Respect The Coch!

Toronto FC today announced that it will not be picking up the 2011 options on the contracts of Amadou Sanyang, Fuad Ibrahim and, to the relief and joy of many, Nick Garcia.  This doesn't automatically mean they've been released, and all of them could potentially be back next year on a renegotiated deal.  Garcia, due to his tenure within MLS, enters the new re-entry draft that allows other MLS clubs to pick him up at a 5% increase on his 2010 salary, a very unlikely prospect given that would take him over $200,000 a year.  If he passes through the re-entry draft, he's free to negotiate a contract with other teams, or with TFC and be back next year.  Sanyang and Ibrahim don't enter the draft, their rights remain with TFC, and even if a new contract isn't agreed, another MLS team would have to trade for the rights to be able to sign them.

I'll admit to being surprised at Sanyang as his contract was very affordable, at $46,000, and given that there's very little wiggle room before hitting the $40,000 minimum salary, it seems obvious he won't be back next year.  Not renewing Garcia and Ibrahim, who made $133,000 last year, were probably the easiest decisions ever made by Interim GM Earl Cochrane, but both of them could potentially be back next year.  Garcia's game improved last year at full back, and his experience could prove handy next year if he can be brought back at a lower salary, maybe about $50-60,000 to be a back up. I'd like to hope we'll bring in enough good players for him to be very much a bench player.  Ibby?  Well the last couple of years he's looked lost and he's probably the poster boy for the return of the reserve league, as the potential that saw him drafted at age 15 and sees him still included in the U.S under 20 programme, really looks like its going to waste.  Given regular playing time he could improve, so I could see some other club, if not TFC, taking a chance on him at at a much lower rate.

So while it's not guaranteed that any of them will be leaving the club, it's a good sign that they probably will, and that is something that I'm very much OK with.  A couple of weeks ago, I listed the players I'd want to see gone, and with this news, every one of them has been let go.  So Earl Cochrane, I salute you.  While I still hold out hope we'll get someone else in to do the rebuilding part of the job (seriously, the Sturgis trade - the potential of a first round pick swapped for a journeyman jack of all trades defensive player- Preki would have been slaughtered for that) his demolition job so far can't be faulted.   Hopefully these will be the last major decisions he makes, so for now, while we have the chance, it's time for us all to embrace our inner Frank TJ Mackey and "Respect The Coch" (Warning, very very nsfw).