Dude, where's my Cann?

With less than two weeks until TFC's first game against Vancouver and with a roster that I'd hesitate to even call 'bare bones', one of the players that seemed to have a place in the starting line up firmly locked down, Adrian Cann, remains away from the squad, while a contract dispute is sorted out.

Since leaving training camp last week, Cann has maintained his silence, with no articles showing his side of the story, or even quotes to balance out an article that takes a more pro-management view.  Given how much of a soap opera TFC's existence has been so far, with plenty of dirty laundry aired, keeping quiet and allowing negotiations to take place behind closed doors can certainly be admired and applauded.  The problem is, if the other side has no qualms about putting out information, then the PR war for the hearts and minds of supporters becomes a very unfair fight, especially after taking such drastic action as leaving training camp, as Cann did.

That's the situation Cann now finds himself in, as after the initial article on the clubs website that cast him as the bad guy by putting out the info that he was only one year into a four year contract, Aron Winter cast TFC firmly in the role of the good guys with quotes in this Gareth Wheeler article, saying that TFC have made two different offers to Cann, who has refused them, and which they have now withdrawn, saying he can come back on his old contract or not at all.

So TFC's side of the story is that Cann is very much under contract for another three years, so there's no need to renegotiate, but recognising his 2010 MVP efforts, they've made him new offers anyway, which he's had the temerity to turn down.  What's Cann's side?  Well that's the part we don't know, what his current contract calls for him to be paid, and what offers have been made.  The Wheeler article also mentions that the terms initially reported (4 years at $65,000) were incorrect, though there's no mention of whether it's the length or the dollar value that is wrong, or both.

Until this situation blew up, most supporters seemed to be firmly behind Cann, with most bloggers and forum commenters aware that, whether under a long term contract or not, (and more than one respected TFC reporters have recently said that he was out of contract) negotiations were taking place over the off season, with most people agreeing that Cann was worthy of a raise.  In the big debates when Dwayne De Rosario's situation blew up, Cann was even offered up by many including myself (magnificently ironically in hindsight) as an example of someone whose contract was up for renewal but who wasn't making a big deal of it.

Now though, supporters are taking the report of a 4 year contract as gospel, a certainty that Cann has no right to walk out on, and without any information at all as to what the new offers included, are saying he should be gratefully signing on and getting his ass back into training camp asap.  Many supporters are taking things even further and saying that they simply don't want Cann back at all, saying that as opposed to De Ro, he's easily replaceable, even though we haven't even got close to replacing everyone else let go from last year's squad yet.

Obviously the biggest part of that reaction is the fact that Cann did more than just pretend to write a cheque and grumble to the media, he literally walked out on the team until the situation is resolved one way or another.  But the way that supporters have reacted to the one-sided information presented so far can only strengthen MLS's and TFC management's resolve to hold a firm line, indeed Adrian Cann is now listed on MLSsoccer.com as retired. 

It may well be that new management  within TFC means a new attitude, that they are acting very honourably and telling the full truth in all this, but given all the rumours of foul play involved in Cann's previous contract, I can't help but think that there's more to this than meets the eye, that there's another side to the story.  Walking out of training camp is a very high stakes move, one that Cann won't have taken lightly, so he must feel he's being seriously short changed.  Maybe he is, or maybe his sense of his own worth is way too high, I'd personally be comfortable seeing him earn about $100,000 to $120,000 but not much more that that.

We'll probably never know the details of what numbers are being discussed, but that isn't stopping many people from rushing to judgement.  By keeping a dignified silence while negotiations happen, Cann may well be taking the high road and acting professionally, but in the court of supporter opinion, he's doing himself no favours at all.