Burning down the house
It's time for some addition by subtraction
When the Leagues Cup schedule was announced in the winter, many people in Toronto were worried about what it might mean for the club’s momentum.
The thinking was that, driven by the strong play of the attacking Italian DPs, that the Reds would once again be fighting for the top of MLS’ Eastern Conference and that the long break to play a tournament that few in Toronto understood would cause the team get lost in the noise of a Blue Jays pennant chase, the World Cup and Leafs/Raptors off-season moves.
Now that the break is here, we can confirm that TFC is lost. However, it’s not the noise of a strong but frustrating Blue Jays campaign, the World Cup or Leafs/Raptors off-season moves that has Toronto tuning out of the Reds.
No, it’s that TFC isn’t worth watching. Not only are they losing, but they are losing in a passionless, directionless and, at times, effortless way. So, really, it’s good that the club is likely to only play one home game over the next month and a bit.
The fans that are still paying attention could use the break.
It’s also an opportunity to play a little game of addition-by-subtraction. We saw some of that today with the news that Ayo Akinola has been loaned to San Jose for the duration of the season in exchange for an international spot. San Jose has an option to buy him at the end of the loan.
Even if that doesn’t happen, you can safely assume that Ayo’s time with TFC has come to an end. It’s long been suggested that he wasn’t happy here and he has clearly not performed since returning from his knee injury. It’s hard to be upset at the player for the lack of production when you can draw as clean a line from before and after an injury, but it’s clear. He has not been good enough and his inability to produce up top is a significant factor in TFC’s struggles.
So, you wish him well and you move on.
The move comes at a time when TFC does appear to be cleaning house and is on the heels of a reported training ground screaming match between interim coach Terry Dunfield and, well, all of the players. It was a one-sided exchange, by all accounts. Dunfield told the players that they should put up or piss off, basically. He suggested that anyone that wanted to leave was free to “talk to Jason.”
That would be GM Jason Hernandez.
We don’t know if there is a direct line from that suggestion to Ayo heading to the Bay, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to think there is at least some connection to this move, as well as to other rumours of players on the way out.
Let’s be fair. There are some legitimate reasons why a player might ask his way out. Take Matt Hedges, who is being linked to Austin for a $500,000 sale. He was brought in under the guise that he might get to chase a MLS Cup here. That’s not happening and he’s not getting any younger.
So, you move him. You need to do right by him, otherwise the next free agent conversation you have might not last long.
As for some of the others…well, you know what they say about sinking ships. There was a significant amount of players that were involved in a mutiny to rid the team of Bob Bradley. Those players have hardly stepped up since he was shown the door.
The thinking is that Dunfield’s tirade was mostly directed at that group of players. Chief among them being the Italians.
TFC’s problems start and finish with its two high-priced and big name (well, one of them, anyway) DPs. They have been AWOL this year, outside of causing divides in the dressing room and leaking stories to The Athletic.
In Insigne’s case, he’s literally been AWOL — he’s only played in roughly half of TFC’s games since signing and has had a mysterious calf “injury” for weeks now. The scuttlebutt is that he likely has one foot out the door and all parties are being careful to make sure that a potential move to the Middle East does not fall through.
Moving Insigne will have a impact on ticket sales. I’m not sure the long-time TFC fans will miss the fans (?) who arrived with him, but there is no doubt that it will require some leadership at the top to cut ties this quickly. It needs to happen though. TFC is not going to win with a guy that barely plays and is so inconsistently producing when he does.
As for the other guy, he’s mostly only been AWOL in a symbolic way. Outside of the occasional flashy play — the Olympico against Miami comes to mind — he’s simply not producing. I anticipate that I might get pushback for suggesting that Federico Bernardeschi hasn’t been good, so I’ll go a step further.
He’s been bad. He is objectively making TFC worse.
This is the fourth highest player in the league and, according to Whoscored, he only ranks in the top 10 in one statistical category: Dispossessed.
To be clear, that’s him that’s losing the ball. He has been dispossessed the 9th most of any player in MLS this year. He’s 17th in bad touches too!
Overall, Bernardeschi has the 171st best Whoscored rating in the league. That’s between Dario Zuparic and Duncan McGuire, in case you were curious.
Yeah.
Today, Bernardeschi was quoted that he wanted to stay in Toronto and fight to turn things around.
For the sake of TFC’s future, let’s hope he was lying.
This really is rock bottom. Even in the bad old days, I don't recall that there was an attempt by the players to have the coach removed. Discontent, no doubt; but not overthrow.