CBC-Sports

Was honesty the best policy?

April 26, 2009 04:05 PM | Posted by   Nigel Reed  

It was little more than a month ago when I asked John Carver the following question: “What have you learned in the last twelve months that will help you manage this team better?”

The response was typically rapid and forthright: “I’ve learned that the [MLS] is not as easy as everybody makes it out to be...” he began.

Prophetic? Perhaps. Honest? As the day is long – and in the end maybe a little too honest for his own good.

In the presence of John Carver you always knew exactly where you stood and precisely what he thought. To the best of my knowledge he treated everyone in that familiar, no-nonsense fashion whether it was media, fans, players or employers.

To some, shall we say more sensitive North American ears, he could come across as brash, but it’s simply the Geordie way.

Why beat around the bush when you can call a spade a spade?

Product of culture

Carver is a product of his native culture: proud, passionate, fiercely loyal, and always ready to stand his ground and fight his corner to the last.

He would be your first pick when choosing the team for the debating society, and perhaps your last if you were searching for a suitable candidate to join the diplomatic corp.

Wearing your heart on your sleeve is all very well but in Carver’s position he was walking a disciplinary tightrope on a game to game basis.

Ironically, he’d made a commitment to himself to ‘put a lid’ on it in his second year as head coach of Toronto FC. He would, and did, count to ten and he would not criticize match officials. Not until that fateful night in Dallas.

Thereafter the writing was on the wall.

Carver was rightly fined by Major League Soccer for his comments about the referee’s performance, but clearly felt he did not get the backing of his own management in the aftermath.

Mysterious absence

Combine that with his mysterious absence from the bench the following game, coupled with his simmering dispute with the league over his refusal to open Friday practice to the media and one thing became clear:

This was not going to end well.

Pride comes before a fall, they say, and ultimately Carver fell on his own sword rather than allow his intrinsic values to be compromised.

All of which leaves Toronto FC searching for its third head coach in as many years, and the likelihood of facing a season full of uncertainty and potential underachievement.

Players are paid to play, pure and simple. But Carver’s departure will have a knock-on effect. A new coach with new ideas equals a new and blank sheet of paper from the players’ perspective.

Some will view the change with suspicion. Others will see it as an opportunity. Soccer is a team game composed of 11 individuals at any one time. Carver’s methods might not have suited everyone, but at least he brought continuity into the third year of the franchise.

Strength through stability is a key ingredient for any successful team. That collective strength is currently under threat and it is incumbent upon Jim Brennan and his teammates to demonstrate they are mentally tough enough to navigate a path through choppy waters.

When, in 2017, someone writes: “Toronto FC: the First Ten Years,” history may chronicle Carver as a failure.

With 11 wins in 36 games, topped off with an inability to win the first Canadian club championship, is hardly a glowing resume after all. But before the book goes to print, the author should also note no-one wanted success more than John Carver.

Whatever his players did or did not do, Carver always knew and accepted the buck stopped at his door. Until the day he locked the door behind him and handed over the keys to the new tenant.

Major League Soccer may not see his like again -- a scenario which will suit the suits in New York to whom Carver was a loose cannon.

The bug gun has fallen silent but peace has its price. The Passion Play is over.

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