New news, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Plenty of TFC and MLS related news was released on Wednesday, inspiring a range of emotions.  First up was news of coaching appointments with Toronto's first team and the academy.  Back in January when the new management team was initially announced, it was confirmed that Jim Brennan, Danny Dichio, Nick Dasovic and Jason Bent would be staying with the club, but no specifics of postions were given, well that has now been resolved.  Jason Bent has been moved up from his position with the academy to become an assistant coach with the first team, Danny Dichio stepped in to Bent's old role as coach of the senior academy team, the under 19s, and Jim Brennan will become the junior academy coach with Nick Dasovic becoming the North American scout. 

It could definitely be argued that this is just an extension of the "jobs for the boys" philosophy that has permeated TFC in the past, the investment in the development of certain MLSE favourites taking precedence over ruthlessly building a winning management team.  How much difference can Aron Winter, Bob de Klerk and Paul Mariner make when they're surrounded by all the same old people above and below them?  That would be a bit harsh though, I'm going to take this at face value, as good appointments.

Jason Bent's work with Stuart Neely in the academy over the last 3 years has definitely produced some good results, with Doneil Henry and Nicholas Lindsey already having signed on with the big club, and 4 other academy products impressing enough while in Turkey to win an invite to Orlando to train with the first team as well.  His promotion to first team duties is a good reward for that work, and should help those players who worked with him in the academy to adapt at the higher level.

Dichio taking over from Bent should work well and is a very logical move, a more surprising move is Brennan coming in as the under 17 coach.  Initially it seems like quite the comedown from assistant GM to probably the lowest rung on the club's current coaching ladder, but given the renewed emphasis TFC is placing on the academy as an important part of the club's future, this isn't a throwaway appointment.  It's also a job I'd think should suit him better, I have more confidence in his ability with a football and to coach the young players than I do in his ability to make it as an executive, making trades, negotiating with agents and competing with other GM's.

As for Dasovic,  it's likely he was offered the position that Bent took, but turned it down, not wanting to go from interim head coach back into the assistants ranks.  I'll stand by my theory that this scouting position is a very temporary one, TFC  looking after him until he can get the kind of coaching role he desires, as a thank you for his work over the years, a move I can very much applaud.

The next bit of news released was that of the new triallists joining the team in Orlando.  As rumoured Joevin Jones is one of them, and he's joined by fellow Trinidad and Tobago international Jamal Gay.  Gay is a 22 year old forward who previously impressed enough to get a move to the German second division though he didn't get a game there, and he's scored 3 times in 8 games for the T & T national team so there's a bit of promise there.

The other two triallists to join the team in Orlando, you know, where we were supposed to be trialling South Americans, are from Belgium and, surprise surprise, Holland.  Belgian defender Mikael Yourassowsky has made it to the age of 27 without ever catching on at any team in particular, and Dutch midfielder Ivo De Heus is another product of Ajax's youth system who hasn't really done much since leaving Ajax.  As I said earlier, ya gotta have faith, but there's still no-one really impressive coming along yet.

The other big news of the day was the release of the MLS playoff format for 2011, providing confirmation of the 10 team format and details of how the wild cards will work.  Basically the top 3 teams in each conference will qualify in their conference's half of the draw.  Teams 7-10, regardless of conference, will then have a 1 game playoff, 7 v10 and 8 v9 at the home of the higher seed to determine who makes the 7th and 8th spots.  The lowest seed of the wild card winners, again regardless of which conference they are from will be put in a match-up with the Supporters Shield winner, with the other wild card playing against the other Conference champion.

Still with me?  Excellent, as now it's time to point out the goofiness that could ensue from this format combined with the stubborn maintenance of two seperate conferences as opposed to just a single table.  The first wierd scenario is that it could potentially mean 7 teams qualifying from one conference, obviously the West would have the best shot at that achievement right now.  The ultimate possibility though, would be for two wild card teams in the wrong conferences to make the final.  Imagine Toronto (yeah, yeah,hilarious, I know) representing the West and Vancouver representing the East, I think that could see heads explode at ESPN.  Given that the wild card crossover team has made the final three years straight, and won the MLS Cup two years running, it's not that far fetched, and the possibility is just another reason for the usual MLS knockers to not take the league seriously.

5 home games by April 23rd? St George, that'll be cold!

Thursday saw Toronto FC play the final game of their Turkish trip, against Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb, with the two week training camp ending tomorrow.  The other two games they played went well, a 1-1 draw with Partizan Belgrade followed by a 1-0 win over Red Star Belgrade (if I remember the rules of pre-season friendlies correctly, going undefeated against two Serbian teams means we get Serbia's Champions league spot next year?  I could be wrong though, maybe it's only the Europa League, who knows?).

Before this game TFC released two trialists, Uruguayan Santiago Gonzalez and Dutch winger and second overall in the 'longest unfulfilled courtship of TFC' stakes (behind the incomparable Paul Dickov), Bas Ent.  As those two went, another came in, left back Kevin Westmaas, another graduate of Ajax's academy making sure the Dutch quota was maintained.

That double A means I'll never be able to read his name without thinking of Noddy Holder of Slade yelling iiiit's chriiiiiiiiiistmaaaaaaaaas (at 3:00 of this clip) and it must have seemed like Christmas for Dinamo Zagreb(huh? huh? now THAT'S a segue!) as the young back four of Westmaas, Demetrious Omphroy, Doneil Henry and Ty Harden showed themselves as not ready for prime-time with giveaways that led to goals twice in the first ten minutes.  Twitter reports suggested it got better from there and another trialist, Canadian Gianluca Zavarise scored just after half time to make it 2-1 before a late penalty to Dinamo made it 3-1.  Alarmingly for a friendly, Zavarise and two Dinamo players were sent off, though both teams were allowed to bring substitutions on so it stayed 11 v 11.

TFC's website's match report is very unconcerned with the Dinamo Zagreb lineup, but I'm going to lazily and stereo-typically assume there was a bunch of players with names ending in ic, which very conveniently leads me to another bit of news since I last posted here, ex-interim coach Nick Dasovic hasn't actually been fully released, but is apparently staying with TFC in a scouting position.  Given his coaching ambitions, this smacks of TFC being nice and keeping him around until something comes up elsewhere, which I'm ok with, as long as he stays far enough away from BMO's corridors of power that he can't lead another coup.

The other big news was the looooong awaited release of the full 2011 MLS Schedule.  You can see TFC's schedule here  A few things stand out, firstly, let's hope we're more prepared to compete at the start of the season than we usually are, as if we don't do well early, we're screwed.  5 of our first 7 games are at home, and our first 3 games are against the two expansion sides and then Chivas, one of the few teams worse than Toronto last year.

That 5 out of the first 7 games stat leads to my next observation, that it's going to be bloody cold.  Remember 2010 when despite a generally warm spring, every TFC home game was freezing and or raining?  Did you enjoy that?  I didn't.  Now we're practically guaranteeing ourselves a repeat?  Thanks.

That unbalanced schedule gets evened out in July with only 1 of 5 games at home, though with a big gap between Houston away on the 9th and dallas at home on the 20th, expect another meaningless friendly, and as it's not in the season ticket package, expect a big name, with Real Madrid-esque ticket prices.

One good thing is that though the League couldn't shut down for a few weeks while the Gold Cup is going on, it is adhering to the Fifa scheduled international weekends in September and October for World Cup qualifying, so that's definitely a step in the right direction.

The other big change is that the vast majority of saturday games wil be played in the evening rather than the afternoon, which fans seem to be fairly evenly divided on whether it's a good thing or not.  Personally I liked the afternoon games better but oh well, it's just good to finally have the fixtures to plan around, I think an August weekend in Chicago is calling me.

Random notes on minor happenings.

With the opening press conference and talk of strikes and lockouts now behind us, and the team and De Ro's mouth safely out of the media glare in Turkey, pre-season really gets under way on Wednesday with Toronto FC's first training game, against Partizan Belgrade of Serbia.  With no new news on the De Ro contract saga, there's been very little information from training camp, just the usual cliches and fluff pieces, which is all I'd want really, dull, uninteresting and professionally run are all good things at this stage. 

The much anticipated list of triallists attending camp with TFC didn't exactly set pulses racing, hopefully some of them will be able to make the squad and contribute, but there doesn't seem to be any star players in the group.  That list, along with details about the players can be seen here. 

The main news so far was that last year's Interim Coach Nick Dasovic didn't go to Turkey with the team, and his future is being worked out as it seems his time with the club will probably be coming to an end.  It seems with Aron Winter and Bob De Klerk taking up the main coaching positions, there was no room for Dasovic at the level he wants, so he'll probably try his hand elsewhere.  I wish him the best of luck, but I'm in no way disappointed by this, in fact I'm pleasantly surprised and re-assured by one aspect of this in particular.

Many times Tom Anselmi has spoken about the importance MLSE places on developing coaches and management in North America, and how they were investing in Dasovic, as well as Danny Dichio, Jim Brennan and Earl Cochrane.  To that end, when Preki was brought in back in 2009, he was asked to take Dasovic under his wing, and Dasovic was instrumental in the firing of Preki when things went bad towards the end of the 2010 season.  The fact that MLSE is now ready to let their investment leave, rather than force Winter to find a place for Dasovic that he'd be happy with is a good indication that Winter, Paul Mariner et al have the power and independence to do things their own way.  Of course, nothing is official yet so things may turn out differently, but that seems to be the case for now at least.

The one bit of news that will definitely affect things this season slipped out today which was the 2011 replica home jersey as seen below.

I like it, it's simple with no unnecessary embellishments.  It is, as the link above shows merely the replica version.  The "authentic" Jersey still hasn't been released yet, presumably there'll be a grand unveiling at some point, so there's still time for me to be disappointed with extras like the embossed Maple Leaf and "All for One" marketing slogan on the collar that marred the previous effort, but hopefully they won't have gone too far with all that this time around.  If it stays like this, I could be tempted to buy one, even with a sponsor on it.

Don't tell him about Rob Ford.

Damn work!  I must have been busy when TFC made their Jürgen Klinsmann announcement, as I missed the press conference and hoopla that surely accompanied the news that such a well known and respected football personality was joining up with a club desperate for some good news to sell season tickets and fill BMO field for the MLS cup.  They wouldn't have just released some publicity gold like that casually on their website would they?  Oh!

Alright, that's a little unfair, Tom Anselmi did an interview with The Fan 590 which gave a few more details than had been previously reported last Friday, and this article on sportsnet suggests he'll be formally introduced a couple of weeks from now, presumably as part of the pre MLS cup festivities, so I guess we'll get the full details and press conference at that time.

So what did we find out?  Well, fears that it might be SoccerSolutions and not actually Klinsmann himself were dismissed by Anselmi, but disappointingly, his contract runs only until "some time in the spring".   What is he here to do?

"It's more than just helping us hire a new manager, a new leader," said Anselmi. "It's looking at helping us organize or reorganize the whole front office, everything from vision for the club, what do we stand for, what's the style of play that we want to adopt for the rest of our lives to the people that we need to be able to deliver on that: players, coaching staff, the like."

 Though he hasn't made any public statements since being hired, in earlier interviews Klinsmann has elaborated a little on that

...I think every country has its own style and every environment, every MLS team should have its own identity based on their neighbourhood, based on their environment, the people that grow up in that neighbourhood, what they stand for ...

Who knows exactly what he'll decide represents Toronto, hopefully he hasn't heard about our latest election results.

The talk about potentially reorganizing the front office and the management and coaching staff would be encouraging if it weren't for the impression that's been given repeatedly over the last few weeks that the front office doesn't really think there's much wrong with the status quo.  Whether it's comments about Preki being fired mainly due to a gut feeling that he didn't really fit in with the organisation and the way they like to work, or Anselmi's oft-stated belief that we were only a few tweaks away from competing until Mo and Preki unnecessarily blew up last year's squad, or the repeated assurances that Earl Cochrane, Jimmy Brennan and Nick Dasovic are a big part of the club's future, and that Klinsmann will be working closely with Cochrane and Brennan, there's nothing to suggest that management thinks much needs changing at all.  This despite the lack of success that TFC has had since it's inception, and that all of their teams have had under MLSE's leadership.

It will be interesting to see exactly what recommendations and appointments are made, and just how much things change. I really shouldn't criticise too much before any of that happens, but given that he's just a consultant and apparently without long term involvement, my initial excitement at Klinsmann's involvement is definitely fading.  Anselmi said that this was in no way just about getting a big name on board, I hope he's right, but I really don't see Klinsmann being able to affect much change in such a short time in an organisation that seems so determined it's already doing most things right, especially when he's likely going to be leaving behind 2 or 3 new guys surrounded by Tom, Paul, Earl, Jimmy, Nick and all the rest of the staff who've given us such profoundly mediocre results so far.

How bizarre, how bizarre.

Saturday's game was, in many ways, a very strange one.  The deliberately subdued atmosphere due to the Red Patch Boys and North End Elite protests.  Dan Gargan as captain.  TFC, without Dwayne De Rosario, Chad Barrett, Adrian Cann and Stefan Frei, arguably our 4 best players this year, playing a decent game against a good team.  Maicon Santos scoring one of the best goals in TFC history. Jacob Peterson scoring.  Nicholas Lindsay putting in one of the best performances by a TFC winger in a long time.  A double sending off after an incident that almost led to a full on brawl.  Columbus' two goals both scored by goalies, their first bounced off the bar and then off John Conway's back and in, it was very charitably not given as an own goal, and the second scored by their goalie Will Hesmer, going up in desperation for an injury time corner.  The only thing weirder would have been if TFC actually won, but alas we didn't quite get that one.

The game itself was fairly meaningless so I won't talk much about that, but I'd say that was the best game we've played under Dasovic so far. Santos and Lindsay had great games (I feel bad for Lindsay, his substitution got lost in the chaos after the red cards, if anyone deserved a standing ovation off the pitch it was him yesterday) and were ably supported by Nick Labrocca and Jacob Peterson.  I was also happy for Dan Gargan to be given the captaincy in De Ro's absence.  With Nick Dasovic talking pre game about how players have been showing their character recently, that decision speaks volumes.

The main talking point though is of course the continuing supporter dissatisfaction and the protests, which continue to get attention in the media, even going as far as the New York Times.

It could be argued that the game showed how much of a minority the more hardcore supporters groups members are, an argument used by the Front Office in the recent townhall meetings.  Despite the promotion of the "Wear Green" protest by the Red Patch Boys, TFC red was still by far the most prominent colour in the stadium.  The silent treatment was in a way also quite ineffective, though U-Sector never made any official decision, many of their members chose not to let their gripes with the front office get in the way of supporting the boys on the field.  This combined with most of the stadium continuing their usual support, not singing all the time by any means, but reacting to the play, cheering goals, booing the ref and so on, meant that there was still atmosphere in varying degrees, though in that respect this was one of the more entertaining, incident filled games all year, so probably not representative of the average experience.  Probably the best representation of fan anger wasn't any of the organised displays but instead the spontaneous and widespread booing of the announcement thanking fans for coming this season and reminding them to renew for next year, followed by the very audible booing of Julian De Guzman after he skied a shot way over the bar early in the game.

To me though, while not as effective or widespread as many might have hoped it was still successful, and a very good representation of what the could happen to TFC if things continue to slide.  It was very reminiscent of the crowd at the Chivas game, and at many other MLS grounds, a small supporters group singing throughout the game, and then plenty of empty seats and sporadic cheering as the game goes on in the rest of the stadium, but often eerily quiet enough for any reasonably big away contingent to be heard, and the Crew fans' "Guillermo" chant could certainly be heard often from my seats in 227.

If the team keeps alienating supporters, this is what it will become, it won't be the end of the world, the crowds won't completely disappear, the club will keep going, and if the team starts winning the crowd size will probably bounce back to be decent, essentially we'll be an average MLS club.  But given the potential that still exists (even the angriest supporters desperately want to have something to cheer about again), what it could be, and especially given what TFC started with, average would be a terrible shame and a real wasted opportunity.

Beautiful friend, the end.

Alright, well at least we can relax now, and just concentrate on the Concacaf Champions League instead.  The brief hope we got after De Rosario's 2 free kicks saved a crappy performance and got us 3 points against Houston is now gone, after another home defeat, this time against San Jose. 

There's a lot of different things running through my head, so this post is going to be a collection of individual thoughts that when put together may come together to be more then the sum of their parts, or may be a bit of a disjointed mess, I'm not really sure.  So kind of like TFC then.

This game really shows that Preki the coach wasn't really all that bad, things certainly haven't improved since he left.  It also shows that Mo the GM and Preki the co-GM really have left behind a squad that just isn't good enough. 

What's going on with Mista?  Dasovic is trying to play a more attacking style, he's theoretically our most talented forward and he's left on the bench, after not playing at all in the last two games?  If Preki had made that choice he'd be getting all sorts of questions about why he can't get along with the talented players. 

After Mista came on in the second half, and towards the end when we were desperate and basically playing 6 upfront, why was Mista one of the few left back to defend.  I get that we had the tall defenders forward for the desperation long balls, but wasn't Mista supposed to be a targetman with a bit of skill?  Surely ideal for that purpose.

Jacob Peterson actually looked like a winger again.  Not a really good one, but he got in a few crosses and played quite wide, he definitely seems improved under Dasovic.  Having said that, in my opinion, after the season he's had and the thin ice he must already be on, that awful late miss put the definitive stamp on his flight out of town at the end of the season.

The north end elite did a good job with their silent protest and simple dollar signs banners.  Tom Anselmi and Paul Beirne were a lot less conspicuous than usual in that corner of the stadium.

Chad Barrett was probably our best player out there, he was all over the place, in a good way, getting on the end of long balls, and creating chances, really showed what we missed while he was injured.

De Rosario?  Didn't have a great game, but clearly gave it his all in his own way out there, and scored a great goal.  His "celebration" miming writing a cheque as a way of protesting that he feels underpaid was a bit crass and horribly timed though, given that he's the captain and we're 2-1 down in a crucial game.  Does he deserve more money?  He's got a very valid argument, and with the club looking to avoid negative publicity at season ticket renewal time, it's probably a very good time to be making that argument, but in the middle of the game?  Awful.

So now we need to win our last 4 games.  What are our chances?  The body language of our two best players at the final whistle will tell you all you need to know about that.

How did that happen?

TFC went to mexico on Tuesday night to face Cruz Azul, and pretty much everyone agreed they were on a hiding to nothing.  A tough place to play, against a team that's currently tearing up the Mexican league and with a point to prove after embarrasingly losing in Toronto.  It seemed with the line-up he put out Coach Nick Dasovic thought the same as well, many starters rested, Garcia and Hscanovics as the full backs, and a truly craptacular Obie/Ibbe forward line that was never ever going to score.

Injuries to Joseph Nane and Martin Saric within the first half hour burned two subs that would surely have been needed later on to deal with altitude and ball chasing related cramps and exhaustion.  I haven't seen a possession stat, but I'd be surprised if TFC had 25%.  They were outshot badly, with only 1 shot on target that I can remember, and that from about 60 yards away.

And yet, it didn't all go wrong, they put in an excellent defensive performance, limiting Cruz Azul to terrible shots from distance and putting crosses into the box that Adrian Cann and Ty Harden dealt with admirably, and they got a 0-0 draw that keeps their qualification hopes alive, and is only the third time an MLS team has got a point in a CCL game in Mexico.

An ugly game, but definitely one to be proud of, and I must say, given how badly the season as a whole has gone, there's actually been quite a few of those this year.  Combined with some absolute horror shows, and the soap opera off the pitch, it's certainly been interesting.

You win some, you lose some.

Stoppage time, injury time, Esquire added time! fergie time, call it what you will, but it definitely made things interesting for me on Saturday.  First up we had Darlington, away to the second bottom team in the division, who were coming off a 4-0 loss the week before.  2-0 up after 90minutes and looking very comfortable, still 2-0 up after 94 minutes, cue the collapse and we come away with a 2-2 draw.  They're certainly coming up with creative new ways to frustrate the crap out of you.

Later in the evening, and Toronto FC are in their latest win or bust game, trying to keep their desperate playoff hopes alive.  After a shambolic first half, they improved in the second, but just like it was back in the first few games of the season, they'd relied on a bit of magic from Dwayne De Rosario to draw them, level, but time was running out and 1 point really wasn't going to be good enough.  I was out with friends so wasn't watching the game, but got commentary of the last few minutes over the phone (thanks Roz!).  O'Brien White missing another good chance seemed to be the end of our chances, but then De Ro got the ball and attacked and got fouled just on the edge of the area.  Playing against his former team, and having scored one free kick goal already, surely he couldn't do it again could he?  But he did, and we won.  Realistically the playoffs aren't going to happen but it extends hope for a little bit longer, selfishly, that means long enough for at least the game in Seattle I'll be attending.  Taking the game on it's own though, an awesome moment, one that really ratcheted up my karaoke enthusiasm for the rest of the night.

Stepping outside of the moment, and though it would be unfair to make any kind of snap judgement about the post Preki regime, the goal just hid the fact that we look like a team that's just starting over, which of course is unfortunately what we are.

A 4-1 thrashing followed by a bad game against a theoretically inferior team, only to be rescued by De Ro heroics.  It's like we're back in April.  We're a team that frankly isn't good enough and is going to rely on individual inspiration, and it doesn't surprise me that De Ro thrives in that sort of situation, and if we're going to do anything this season, he's going to have to go on an amazing streak.  Hopefully next season, whether under Dasovic, or a new coach, we'll be able to move beyond the need for such heroics on a regular basis, much as we did for a couple of months this year before injuries exposed the depth limitations.  Hopefully that new coach won't be fired in a panic as soon as things go wrong, I've had enough starting over.

Oh me of little faith

After the firings, and with the blame game in full swing, people are starting to turn to the question of who's next, and primarily who'll be TFC's next general manager.  Many are suggesting that we need more than one person to properly do the job, the 24th minute's dream team for example would include 4 people, including Jason de Vos which would make this Darlington fan positively giddy.  At the top of that sort of structure, most people see an experienced and successful football man, an Eminence Grise who charts the basic course and vision for the club, but who would be less involved in the day to day running of the club though always available as a sounding board for his staff.

Sounds like a great plan to me, and luckily TFC already has that man in place, with a clear idea of what he wants the club to be.  Unluckily, his name is Tom Anselmi.

At the press conference to announce the firings, Anselmi was front and centre and there were a few quotes that exposed his guiding philosophy, and let's just say it doesn't seem like it's about TFC winning, or even TFC learning from it's recent mistakes.

When talking about the full time job prospects for interim GM Earl Cochrane and coach Nick Dasovic, he waxed poetic about how MLSE had "made a committment right from the get go that we need to develop soccer infrastructure in Canada and especially Ontario", and how "they wanted to start investing in Jim Brennan and turn him into a soccer pro, they've been investing in Nick, investing in Earl, creating a team of people that can grow together and build on the expertise that exists."

To that end, they "asked Preki to take a couple of assistant coaches under his wing, we believe it's important for us to be developing coaches in this league, we believe there seems to be a bit of a shortage of head coaches that know the North American game, that know the MLS rules and stuff, we believe developing head coaches is important and this (the interim coach job)will be one new feather in Nick's cap and ultimately he's going to be a head coach in this league"

In a way it's an admirable goal, but I'd rather have TFC committing to employing the best, most experienced and successful people possible, prioritising winning as soon as possible, rather than being a training school for up and coming Canadians (or other non-Canadian MLSE favourites such as Danny Dichio) who can then spread their expertise throughout the country or the league.  Given how Preki was treated when a power struggle developed, ie management backed their investment over their head coach, and given that they're reaffirming their committment to this model at both the management and coaching level, is any premium candidate really going to be looking for the job.  Also, would it not be best to build a high quality management team and a culture of success, then start introducing people into that environment to learn from?  I have much more confidence in what Steve Yzerman learnt at the Redwings than in what Jim Brennan would have learnt under Mo Johnston.

Moving on to the search for the new GM, and the hiring process, Anselmi said "I'll lead the effort but I'll be looking to the league for support, and other people we have out in the markets, contacts, that sort of thing, a lot of different people involved who'll be providing advice and assitance in who the potential candidates are, then we'll shake that down and ultimately make a recommendation to our shareholders, the owners."  After the league was heavily involved with the hiring of Mo Johnston, that doesn't really fill me with confidence, and I don't like that it's "the shareholders" that the recommendation is given to.  Though the slip was immediately corrected to "the owners", to me it exposes that for Anselmi and MLSE, this is much more a business venture than a sports team.

As for how he decided that now was the time to fire both Mo and Preki, well it doesn't sound like a highly scientific process.  "The team was heading in the wrong direction, but it was even bigger than that, it was, just, the situation wasn't right, that's the best way I can describe it."  "it was, you know, a gut, you know when things don't feel right and it just didn't feel right....it just felt like it was heading in the wrong direction."

If you're thinking I'm being unfair and that MLSE has shown it understands when to get out of the way, as is generally suggested when referring to their corporate cousins, the  Leafs and the Raptors, well guess who's going to be making decisions soon about Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo's future.  That's right,  noted sports expert Richard Peddie, in this article in the Star. He's going to make a decision quickly 

“I will make a recommendation to the board (on Colangelo’s future) at some point during the season,” said Peddie. “I’m not going to leave Bryan hanging out. He’s got kids in school here.”

  His criteria?

" ...I want to see them play hard and be active and be better defensively. And we’ll see where it goes.”

  and 

“I’ll just watch, and if I like where I think it’s going, we’ll re-up Bryan.”

So basically he's going to go with his gut.  Sounds like Tom's got what it takes to stick around with MLSE and TFC for a long, long time.

One firing too many.

So while I don't think I've read one article or blog or tweet or anything from anyone suggesting Mo Johnston shouldn't have been fired, Preki's dismissal got a much more mixed reaction.  The majority certainly seems to be happy to see him go, but there's some people who feel it's a bad move, or that while a move may have been necessary, it's very unfair to Preki and that he was never given a fair shot.  Count me in the latter group.

By the time the end came, it seemed that there was a big rift between Preki and, well, everyone else.  The players certainly showed their appreciation for the moves, and their perfomance against DC in Preki's last game in charge suggested they weren't that interested in playing for him any more.  As for his coaching staff, stories surfaced of a massive bust up with Nick Dasovic, followed by Dasovic and the rest of the assistants going to management to lobby for Preki's removal with Dasovic to take over as head coach.  The supporters? They weren't going to take it any more, and season ticket renewal time is coming up.  Add all that up, combined with the recent struggles on the pitch, and the writing was clearly on the wall, something had to change and it's always easier to fire the coach than the team.  Preki's last press conference, as lethargic a performance as the players gave on the pitch beforehand, suggested he knew this as well as anyone.

So, with all that against him, Preki had to go, it's difficult to see any other resolution that would allow the club to move on, and it's probably for the best that whoever the new GM is gets to choose his own staff, a luxury that was never given to Preki, and that's the main reason I feel that Preki never really stood a chance.

In the press conference to announce the firings, Tom Anselmi spoke with obvious pride about how MLSE is committed to trying to develop the infrastructure of soccer in Canada and develop Canadian coaches and managers.  To that end Preki was asked to take Nick Dasovic under his wing.  Danny Dichio had been awkwardly moved into a coaching position only last year, so I imagine he'd have been an untouchable as well, and when Jim Brennan retired after just one game of the season, he was swiftly moved into the assistant GM spot. 

Thinking about the wider impact the club can have on the game as a whole in Canada is a very admirable goal, but surely a better path to success for the club itself would be to go after the best and brightest and most experienced people available to help TFC, or let the new coach bring in his own assistants, rather than set yourself up as a self confessed development club for a select group of people to learn their trade.  Though Preki did bring an assistant with him, Leo Percovich, he was also surrounded by inexperienced people who crucially knew that their development was seen as very important by the higher-ups, and thus knew they had more job security than Preki, and that if push came to shove, management had their back, not Preki's, which is exactly how things ended.

On the playing side, last years squad ended up well over the salary cap amid lots of talk about dressing room dysfunction, so changes definitely needed to be made.  How many of those changes were Preki's idea or were forced on him by Mo is unknown, though the fact that some of the players let go were fan favourites or people that Mo had made big trades for certainly suggests he had a big hand in that.

However, it's become known that at least one trade he wanted to make was blocked, Dwayne de Rosario.  Star player, top scorer, captain and marketing face of the franchise, was never going to be allowed to leave.  Why Preki would want him to leave is another question, and a big question mark against his ability to work with big name players, but that's another person that he's forced to work with, and who knows that he's got more job security than Preki.  While I've never heard anything specific about Preki's thoughts on Julian De Guzman, I can only imagine that he has very similar status.  Preki's retort to his and De Ro's criticisms of him " It's a couple of Canadian guys making those comments. That's all I have to say about that" certainly suggests De Guzman was another of the untouchables, as well as showing Preki's disdain for the group as a whole.

So with a very comfortable and influential group of people who had no reason to fear him, Preki was always going to be vulnerable when things went wrong, and make no mistake, even the most ardent Preki apologist would agree that things went wrong.  Preki arrived with a reputation as a hard-ass coach, often unpopular with players for his training methods, which apparently involve a lot of running and not much tactics and strategy.  His defensive system and apparent trouble with the ego wrangling and squad rotation necessary in the modern game also were guaranteed to make enemies, as well as leave him unpopular with supporters.  So when TFC hit a rough stretch in mid August, the knives came out very very quickly.  Who knows what exctly triggered the confrontation with Dasovic, but when it came down to it, Preki was never going to win that particular power struggle, and thus found himself forced out after less than a season, and less than a month removed from the famous victory over Cruz Azul.

There are a lot of unknowns here, was Preki made aware of these restrictions when he signed up?  If so he only has himself to blame.  Also, it may well be that this is a good thing, and Preki was a cancer that needed to be got rid of before he could do more damage, certainly a lot of supporters feel that way, but either way, I for one don't like the idea that a small group of untouchable players and assistants have so much control.  Much like with the Leafs and their Muskoka 5, the inmates have taken over the asylum, Preki was never given a chance, and now we're going to be starting all over again.  Again.