Jacen Russell-Rowe

[toontownman]

17 minutes ago, jordan said:

 

I like Kerr too. Working out for both so far tbh.

Hope JRR gets that first team contract. Seems likely at this point.

[Gian-Luca]

He swapped shirts with Jayden Nelson after the match. Which is better than swapping right hooks with Osorio I suppose, which it looked like Osorio wanted to do on the field after he was fouled by JR-R.

[Obinna]

Only caught the first half (and trying to avoid the result until I can catch the 2nd), but I was impressed by JRR. He's going to do the business in MLS this season, you can just tell. 

[Sal333]

Last night was the first time I saw this kid. I was impressed.

[Shway]

11 hours ago, jordan said:

 

Ayo sure, but Deandre played 9 only in preseason and has featured there much. 

Why no mention of Peruzza? I personally think he’s just not good enough for this level. Not yet at least. 

But anyways, it’s better that he’s having a opportunity to make elsewhere. We need more Canadians on non Canadian teams.

[jordan]

4 minutes ago, Shway said:

Ayo sure, but Deandre played 9 only in preseason and has featured there much. 

Why no mention of Peruzza? I personally think he’s just not good enough for this level. Not yet at least. 

But anyways, it’s better that he’s having a opportunity to make elsewhere. We need more Canadians on non Canadian teams.

Would that be because those two were fighting for one contract spot, while Peruzza is already on a deal through 2024?

[InglewoodJack]

11 hours ago, jordan said:

 

Good political answer that basically amounts to “yeah we needed to let one guy go, unfortunately it seems like he turned out to be really good, thems the breaks”

[Shway]

29 minutes ago, jordan said:

Would that be because those two were fighting for one contract spot, while Peruzza is already on a deal through 2024?

….doesn’t make sense, Peruzza was given a new contract this year which recently put him on till 2024. 

I personally think he should’ve been loaned out to the CPL. 

[narduch]

Just now, Shway said:

….doesn’t make sense, Peruzza was given a new contract this year which recently put him on till 2024. 

I personally think he should’ve been loaned out to the CPL. 

The way he is playing that probably is his next move

[Shway]

2 minutes ago, narduch said:

The way he is playing that probably is his next move

Yea, I just find it hard to see why he does well as a number 9. No strength in hold up play, no great speed, no outside shooting ability. 

He needs to hone his craft at a level where he can.

[jordan]

22 minutes ago, Shway said:

….doesn’t make sense, Peruzza was given a new contract this year which recently put him on till 2024. 

I personally think he should’ve been loaned out to the CPL. 

ahh I didn’t actually check when he signed it

[Sal333]

1 hour ago, Shway said:

Ayo sure, but Deandre played 9 only in preseason and has featured there much. 

Why no mention of Peruzza? I personally think he’s just not good enough for this level. Not yet at least. 

But anyways, it’s better that he’s having a opportunity to make elsewhere. We need more Canadians on non Canadian teams.

Ontario seems to be the where most of our top players are coming from. And it's not just one or two. They're swarming.  It only makes sense that TFC can't develop all of them. Have them move to other teams.

[Gian-Luca]

8 minutes ago, Sal333 said:

Ontario seems to be the where most of our top players are coming from. And it's not just one or two. They're swarming.  It only makes sense that TFC can't develop all of them. Have them move to other teams.

Quite. This is good news all around if more Canadian kids are successfully developed as a result. This isn't a case of trading Jordan Hamilton for a journeyman has-been American or dumping Babouli for a journeyman never-was American (I can't even recall their names now, such was their insignificance).

[Bison44]

Mullins and probably Ben Spencer.  

Its funny that its almost like the academy doesnt know what they have.  Isnt the old adage is that you should know your own players better than anyone else?  2 kids on similar paths (JRR and Kerr), on to NCAA with big schools then one is signed the other is expendable.  In the big scheme of things its a great sign that TFC's kids are finding ways to MLS< even if it isnt with TFC.  

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, Sal333 said:

Ontario seems to be the where most of our top players are coming from. And it's not just one or two. They're swarming.  It only makes sense that TFC can't develop all of them. Have them move to other teams.

More CPL teams in southern ontarion should help. Windsor is coming on line and there were rumours of durham region. The would bring us up to 4 + toronto FC.

[FC_Hali]

1 hour ago, Sal333 said:

Ontario seems to be the where most of our top players are coming from. And it's not just one or two. They're swarming.  It only makes sense that TFC can't develop all of them. Have them move to other teams.

I agree that Ontario, Toronto mostly, is currently one of richest talent hotbeds in North America but TFC hasn’t exactly capitalized or materially benefited from their academy (*yet). Most of the current Toronto born-and-raised national team members developed outside of TFC’s academy or came into their own after moving on from TFC. Looking at the current national team pool, in most cases, TFC has either failed to develop players in their academy or failed to identify them altogether. Identifying youth talent in your region and developing them into national team contributors is, of course easier said than done, but TFC has more misses than hits. With the talent coming out of the GTA, TFC’s academy should be producing a conveyor belt of players being sold to Europe on par with FC Dallas but that just hasn’t been the case.

[ag futbol]

2 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

Quite. This is good news all around if more Canadian kids are successfully developed as a result. This isn't a case of trading Jordan Hamilton for a journeyman has-been American or dumping Babouli for a journeyman never-was American (I can't even recall their names now, such was their insignificance).

Let’s come around to the fact that maybe Hamilton’s career didn’t reach its highest potential because of Hamilton.

i don’t think he should otherwise be held out as an example. Not everyone makes it.

[Obinna]

33 minutes ago, FC_Hali said:

I agree that Ontario, Toronto mostly, is currently one of richest talent hotbeds in North America but TFC hasn’t exactly capitalized or materially benefited from their academy (*yet). Most of the current Toronto born-and-raised national team members developed outside of TFC’s academy or came into their own after moving on from TFC. Looking at the current national team pool, in most cases, TFC has either failed to develop players in their academy or failed to identify them altogether. Identifying youth talent in your region and developing them into national team contributors is, of course easier said than done, but TFC has more misses than hits. With the talent coming out of the GTA, TFC’s academy should be producing a conveyor belt of players being sold to Europe on par with FC Dallas but that just hasn’t been the case.

Not to defend Toronto FC, because I think your criticism is fair, but FC Dallas is a high bar. They have been around 11 years longer than Toronto, so they have had more time to figure it out. Toronto is a talent hotbed largely due to it's population, but the Dallas metro area is basically just as populous, with demographics favourable to soccer (like Toronto).

Trying to catch FC Dallas on the player development front is a worthy goal, but I don't agree that Toronto should be matching them. Even if they did everything right Dallas has been at this a decade longer.

[solsous]

25 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Not to defend Toronto FC, because I think your criticism is fair, but FC Dallas is a high bar. They have been around 11 years longer than Toronto, so they have had more time to figure it out. Toronto is a talent hotbed largely due to it's population, but the Dallas metro area is basically just as populous, with demographics favourable to soccer (like Toronto).

Trying to catch FC Dallas on the player development front is a worthy goal, but I don't agree that Toronto should be matching them. Even if they did everything right Dallas has been at this a decade longer.

Agree, I coached varsity soccer in the Houston area for nearly ten years.  Houston has great talent, but the Dallas Fort Worth area is next level.

[Shway]

3 hours ago, Sal333 said:

Ontario seems to be the where most of our top players are coming from. And it's not just one or two. They're swarming.  It only makes sense that TFC can't develop all of them. Have them move to other teams.

specifically the GTA, and even more specific….Brampton. 

[Gian-Luca]

1 hour ago, ag futbol said:

Let’s come around to the fact that maybe Hamilton’s career didn’t reach its highest potential because of Hamilton.

i don’t think he should otherwise be held out as an example. Not everyone makes it.

For the point I was making, he's a perfect example, arguably even better than Babouli. My point there was TFC giving up on young Canadian players in favour of Americans who turned out to be no better for the club than the players they represented (and in the case of Mullins, far worse because he also took up far more cap space, acting as a detriment towards other potential roster moves in addition to scoring far fewer times than Jordan). It doesn't matter whether either Cdn player never scored again for any other club or went on to win the Ballon D'Or, it what their replacement ended up doing for the club instead that is key since it was no better (and in fact worse) than what the players they replaced did.

TFC giving Deandre Kerr a HG contract over JRR isn't the same thing at all, since neither 19 year old can be considered a journeyman foreigner, and Bradley's comments indicate that they didn't "give up" on Russell-Rowe per se as they wanted to sign him to TFC2 for the upcoming season. Thirdly, neither JRR or Kerr were on the senior team roster, so there aren't any "before/after" stats or performance similar to the above two examples. As such, this shouldn't be considered the same type of situation of giving up on Cdn players for the sake of foreign players who are nothing special, which is so often the common refrain around these parts.

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by Gian-Luca

[FC_Hali]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

Not to defend Toronto FC, because I think your criticism is fair, but FC Dallas is a high bar. They have been around 11 years longer than Toronto, so they have had more time to figure it out. Toronto is a talent hotbed largely due to it's population, but the Dallas metro area is basically just as populous, with demographics favourable to soccer (like Toronto).

Trying to catch FC Dallas on the player development front is a worthy goal, but I don't agree that Toronto should be matching them. Even if they did everything right Dallas has been at this a decade longer.

Fair points. TFC did also invest $20mm in the Kia Academy Training Ground. The Hunts run FC Dallas on a shoe string budget, which makes their youth development all the more impressive.

[Kadenge]

I'm not sure who is head of TFC academy, but as always the key is to hire someone who has had success previously at another academy like Dallas. They bring in the proven methodology re scouting youth talent and development. It can be a lucrative business if done right, so investing in top quality people to run the academy makes sense, especially with the talent pool in the GTA 

[ag futbol]

23 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

For the point I was making, he's a perfect example, arguably even better than Babouli. My point there was TFC giving up on young Canadian players in favour of Americans who turned out to be no better for the club than the players they represented (and in the case of Mullins, far worse because he also took up far more cap space, acting as a detriment towards other potential roster moves in addition to scoring far fewer times than Jordan). It doesn't matter whether either Cdn player never scored again for any other club or went on to win the Ballon D'Or, it what their replacement ended up doing for the club instead that is key since it was no better (and in fact worse) than what the players they replaced did.

TFC giving Deandre Kerr a HG contract over JRR isn't the same thing at all, since neither 19 year old can be considered a journeyman foreigner, and Bradley's comments indicate that they didn't "give up" on Russell-Rowe per se as they wanted to sign him to TFC2 for the upcoming season. Thirdly, neither JRR or Kerr were on the senior team roster, so there aren't any "before/after" stats or performance similar to the above two examples. As such, this shouldn't be considered the same type of situation of giving up on Cdn players for the sake of foreign players who are nothing special, which is so often the common refrain around these parts.

While I would fully concede that vintage of TFC didn’t exactly stick with young guys and give them consistent time, I think you have to raise your hand with certain players and ask yourself “is this guy actually ever going to make it?” and if playing him is worth the investment. 

Hamilton, never made the most of his chances with TFC. And he often drew the ire of his teammates. 

I think so many years and so many clubs / opportunities later, you can’t point to anything but the player. Jordan’s been around more than a few clubs at this stage and none of them seem to have thought anything different than TFC did.

 

[ag futbol]

23 hours ago, FC_Hali said:

Fair points. TFC did also invest $20mm in the Kia Academy Training Ground. The Hunts run FC Dallas on a shoe string budget, which makes their youth development all the more impressive.

FCD is not the best example. They are persistent bottom dwellers in attendance and have a mostly empty trophy case. It’s nice as a nats fan to stand back and appreciate their youth development but if you were forced to follow that team season to season you’d be annoyed at best.

if you’re going to use an MLS example use RBNY. At least they win things while giving youth an opportunity