Editorial: Time to end kid gloves for TFC

Most parents will tell you that if you coddle a child for too long then they will end up spoiled. Now it's unsure how long "childhood" lasts for your average MLS club but three years seems to be at least "young adult". Why then, is Toronto FC being treated so gingerly by most observers - both on the inside and the outside of the club? The second half of the 2009 season has been truly awful. Yes, there has been the good news of Julian De Guzman's signing and the faint smell of real grass in the air, but on the field, this team's position in the table has only been saved by the mediocrity of the teams around them. The difference between TFC and the other clubs however is that the others are not using tired excuses like being a "young" club but rather calling it like it is - "a bad season".

There are some very glaring weaknesses that The Reds have shown since their first season which most supporters would have expected to be long gone by late season 2009 but have nonetheless remained. Production from TFC strikers is as impotent as it was on day one in 2007 with no signs of improvement, especially with the stubborn inclusion of Chad Barrett and the misuse of Ali Gerba. The other major roadblock to improvement is the shocking lack of production on the road. After last week's loss to Galaxy, the club's recent road tally was 1 point out of a possible 12. It was after that game that the "kid glove" treatment of the team reached maddening new levels. There were absurd comments from manager Chris Cummins that TFC "dominated" the play but were beaten by some bad luck. Apart from the TFC staff, the broadcast team on Rogers Sportsnet called the loss "a good effort" despite the 2-0 scoreline and lack of good Toronto scoring chances. The running corporate line throughout the season from Mo Johnston and MLSE is that they are "building something special" in the long-term, but near the end of three seasons the excuse of being a “young team” surely has to end now.

This mythology was further propelled this week by the team's star Dwayne De Rosario who appeared on SUN TV's "The Grill Room". When asked about the season's lacklustre results the "only a third year team" line was trotted out by the Scarberian. The fact that De Ro said his decision to come to TFC was "the right move at the time" was unfortunately not probed further but his body language of late and the sheepish answers from most other Toronto players seems to illuminate a lack of real answers. The new DP Julian De Guzman has said the right things such as the "playoffs are now" for TFC but surely there must be unhappiness in the dressing room that a playoff struggle is the best this club could achieve. Bluntly put, three years is enough time for any club with the financial prowess of TFC, in any league, to build a winner. It is not too much for Toronto supporters to expect more than a "squeaky bum time" (thanks to Sir Alex Ferguson) win in the Canadian Championship and a humiliating crash out of Champions League. While it is true there are some positive moves for next year, the time for "young club" excuses is over. There should be no fear from inside or outside of the club to call a spade a spade and simply say "this has been a bad season". A bad year is not the end of the world but propelling weak excuses from one year to the next must end before we start hearing about the woes of "only a fourth year club".