"Wheeler dealer". Not only did Kevin Payne grab Harry Redknapp's best defender as his next manager but he may have also stolen his nickname. After TFC's performance at today's SuperDraft, he may just have a case.
The team that 24 hours ago had the 1st and 3rd picks ended up (take a breath now...) flipping the # 1 pick to New England for allocation money and the Revs # 4 pick, taking a local boy with the # 3 pick, flipping the # 4 pick to Vancouver for their # 10 pick and allocation money, flipping the # 10 pick to Seattle for their # 16 pick and likely mo' money before taking another local boy at # 16. Mic drop.
The wacky day in Indianapolis went like so...
- Don Garber, who refused to dress like supervillain General Zod at his own SuperDraft, had a pre-draft speech that ran for approximately 8 1/2 hours.
- New England used the # 1 pick formerly known as TFC's pick to select defender Andrew Farrell.
- Chivas USA continued their "new" plan to banish all non-Latinos to anywhere else and selected midfielder Carlos Alvarez.
- Then... after spending the night telling local media that this player was likely too small and slow for MLS, Kevin Payne selected Oakville native Kyle Bekker with the # 3 pick. The 905 rejoiced. The Bekker family immediately started putting Kyle's furniture back in his room and the player himself downloaded the Go Transit schedule onto his phone. The box-to-box midfielder impressed greatly at the Combines and was a surprise # 3 pick but one with a big upside and a built-in fan base. No word if a Presto Card will be included in his contract.
- With their next pick, TFC took... a five minute timeout... then announced that the # 4 pick was going to Vancouver who took young Gambian Kekuta Manneh. TFC took their money and the 10th pick.
- After waiting through those other teams and their highly uninteresting picks TFC prepared for its # 10 pick by... having Seattle call a time-out. Whaaaaaa? Yes, The Reds flipped again and gave Sounders the # 10 (which they used on Eriq Zavaleta) took their # 16 and likely took mo' Cascadia moneys.
- Finally, just when you thought TFC couldn't get any more allocation money... they didn't. But they did shore up the lucrative 905 area code market by grabbing Mississauga native and Oregon State forward Emery Welshman.
- Then Kevin Payne rolled around in a pile of money like Demi Moore for an hour.
The way things are going, there could be more to this day (which we will update below) but that was definitely TFC's most ambitious draft in their history. Kevin Payne grabs allocation money to fund imminent signings, shuts down criticism of anyone worried about the club's "Canadian" direction and seemingly took advantage of other teams panicking on the draft floor. How this all turns out? Only time tells at drafts but it sure was interesting to have TFC as the puppet masters at today's proceeding rather than passive ball-watchers. The biggest news for The Reds won't really be what happened today - but what they do with what they collected today.
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