Learning to love average

TFC's transfer window was a bit of a dud, but that's OK

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash

Sorry for the time between articles. I was in Ireland, Wales and England. It was delightful. Thanks for asking.

So the Spring Transfer Window for MLS has come and gone and TFC was… underwhelming. Despite Jason Hernandez telling reporters that TFC was close to bringing in a regular starter, the club pretty much stayed still.

This caused TFC fans to, well, get a little stabby. Why tell us you are going to do something when you weren’t sure you could get it done, was the tl;dr of the thing. Fair enough — the club really does need to just shut up sometimes — but was it a bad thing that nothing* got done?

*much. More on that in the notes

Nah, not really. I know this isn’t much of a hot take here, but with 13 points on the board and some key players coming back soon things aren’t really that bad down there in Liberty Village. It’s going much, much better than most people expected, actually.

This team is average. It’s a nice big bowl of vanilla, actually.

But, that’s a good thing. Also good is some patience in the re-build. Panic additions are what TFC circa 2007-2014 did. Making a splash for the sake of it was the drug of choice in the 2021-2023 return-to-crap period.

Of course, during the glory years, everything they touched turned to gold. So, it’s understandable that fans may wish that they just do that again. That’s not realistic, however. So, let’s aim for average and go from there, shall we?

The thing is TFC has arguably never been average, so it does feel weird to be there now. However, in this era of MLS, it’s unlikely that you can bypass the middle stage to get to the top like TFC did in 2015 — the big splash DP signing only works when it’s a Giovinco or a Messi now (Yes, I just compared Seba with Messi. In a MLS context, he’s comparable).

What you need to do now is to take advantage of all the different ways to get better in MLS smartly and sensibly. I have some confidence that the club understands this and that’s why they bit the bullet and didn’t force a signing over the line this week.

Another thing they seem to understand is that there are new roster rules coming in for the summer (likely to let Miami do something, yes, but you can still take advantage of them). Specifically, the league will allow clubs with three DPs to sign the full amount of u-22 initiative (i.e. Young Money) players. That should open the door for TFC to bring in a younger player this summer. I’m betting the player they were looking to bring in now fits the bill here and that talks are continuing. There’s no rush, as I said, because they have 13 points and are fine. Right there in the middle of the bloated playoff picture.

Another new rule that’s coming is that the league is going to allow a second club buyout. That means that clubs with owners who are willing to eat a contract can rid themselves of some cap burden from an underperforming player. It’s another move that TFC will likely make and one that could allow for a minor move to booster the depth.

Possibly related: A quick read of who Ayo Akinola follows on Instagram today teaches us two things — 1) that the man needs a cold shower and 2) that he no longer follows TFC. Take that for what you will.

None of this is as exciting as a new toy, of course, but it is all sensible and the right choice for right now.

Because sometimes what you need is a nice vanilla milkshake.

Notes: The one move that did get done was Derrick Etienne Jr. coming in for about $250,000 from Atlanta.

He was a bust there, but he was on a huge contract and was purchased for a figure that demanded production. The expectations in Toronto will be that he fits the system as a MLS-level guy. More vanilla.

He is capable of that and, in fact, might prove to be a good piece in the press John Herdman is looking to play. Additionally, he is a bit broken and we all know how johnherdman likes to fix players.

So, all things considered, it’s a decent, low-risk move. It might even prove to be a cherry on top of that delightful vanilla milkshake that is 2024 TFC.