For many in Toronto, their club has played the cruelest of April Fools Day jokes. In some circles, they are calling it a blockbuster trade. But to be a blockbuster you have to exchange blockbuster players and Toronto didn’t get that in return for theirs.
If you are a Toronto fan, there is only two ways of looking at the deal bringing two young roster players from New York for all-star midfielder and team goal scoring leader De Rosario. First and not necessarily in this order; TFC is rebuilding and the Toronto brain trust has a plan. The other; ho-hum, it was bound to happen.
Toronto has a long record dumping players who coaches or management could not utilize to their potential. Some topped the all-time MLS goal scoring list, others league MVP’s. Some were laughed out of town, but all returned to former productivity wearing different strips.
To name a few, rookie Edson Buddle became a standout at LA Galaxy, Jeff Cunningham went on a scoring spree when he got to Dallas and Carlos Ruiz headed straight to Paraguay where he led Olimpia in scoring. At the end of 2009, Amado Guevara and Pablo Vitti were not asked back. Vitti went to Peru’s first division where he is rated the first division top player and Guevara captained Honduras in World Cup. And there were many others at other positions who, if they were all put together in 2011, coach Aron Winter would not be rebuilding.
But, Winter is rebuilding and as much as DDR will be missed initially, a few recent additions plus today’s acquisitions, 20 year old Cameroonian midfielder Tony Tchani and South African defender Danleigh Borman, 26, show the kind of potential the coach is looking for in his changing roster. They also fit the prescribed youth policy statement.
It is a very risky move considering the state of the Toronto Football Club. They are on very shaky ground with the fan base and a victory over Portland last week is not enough to correct any of that. Consider the instant dividends on this deal are very doubtful and folks could read another Johnston – Preki or Johnston – Carver or Johnston – Johnston style blunder into this.
The organization has played the part of fools before and it wasn’t even April.
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