Herdman and TFC play the hits

How did it take this long for a John Herdman to TFC rumour to emerge?

Photo by Clay Lindner on Unsplash

When you cover John Herdman long enough, you can start to anticipate what he will say next. The man is a master of communications, but he is guilty of going back to the same playbook from time to time.

The same thing applies to MLSE. Although they are a little more subtle about how they operate, leaders in that organization tend to know how to get a story out there. That’s particularly the case if that story will distract from a situation that they’d rather not talk about.

So, when news broke this week that John Herdman was linked to the vacant TFC job my only surprise was that people were surprised by the rumour. What’s surprising is that it took this long for a story like this to get out there.

It benefits both parties too much and it’s exactly the type of strategically planted rumours that both use masterfully.

Think about it. In Herdman’s case, he’s looking to put further pressure on the CSA and, by extension, CSB to free up money for the national team to prepare for the Copa America qualifiers (i.e. the next Nations League) next spring. He knows that the CSA is in a impossible position in that it can’t afford to lose him right now.

Literally. They can’t afford a new coach. Not because they wouldn’t have interest in the position — if you think the CSA is unique in world football as it relates to disfunction I urge you to follow world football a little closer. No, the CSA would get plenty of interest in the job if Herdman left. They just don’t have any money to pay someone of stature.

My guess is that they’d have to go with a Nick Dasovic guy-who-always-steps-up-when-asked-like appointment, if the situation were to arise. Or maybe a Stephen Hart older-guy-who-loves-the-program-like appointment. Either way, it’s not going to be a guy who turns heads.

I don’t necessarily see either to be a fatal blow to the program in the short run, by the way, but it would certainly contribute to the EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE narrative that surrounds Canadian soccer right now.

But, that’s a different post. Now, let’s stay focused on the TFC rumour. If Herdman is leaning into this to put pressure on the CSA then what would TFC’s angle be?

Do you know how you can sometimes stop a baby from crying by distracting them by jiggling something shinny in front of their face?

That. Herdman’s popular. A Herdman rumour creates noise around the team that isn’t focused on the failings. If you also let a former club legend train at the club at the same time, even better. No one is arguing about who gets to drive Federico Bernardeschi to the airport today, right?

All this is to say that I don’t think there’s much to this rumour. I suspect Herdman and the CSA will come to an agreement — Herdman knows he has a good thing at the CSA. He’s never going to have the leverage he has now in any other job he were to get. He’s guaranteed to be in the next World Cup. After that, he could probably spend a career jumping between national teams, or he could set-up shop here in Canada doing some sort of leadership consulting thing.

He’s sitting on a goldmine and he’d be crazy to jump ship into the chaos that is MLSE and TFC right now. There, he’s have next to no job security and there are serious questions about whether his style of coaching would work on a day to day basis.

We shouldn’t discount that he might be successful at the club level, but there’s a learning curve there and managing the worst team in MLS at the moment probably isn’t where to learn it.

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