CSN Articles

I love playing couch-manager as much as anyone, but I won't even try to pick the 4 that should go.  Really tough call.  But I will say Larin has dropped a couple of spots based on recent club performances, but there is no way Biello goes through with that based on his history.

I don’t think I would go as far yet as saying we are contenders. We will have to start beating top teams for that to be the case.  But we have certainly become a playoff team.   And I agree that it is down mostly to herdman. You could even see it last night the way he was directing, encouraging, and shouting at the players in the second half to maintain the intensity and see the game out.  It can be summarized by the game that Bernardeschi laid down last night.  Not only did he score, but he was also back blocking shots in the box, making passes in the midfield, and running all over the pitch. Completely the opposite attitude and effort of what we saw the entire team doing under Bradley last season.

I'm on the fence between St. John's or Moncton, but leaning towards Moncton still..  Derek Martin would certainly have better insight than me, but I still think travel cost is a massive advantage for Moncton..  Teams in Ontario or BC or Calgary would only need one flight to visit both Moncton and Halifax, while they would need an additional flight to St. John's.  Also flights to St. John's are very expensive..   St. John's is a slightly bigger city, but Moncton is growing faster and has a bigger regional population to draw from.. Moncton has more immigrants, who are more likely to be into soccer. Moncton has a history of success with the Wildcats Q league team (25 + years with 5k attendance) I think it will be easier to attract players from Quebec and Ontario to Moncton, since its much easier for family to visit and also Moncton is a bilingual city so this would be attractive for francophone players There are corporations in NB that would get behind this, maybe not as much as NL..    

You are correct that there aren’t many metro areas big enough.  In fact, I think 300,000 is too low and the number should be more like 500,000.  I will make a special case exemption for Victoria because it is close to this number and is also the city in a geographically defined island area.  My top ten list for potential CPL expansion locations in the next few years is: Edmonton  London Kitchener Quebec City That is all. Assuming we don’t have to use one of these markets to relocate York, this gives us a very nice, tidy twelve team league. If, by 2030 or so, all twelve of these teams are drawing well, financially secure, in suitable stadiums, with a good CPL media deal in place and solid sponsorship all around, then we can decide whether it would be useful for the league to consider further expansion into smaller markets.  Given the expected increase in both geographic, scope and level of the L1 leagues by that time, however, it may make more sense to cap the CPL at these 12 larger markets.  This would allow the CPL to start ramping up the salary cap and the level of play without being dragged down by smaller markets while simultaneously leaving decent sized flagship cities for the growing L1 leagues, one step down the pyramid.    

Nothing is really laughable or insulting.  Business and pro-sports don't work that way, its not personal.  CFM have an envelope and they choose where and when to spend it.  If a player underperforms they don't give the team a refund.  Pro athletes don't choose where they will play.  Choiniere has earned it, he will get it elsewhere, CFM isn't screwing him out of anything.  It goes against their philosophy which is to develop, sell and reinvest and keep the cycle going.  Right now Piette, Wanyama and Choiniere are in the way of developing the next guys (Zouhir and Saliba).  They need to play now, not when they're 24.  Even Choiniere was played and developed too late.  

You have good points, however, who would you put ahead of them on the top 10 list?  There are not that many cities with metros over 300k Here is how I would do a top 10 list.  Who would you place instead of St Johns or Moncton that I haven't listed? top tier: Quebec City London or Kitchener Saskatoon Edmonton   Middle tier Windsor Kitchener or London (whichever doesn't have a team from top tier) Montreal area team (like Laval, somewhere with a distinction and distance from Montreal city proper)   Bottom tier Kelowna St John's NL Moncton  

It looks like we've recruited well again. Ndom, Moore, Tirco, Quintana all seem like good additions.

Ya, I get it.   Really, I think MLS has proven you don't need to be one of the big spenders to be very competitive and even a winner, same for the flip side, spending doesn't assure competitiveness.  We've seen lots of teams do great with little budgets including CFM in the past.  I don't even hold that against Saputo, I honestly prefer that  model to the Manchesters and TFC types. I'm a massive fan of MC, he's a super fit high IQ footballer that can literally play anywhere, bar CB and striker.  For all the people who've regularly seen his work with CFM over the last 2 years, I don't think there is any doubt he's been the 3rd best Canadian midfielder.  That being said, I'm not entirely sure CFM is really that dependent on him for results.  There is still a lot of talent and balance there among the others mids.  About the homegrown thing, MLS is very different to NHL, NBA or MLB, I personally don't feel we should have locals aim to play their entire career for one team.  MLS is not the top of the pyramid, any strong player should aim to move on and challenge himself.  Fans should also understand and support this.  Keeping them home doesn't help the team or the player.  I honestly don't see the value in keeping him, he should go somewhere else and cash in, we should focus on Zouhir and Saliba.