Mo Johnston has always been a polarizing figure amongst TFC fans. Some have put their trust in the controversial and charismatic Scotsman and believe that he is a brilliant football mind that has a clear plan to take TFC to a championship. Others pretty much think he's the devil and the reason why Toronto will never be competitive, let alone a championship team.
Those that support Mo, often point to the addition of popular Canadian players like Dwayne De Rosario and Julian de Guzman as evidence of the good things that he has done this year. They even give him credit for getting grass to BMO next year.
Although I agree that Mo brought in pretty much the fan's whole wish list this year (and got rid of the fan's shit list too). I've often joked that it was like the Red Patch Boys’ forum was the team's GM.
I've never said that's a good thing though.
TFC still doesn't have a dominating centreback.
It still doesn't have a consistent scorer.
It's tight up against the cap, and running out of allocation.
The Reds still don't have anyone that can play on the wing.
Those are serious shortcomings in the make-up of the team that can't be overlooked and they have little to do with coaching. The reason I'm not in the long line of people looking to chop Chris Cummins head off is that I have little trust that anyone better will be brought in and, if that's the case, change for the sake of it accomplishes little.
Positively, Paul Beirne and the business team continue to do a great job. Adding the Fan 590 radio contract this year increased the team's profile tremendously and the addition of GolTV was also a nice piece of work for the same reasons (as much as the journalist in me cringes at some of the programming on there).
The grass file, especially, was the big win this year. But, to bring it back to the topic at hand, that had nothing to do with Johnston. No, that's the power of those suits that so often get derided.
Since year one I've been uncomfortable with Mo. His inability to attract decent domestic talent and overreliance on obtaining additional international slots, while lobbying MLS to take pity on Toronto and reduce the domestic requirement, put us behind the 'ole eight ball right away. Although we all remember 2007 fondly -- it was a blast in the stands -- the reality is that TFC did nothing but spin its wheels (how's that for two clichés in one paragraph. My j-school writing Profs would be proud...).
Here's a list to consider:
Eddie Gaven, Andy Gruenebaum, Frankie Hejduk, William Hesmer, Chad Marshall, Adam Moffat, Alejandro Moreno, Danny O'Rourke, Duncan Oughton, Robbie Rogers, Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Jed Zayner.
That would be the 14 players from the 2007 Columbus Crew, winners of 37 points and missers of the playoffs, which remain on the current Crew squad, defenders of MLS Cup championships and makers of CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals.
Toronto?
Jimmy Brennan, half a season of Danny Dichio, Carl Robinson and Marvell Wynne.
Three and a half men - one more than the TV show and, stunningly, not as funny.
It all starts with that first season. TFC started horribly and has never really recovered. Although the domestic talent has been increased it was likely no coincidence that started about the time it became clear than Vancouver and/or Montreal were coming into the league (Like the married man who suddenly decides to trim his nose hair after seeing his wife flirt with her personal trainer, a little bit of fear went a long way to inspiring action on the domestic front). So, Mo doesn't get a lot of credit in my mind for doing what was painful obvious (and what some of us were screaming from the hilltops about from the get-go). There is also the question on whether he's brought in the right Canadian talent. Why is Will Johnson -- a guy that could address that wing problem TFC has -- in Salt Lake? Andrew Hainault started 19 games for Houston this year. Doesn't Toronto have some problems at the back? What, Dejan Jakovic is Canadian too??? Good God this gets worse.
Others will say this with a little more profanity than I will, but in the end the message is the same. After three years it's clear. If Toronto wants to become a championship contending team in this league than one thing needs to happen first.
Mo must go.
Part I of V of the season review:
Part I - Mo Johnston and management
Part II - What went right on the pitch?
Part III - What went wrong on the pitch?
Part IV - Player's report card
Part V - What needs to happen?
Monday, October 26, 2009
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9 comments:
I think your wrong You need to go back and look at what Sigi did when he first became coach and how many players are still with the team now. There were problems in the locker room, like what are being talked about with TFC. You need a coach that will have respect of the players and that won't take crap from players and you need to get rid of players that are cancerous in the locker room. I think that TFC needs to go after a former player like Salt Lake, Columbus and Chivas.
I think TFC should go after people like Dave Sarachan asst to Bruce Arena. I still don't understand how you guys let the Asst. to the Revs get away.
I was also wondering do you guys have a Technical Director that his sole job is to look for new prospects?
Sometimes the team a player is already under contract to has a say in where he plays - were good offers made for Will Johnson and Haineault and Jakovic? Toronto doesn't always get whatever it asks for, does it?
And, like the previous commentor says, why start with 2007 for Columbus just because that's the year TFC started?
Really, the problems with TFC are the same that every other Toronto team has. It would be great if getting rid of one guy would fix it, but that may dreaming.
Great nose hair simile.
Duane, I hate to quibble but Gabe Gala and Nana Attakora are 2007 players that are still around today. So that's 5.5 from 2007.
Gala and Attakora were development players in '07, but fair enough.
Johnston had a chance to grab Johnson and declined. And I have a hard time believing that both Haineault and Jakovic shouldn't have been on TFC's radar before anyone else’s...
umm... thank god you guys didn't get dejan jakovic or DCU's defense would've been worse the the galaxy's last year.
Good god I agree with Duane! Bang on.
Duane, I have to disagree. The first problem was the turf-the reason we lost out on Ronnie O'Brian, which ended up being a fantastic trade...no idea what has happened to him after being released by San Jose. Frankly, no one wanted to come here because we played on turf. Second problem was the high turnover, as you have eluded too, not entirely Mo's fault either as we had some pretty bad players before. Finally Mo said there was a five year plan in place. We are in year 3, two more years, then we can have Mo's head...although he needs to bring in an experienced coach!
i think the high turnover could have been avoided with a proper coach in place. guys like Cunningham and Marshall have flourished under better coaches. We keep having this mentality that bringing in a new player will always help solve a problem... but a good MLS coach would likely make these players work better together. Who knows, in a proper system Rohan Ricketts might have flourished instead of having to be released. Mojo can get the talent but his achilles heel is coaching to make the best of his signings.
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