How do you say goodbye?
How do you say goodbye?
Victor Vazquez' exit is another black mark in TFC's year of despair
There is a dirty little song that some fans sing about Victor Vazquez. The focus of the song is the goal that he scored late in the 2017 MLS Cup and the part of his anatomy that he propelled the ball with.
In the media reports after the game, it was described as having gone in off of his “midsection.” In reality, it was slightly lower on his body.
No one will sing about his return to TFC in 2023. A return that ended unceremoniously last week when the club announced he would not be back with the team within the body of a press release announcing multiple roster moves.
No other player being released has a naughty song. No other player released last week holds the same connection to the team’s quickly fading glory years, or is held in the same regard as Vazquez was. To release him without any real acknowledgment (the club’s Social Media team did put out a thank you, but it seemed like an afterthought and didn’t convey the level of appreciation that most fans wanted to see) seemed like a slap in the face to Vazquez and to the TFC fans that love and appreciate what he did for the club.
Whether the choice to part ways was correct from a sporting perspective — it probably was, sadly — is irrelevant. It wasn’t handled well. Nothing TFC handles of late is.
It’s another example of how TFC’s culture is broken. Actually, scratch that. Forget about culture. TFC is a club utterly lacking in class right now.
How they change that is anyone’s guess. It would probably help if the man they hired to fix things — John Herdman — could actually be seen doing something, or heard saying something. Anything. (Seriously, where are you, John?)
It’s unclear whether it’s because he doesn’t want the stain of 2023 on him, or if he’s focused on what is happening behind the scenes, but his lack of presence isn’t exactly easing the fan’s concerns about what 2024 is going to look like*.
*Not good. It’s not going to look good. However, there’s a world of difference between “spunky group of guys giving it their all and building to something” and “I kind of want the ball to hit that winger in his, um, midsection right now.”
There is time to change that, of course. Maybe Herdman is translating the lyrics of kumbaya into Italian as I type and we will be talking about his Manager of the Year award this time next year.
Now, however, no one is much interested in such hopeful projections. No, fans just want the club to be something approaching likeable again.
You know, like a club that properly says goodbye to its legends when they leave.
This space is supported by paid subscriptions. I’ve decided to gradually wind down my presence on Twitter. I’m not going to leave it completely because there are people there that I enjoy interacting with (and I will continue to link from it), but I’m going to try and save most of my thoughts for this space, rather than addressing things there. That will mean more posts here, but most posts will be slightly shorter. Like the O.G. 24thminute, which was pre-Twitter. Life is a circle, man…