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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

A sudden blast of Winter

Odd man out

The man could always "pity" a disappointing result while managing TFC but apparently he can't pity the fools he claims are now in charge. A day after being repeatedly thrown under a transatlantic bus by Paul Mariner and Earl Cochrane, former TFC bench boss Aron Winter spoke to Sportsnet's John Molinaro (here) to give a glimpse into his side of things.
 
While the Dutchman had no negatives to say about the club, the city or even MLSE and Tom Anselmi he was about as charitable with Mariner and Cochrane as they crassly were with him at yesterday's end of season press conference. "…those guys aren't good enough. I don't think they can do good things for the club" said Winter who claims his sudden break in silence is over genuine concern for the club's future.
 
The former boss also threw down a gauntlet of sorts to the shockingly over-confident Mariner & Co. by adding "If they think they're so great, let's see them do it. But I don't think they're good enough. They don't have quality,". This of course less than 24 hours after Paul Mariner gruffly announced to the gathered media "I'm very good at what I do."
 
Opinion will be split over this latest exchange. Sadly, TFC supporters' and observers' feelings on the Mariner vs. Winter front have become as hard-lined as American Democrat vs. Republican election banter. Lots of shouting involved but very little listening. Those who think Winter deserved more time and feel his plan was being sabotaged will find vindication while Mariner backers will see this as nothing more than a bitter failed manager trying to save his reputation.
 
One thing every TFC supporter should agree upon is that it is a crying shame that yet another managerial regime has ended under a mysterious cloud of supposed backroom subterfuge. In the grand tradition of John Carver, Chris Cummins and well... anyone in a TFC coaching capacity - this is once again an ugly stain on Toronto's reputation. One that prospective manager's of the future will long keep in mind. Whichever side of this argument you tend to side with - you have to agree that this is not good for this already wounded club.


4 comments:

  1. Personally I am what you call a "mariner backer" - I think he will do a better job than Winter could in the MLS. But I agree 100% with you that the fact that this keeps happening with every ex coach and player isn't a coincedence. I hope Mariner will fix it but there is bad vibes always at TFC.
    Thanks for the article and link

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  2. Worst vibes ever with Mariner in charge. It absolutely stuns me that anyone could still back Mariner at this point. Bloody bizarre.

    When Mariner said "I'm very good at what I do", he wasn't referring to being a football coach. He was referring to being a con artist.

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  3. It's a sad state of affairs at ol' TFC. At this point I think any Coach, Manadger or pesident coming to TFC would have to be out of their heads. What self respecting person would want to be apart of this. Every last thing about TFC is just down right bizzare! The fact that this club even runs is surprizing to me.

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  4. I'm a neutral. I see most of the issues people have with Mariner and a few more (i.e. how unhealthy was Henry that he couldn't beat out Jeremy Hall at RB?). I think Cochrane is a clown probably linked with the Barry MacLean player acquisition era as well as some other poor signings when he was the interim GM that Winter wisely nullified, such as Andrew Ornoch (horribly overrated player, based on a couple of Olympic qualifying matches four years ago), Eddy Sidra (overrated based on a 20 minute sub experience in a B list friendly in Venezuela, out of pro football now), Bas Ent (who?), and others.

    However, Winter was unable to solve the CB situation, overrating the ability of Harden and getting sold a huge bill of goods with Aceval, after having a full off season to deal with it. I truly believe that his success was premised on the arrival of Frings and Koevermans, and when the German went down and the Dutchman was fat and out of form, the team was shits for the most part. I liked the effort they put in vs Santos Laguna for one and a half games, but lucked out with playing teams in shitty form in Montreal and Vancouver for the Vees Cup and then a defensively challenged Galaxy.

    You can't go 0-0-9 (0-0-5 at home) and keep your job. He had to go. Mariner's done nothing but spin stories to save his bacon (though I think signing O'Dea is a step in the right direction) and really should be gone as well.

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