5 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

The medical is just my speculation for why the deal fell apart based on what I've heard from Pacific circles. I was under the impression he was with Odds BK with a deal in hand, not to trial, but perhaps folks here got it wrong.

Are you suggesting he was there to trial? It seems odd to me that a player at this stage in his career would choose that. There's an awful lot of game footage of Didic out there and at least a few clubs on this side of the pond that would hand him a contract immediately. 

Odds Boldklub, decent.

I'm suggesting there was nothing ever "solid", which is why I used the term. In any case, as I said, any halfwit agent would have alternatives. Even failed medicals are arguable, there are tons of cases where a fail is motivated, not medically technical.

If you look at his career, since SKC 2… he's almost always stalled and has moved clubs awkwardly a lot, which makes me think he should change his agent.

[Aird25]

7 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Odds Boldklub, decent.

I'm suggesting there was nothing ever "solid", which is why I used the term. In any case, as I said, any halfwit agent would have alternatives. Even failed medicals are arguable, there are tons of cases where a fail is motivated, not medically technical.

If you look at his career, since SKC 2… he's almost always stalled and has moved clubs awkwardly a lot, which makes me think he should change his agent.

His agent seems to be most active in Finland, USLC, and CPL. They're not newcomers though, so it seems strange that they'd screw a move up. Then again, they also have Manny Aparicio signed and he also still seems to be in limbo 

[Unnamed Trialist]

5 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

His agent seems to be most active in Finland, USLC, and CPL. They're not newcomers though, so it seems strange that they'd screw a move up. Then again, they also have Manny Aparicio signed and he also still seems to be in limbo 

The real screw up is to openly resign from a decent job when your new job is far from a sure thing.

[Aird25]

11 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

The real screw up is to openly resign from a decent job when your new job is far from a sure thing.

Free agency isn't exactly a new thing in North American sports but I'd still love to know what happened with the move. I heard it portrayed as a done deal

Edited March 18 by Aird25

[johnyb]

On 3/15/2024 at 5:35 PM, PegCityCam said:

Used to have a team at U of Winnipeg but that ended in or around 2016/17. Not sure why.

U of M and U of W lost their Men's teams due to the mandate of "Equal spending between Men and Women sports. In short, the Men play Football and the Women play Soccer.

[K Edgar]

1 hour ago, johnyb said:

U of M and U of W lost their Men's teams due to the mandate of "Equal spending between Men and Women sports. In short, the Men play Football and the Women play Soccer.

That explains UofManitoba.  But, UofWinnipeg only has teams in 3 sports: Basketball (mens and womens); Volleyball (mens and womens); Soccer (womens only) -- that is not equal!

Edited March 26 by K Edgar

[PegCityCam]

On 3/26/2024 at 1:30 PM, johnyb said:

U of M and U of W lost their Men's teams due to the mandate of "Equal spending between Men and Women sports. In short, the Men play Football and the Women play Soccer.

I recall hearing this being the reason. Unfortunately right now the entire province of Manitoba is basically a black hole when it comes to footballing options after high school. FC Manitoba isn't even in a league this year and they are THE defacto team for any U17 to U21 player in the province to aspire to play for. It's also been clear that Valour has had little to no interest (in the past mind you) in using FC Manitoba as a possible "feeder" team of sorts. I really hope this changes as Valour will also be at a disadvantage when considering the new USports roster spots for CPL teams. 

Edited March 27 by PegCityCam

[johnyb]

21 hours ago, K Edgar said:

That explains UofManitoba.  But, UofWinnipeg only has teams in 3 sports: Basketball (mens and womens); Volleyball (mens and womens); Soccer (womens only) -- that is not equal!

Apologies, my comment should have been restricted to U of M. I was told that was the reason for U of M and just assumed it was the same for U of W. I'm now very curious as to why U of W wouldn't have a program.

Edited March 27 by johnyb

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

21 hours ago, PegCityCam said:

I recall hearing this being the reason. Unfortunately right now the entire province of Manitoba is basically a black hole when it comes to footballing options after high school...

Are amateur clubs like Lucania and Sons of Italy not still around?