Gomez gone.

Anyone worried about the lack of urgency displayed in building TFC's 2011 roster, and thinking we're heading into another season woefully unprepared and undermanned won't be reassured today by the news that Gambian defender Emmanuel Gomez has been waived.  After missing all of the 2010 season due to injury, it will be easy to not miss Gomez, though he certainly showed promise in the few games he played in 2009.  The main thing gained by the release of Gomez is an extra international spot, which if pre-season so far has taught us anything, will be filled by another young Dutch player who's very close to his mid 20's and still hasn't quite made the jump from the Ajax academy to a pro career yet.

After not travelling with the team to Orlando, reports from Holland suggest that Kevin Westmaas, who trialled with the club in Turkey is likely to be filling that role soon, but another option is Keven Aleman, a 16 year old from the TFC academy who impressed with his play for Canada at the recent Concacaf under-17 tournament where Canada earned a qualification spot for the U-17 World Cup coming up later this year, and won an invite to train with the first team.

Another addition to the ranks, probably the most important one to be made this side of another DP signing is Julian De Guzman, returning from injury and participating in his first full training sesssion of the year.  Hopefully he can get back to full fitness for the start of the season to help with the passing out of defence and keeping possession which will be crucial to the successful implementation of Winter's plans.

Whichever new players arrive had better come along soon, given that there's only two and a half weeks until First Kick, and with TFC having a very easy schedule early on.  If there's to be any success this season, and while that shouldn't be the main priority it certainly would be nice, we can't afford another slow start to the season due to a lack of familiarity being added to the problems with learning the ins and outs of a new system.

Tick tock Aron, tick tock.