So Julian de Guzman is likely coming to Toronto. Again. I think it was Kristian Jack that first reported it, but most of us had heard the possibility for the last couple weeks. He wanted to stay in Europe – preferably Spain -- but Europe had a lesson to teach.
Make no mistake. He’s being blackballed. This is a player that is more than capable of playing in any of the top leagues in Europe. To think that he hasn’t been offered a contract...well, that’s just crazy.
For those that don’t know, de Guzman spoke out last year after he, and the rest of his teammates, had gone multiple weeks without being paid. Almost immediately he was benched. You do the math.
Here we have a player – a Canadian player -- that dared speak up against the insanity of not getting paid...Go figure. Who would imagine that a La Liga club would be able to meet its financial responsibilities. Crazy, eh? That they have shut him out is pathetic. That the rest of the players have stood by and allowed him to be shut out is understandable, but still, ultimately, pathetic too.
So, it’s Toronto’s gain. Great. Hopefully he can play his 10 games for TFC and move back to Europe, his timeout complete. He’s going to step in as one of the top five players in MLS, so Reds fans should be happy. A MLS Cup is not out of the question. Seriously.
Of course it isn’t official yet. The problem is that TFC needs to drop salary (have I mentioned how much I hate the salary cap?). It wouldn’t shock me if Danny Dichio “retires” this week. That would be too bad (really too bad), but it’s also the reality of this crazy little league we follow.
It also makes it difficult to be 100 per cent excited about this. Yes, de Guzman will make this team a lot better. But, if a Dichio has to be moved aside...a little bit of its a soul will die. That sucks. There ain’t no other way to put that.
Keep a close eye on this over the next few days. Something is going to happen.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
Think the blackballed explanation works for Spain but it doesn't explain why Bundesliga and Premiership clubs would not be interested. The effects of the recession on the transfer market are a much better bet for that. It's a bad time for any player to be looking for the most lucrative contract of their career right now.
If Mo Johnston spent months of negotiations trying to land a DP and makes other roster moves such as trades or placing a player who renegotiated their guarantee date on waivers to fit him in under the salary cap and it turned out the contract was only for 10 games he would deserve to be fired. I don't believe that scenario for a second.
Great article yet again, Duane. I agree, if Dichio is shown the door to make way for this move then I will be very disappointed. As much as I love DeGuzman I honestly do not feel that we are in desperate need for this type of player right now. Having said that, though, I of course will be happy to see him sporting a TFC jersey. I'm just not sure it'll change all that much - but hey, fingers crossed. See you at the Duke!
Was it that he wasn't offered a contract, or that he wasn't offered a contract that met the TFC offer?
If they let dichio go this way. My support for the team is finished.
Duane,
Kristian Jack is saying that salary needs to be cleared, but the commenters there seem to indicate much greater salary than just Dichio.
Any idea how much needs to be cleared? Any idea what players are being shopped?
The Playoff roster deadline is 10 days away, will TFC lose a starter in order to brind JdG on?
I'm curious to see what caused the Espanyol deal to fall through. Reports out of Spain was the deal was done and only needed JDG's signature.
they only need to clear about 80K -- the prorated amount of a DP cap salary, which is 400K (6 of 30 games left).
you'd think Mo would have 80K leftover on the cap ... which isn't much.
To anonymous. The Espanyol thing was ruined by 2 things. First the death of team captain, Jarque, who was a centre back meant that Espanyol now suddenly had to sign another centre back as a rpelacement as a main priority. The other problem was that Espanyol needed to get rid of Serbian player Lola who was occupying the final non EU player spot befire signing Julian, but Lola never accepted any of the forthcoming deals.
I love De Guzman, however the problem (up until tonight with Robbo and Guevara out of the line the up) isn't in the midfield. Our finishing is horrible with exception of Dichio. Plus, despite the fact that Canadian fans love him. Serioux is awful. Runs around a lot. Has some descent skills, but no sense what so ever. If yer gonna make space on the salary cap.... Serioux and Barrett are yer men. Throw Vitti in there to. Complete crap the three of them.
Anon @1:42. Yes our finishing is terrible, but we have no possession game and the service our strikers get is even worse. Robinson coughs up possession most of the time and Guevara just isn't distributing that well. They are not going to take us forward.
Top 5 in the league!!!!!!!!!
Have you lost it?
Beckham,Donovan,Blanco,Angel,Schelotto,De Rosario,Ljunberg,Monetero,C. Lopez are all better and that's just of the top of my head.
He's not even the best defensive mid in the league,Sharlie Joseph is.(the only reason he didn't have a similar European career is because MLS refused to sell him).
Julian is a fantastic player though.
As far as Dichio goes...Good riddance!.There's no way a life long second division player like him should be the "face" of our club.
Duane, I can assure you he wasn't being blackballed.
There were offers for his services in 2-3 different countries. Things just didn't work out.
-VPjr
Post a Comment