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Toronto FC - 2024 Season Thread


Big_M

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I'll preface this by saying I don't know the length/options of most of the contracts, so I don't know who can easily be dropped.  However, if it was up to me, during this off season I would:

1.  Keep Johnson, Osorio, O'Neill, and Bernardeschi.

2.  Keep all the young Canadians.

3.  Get rid of everyone else.  Most of them are too old to build around or did nothing of note during their tenure here to show you'd want to build around them.  Insigne specifically is not nearly enough of a team sparkplug to justify his salary.

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14 hours ago, costarg said:

Man, I'm picturing dozens of MLS guys if not hundreds of soccer players around the world rubbing their chins now.

In the early 1970s, the Dallas Cowboys under the direction of the late Gil Brandt ran free agent tryouts in Europe looking for soccer players as kickers (it was nicknamed "the kicking caravan").  Toni Frisch, who played striker for Rapid Vienna and scored two goals for Austria in a defeat of England at Wembley in the mid 60s, was a signing and he had a good career with the Cowboys and the Houston Oilers.

He had a great "rabona" onside kick that helped beat the 49ers in the 1971 playoffs.

Another guy who made the change was a former Schalke goalkeeper Horst Muhlmann, who was playing in the States in the late 60s, was tried at placekicker and hadva few years with Bengals.

Nowadays the hot kicking trend from abroad is to get former Aussie rules players as punters. There are many around at in college and pro.

 

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21 players currently under contract for 2024

Toronto FC announce 2023 Roster Moves

Goalkeepers (2): Luka Gavran, Sean Johnson

Defenders (5): Kobe Franklin, Shane O’Neill, Raoul Petretta, Sigurd Rosted and Luke Singh

Midfielders (5): Latif Blessing, Alonso Coello Camarero, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Jonathan Osorio, and Brandon Servania

Forwards (9): Ayo Akinola, Federico Bernardeschi, Adama Diomande, Lorenzo Insigne, Deandre Kerr, Cassius Mailula, Hugo Mbongue, Prince Owusu and Jordan Perruzza

Edited by Big_M
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23 minutes ago, Big_M said:

21 players currently under contract for 2024

Toronto FC announce 2023 Roster Moves

Goalkeepers (2): Luka Gavran, Sean Johnson

Defenders (5): Kobe Franklin, Shane O’Neill, Raoul Petretta, Sigurd Rosted and Luke Singh

Midfielders (5): Latif Blessing, Alonso Coello Camarero, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Jonathan Osorio, and Brandon Servania

Forwards (9): Ayo Akinola, Federico Bernardeschi, Adama Diomande, Lorenzo Insigne, Deandre Kerr, Cassius Mailula, Hugo Mbongue, Prince Owusu and Jordan Perruzza

A few guys on that list of forwards I'd prefer not to see there.

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Looks like Jordan Perruzza has one more season in him with TFC because of his contract , but most likely loaned again to CPL? However, doesn’t look like he did much at Halifax while he was loaned there. Would Halifax even take him back ? It’s what I love about having the CPL you really get to see if players really have it like the Jordan Hamilton’s, Doneil Henry , Quinlan Roberts and probably a few more who never quite succeeded in the MLS and didn’t or haven’t done much in the CPL either. 

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I don't know how much Herdman will be able to fix with his magical motivation powers - need 3 more midfielders including 2 starters, 3 more starters on the back four (if not all four) and a top striker up front. Way too much dead weight on guaranteed contracts for next year - how they signed Shane O'Neil to such a lengthy contract, for example, is beyond me. I'd be tempted to trade Sean Johnson to another team and let Gavran be the starter to open up cap & roster space. Not that I think Johnson has been bad (although he drives me nuts when he takes half a decade to put the ball in play when his team is behind, only to give it away immediately half the time) but they will need to make some sacrifices to address the roster deficiencies elsewhere. And they need to re-loan out about half those strikers (or in the case of Prince O-useless, loan him out for the first time).

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On 10/30/2023 at 6:13 PM, BearcatSA said:

In the early 1970s, the Dallas Cowboys under the direction of the late Gil Brandt ran free agent tryouts in Europe looking for soccer players as kickers (it was nicknamed "the kicking caravan").  Toni Frisch, who played striker for Rapid Vienna and scored two goals for Austria in a defeat of England at Wembley in the mid 60s, was a signing and he had a good career with the Cowboys and the Houston Oilers...

Guess that maybe helps explain some of the background to a really weird American movie about a mule from Yugoslavia becoming an NFL kicker I remember watching on an overnight ferry to Shetland off the northern coast of Scotland about ten years after that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_(1976_film)

No expense spared by P&O Ferries where entertainment options were concerned, but can't really complain given they had no issues with selling pints at the bar to 15 years olds.

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On 11/2/2023 at 5:41 PM, BearcatSA said:

Not surprisingly

 

Yeah.  Although Akinola is one of the rare cases where I don't fault TFC management.  When they signed him to a real contract I was actually quite happy about it.  At the time, he looked like a prospect who had actually panned out and I was glad they weren't just going to lose him on a free transfer when his baby contract expired.  I was also quite happy when the national team capped him instead of having him to go the US.  Unfortunately, his actual performance has fallen well short of what it looked like it would be.

 

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I noticed that the eligibility for the Super Draft has expanded.  Sophomores and Junior university players are now eligible to be drafted.  The rather interesting twist is that similar to the NHL draft system, those sophomores and juniors who do not sign, get to go back to university and their rights are retained by the drafting club for two years.

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