After a terrible league campaign, a poor CCL, and a bad Canadian Championship we are now in the off season. GM Ali Curtis and coach Javier Perez are out and new coach and sporting director (same as GM?) bob Bradley is in. Rumours fly that both Altidore and Soteldo are on the way out. It seems that the club is in overhaul mode this off season rather than making minor tweaks. With that in mind, which players should stay? My initial thoughts are: Goalie: Keep Westburg. Bono may be better but at $482 k he is too much cap hit. I have nothing particularly against him since he's never played but replace Silva with a young Canadian from the farm system. Look for another keeper. Defense: Keep Laryea, Lawrence, Dunn, Singh, and Romeo (back from loan). Ditch the rest. Make singing two solid CBs the top off season priority. Midfield: Here I would actually keep a bunch. Keep Osorio, Bradley, Pozuelo, Priso, Okello, and Fraser (back from loan). Expect to start Osorio, Pozuelo, Priso, and Fraser and base any off season acquisitions around that expectation unless we drop a new DP in the midfield. Forward: Keep Akinola, Shaffelburg, Rutty, Nelson, and Perruzza. Maybe Achara as he doesn't cost much. We need to replace Altidore with a high scoring DP up front. We need to replace Soteldo as he clearly has no intention of being part of a team. He could be replaced with either a forward or a goal scoring midfielder. This gives us a pretty solid makeover (four starters) but keeps some continuity including retaining a lot of our promising younger talent. The game plan would be to start the two new CBs, the two new DPs, Pozuelo, and Osorio as the core. That leaves four spots for a strong supporting cast. Akinola, Fraser, and Laryea would likely take at least two of those spots with Shaffelburg and Priso also pushing hard. Laryea is obviously great but the others have shown they are ready to step in to full time roles, too. This gives us a pretty good squad even without any other off-season shoring up. It's also guys who have shown they can play as a team and is Canadian-heavy to boot. Finally, if TFC do part ways with any youngsters in the off season, I hope they try to move them rather than just release them. Even if their transfer value is "only" $200 k, why not take it? And it looks a lot better to other up and coming players if they see that the guys who didn't stick at least got sent on to somewhere like Denmark or the Belgian league B instead of just being cut loose.
Pretty good assessment. I don't think the situation is as dire as it seems. Outside of the back line, there is a pretty good core there. I don't think we ever got to see Akinola and Achara at the same time up front, one of them was always injured. I don't know if perhaps they are predisposed to be frequently injured but when healthy, they are both pretty good. The midfield is fine and I'm okay with Westburg as well. As disastrous as this season was, I see the makings of a solid team. But the back line, yikes. Lots of help needed there. To be honest, I'm perfectly fine with keeping everything the same except the back line but dumping Altidore and Soteldo's salary for either that stud CB we've been longing for or an elite striker to play with Akinola and Achara. Shaffelburg is still super-sub to me, I can't see him as a regular starter. Laryea and Lawrence are good wingback options but they need support in the middle.
With a week and a bit to go before the regular season starts, it's time for a review of the off season moves. There are still a number of players on trial with the club but right now the roster looks like: Keepers: Westburg, Bono, Ranjitsingh. Identical to last year for the two guys who will see time on the pitch. To me, that's neither great nor terrible so I guess it's okay. Defenders: Salcedo, Mavinga, Lawrence, MacNaughton, O'Neill, Petrasso, Singh. Salcedo is the obvious major upgrade. Lawrence, Mavinga, and Singh are back. We know what we're getting with the first two and we can hope that Singh matures. The rest are unknowns so it will really matter whether they are upgrades to the guys who left. We don't have any natural RBs nor anyone to replace Laryea's marauding wingback runs. I'm hoping for a stronger defense overall because we really need it. It will depend on how well these parts fit together once the action starts for real. Midfielders: Pozuelo, Osorio, Bradley, Priso, Okello, Kerr Superdraft Canadian Kerr is the only new player. This is a thin list (with the understanding that some guys listed as forwards could be listed here depending on formation) but, I think, a good one. Forwards: Akinola, Shaffelburg, Jimenez, Perruzza, Nelson, Marshall-Rutty, and Achara to start with Insigne arriving on Canada Day. This has to be considered an upgrade over an absent Altidore and deadweights like Dwyer and Mullins. Overall Comments and Thoughts: Will the defenders gel well and give us at least a mid-table number of goals against? I really hope so because we can't repeat last year on the backline. Will Insigne be another Giovinco-type super signing or another Defoe/Soteldo miss? We have a bunch of veteran leaders from around the world. Our youth are mostly Canadian. Numbers alone would suggest that this is the year TFC finally truly tries to develop young substitutes into young starters. Bradley apparently actually does this well. Obviously Akinola is there but I think Shaffelburg, Priso, and MR especially have the potential to go big while Okello, Nelson, Perruzza, and Singh could also do well. Give them a year of honest development and we'll see some legitimate MLS starters and/or valuable sales to Europe in that group. But it will take a real investment of time of the field, not more bench sitting.