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It is a period of rebuilding in TFC history. For six long seasons, the club has been in turmoil and the supporters are restless. Successive managers have taken over the club and failed to make an impact.
Kevin Payne, hired by MLSE to bring leadership and accountability to the club, has hired an unorthodox head coach in Ryan Nelsen. Payne has made successful trades for average MLS talent, signed new players, drafted two promising Canadian youngsters and struck several loan agreements for players from far, far away.
All nerdishness/Star Wars Opening Credits aside...
Kevin Payne seems to have brought a sense of cautious optimism to myself and a few of the usual pessimistic Toronto FC supporters I find myself in the company of. There seems to be a new era at the club, where the club is acting in a more responsible manner with regards to the contracts it gives out and with the way it conducts itself. The short term nature of the agreements that TFC is making appears to give TFC the ability to acquire talented players but also the time to evaluate said players for a permanent move to the club and protecting it against significant salary obligations which have hampered the club in the past.
And the way that Nelsen and Payne talk only reinforces belief that, for once, meaningful change is on its way to the club.
In short, there is a certain feeling that Payne and company will be able to negotiate the ever shifting sands of The Dune Sea Major League Soccer and overcome the Sarlaac negative stigma which haunts this team.
For the first time in a long time, there appears to be a sense of actual understanding amongst the senior club management of what needs to be done to take Toronto FC to the next level. Of course, this is not going to happen overnight and the club is almost certain to get figuratively force choked today in their match against Sporting Kansas (perhaps by my fantasy league pick of Darth Zusi).
But with acquisitions like: Danny Califf, Julio Cesar, John Bostock, Robert Earnshaw, and Hogan Ephraim (amongst others), it seems the club may be on track to restore the once Alderaanic camaraderie typical of BMO's supporters. The club may be able to rekindle the hopes and dreams of yesteryear.
Of course, I could be wrong and we could be on course for another few years of disappointment and failure. But in the imaginative world of any TFC supporter right now, there is a New Hope. A hope that we can rebuild what once was and take the club to a new level.
Doubtless, this year will be a tough one, especially the first half of it, but it certainly feels different from the past 2 or 3 years already. Maybe we will get our exhaust port moment, where the perennial underdog strikes a big victory.
Or maybe I watch too many science fiction movies.
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