Toronto FC general manager Mo Johnston has made few moves in the off-season. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
Soccer: John F. Molinaro
What is Mo Johnston waiting for?
Last Updated Friday, March 14, 2008
by John F. Molinaro, CBC Sports
If silence can be deafening, then Toronto FC's lack of off-season moves must sound like a full orchestral performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Major League Soccer's regular season kicks off in just over two weeks, but you wouldn't know it by the actions of Toronto general manager Mo Johnston, the man with the conductor's baton in his hand.
To refresh your memory, Toronto FC, without question a huge success off the field in 2007, was an abysmal failure on the field during its inaugural MLS campaign.
The team finished dead last in the 13-team league, scored the fewest goals (25), sported the worst defence (49 goals against), and set a new benchmark for futility when it went 824 consecutive minutes without scoring a goal, obliterating the old league record (557 minutes) in the process.
The team was, after all, an expansion franchise at the time, so its meagre performance was hardly surprising and could be forgiven, especially after Johnston, who also served as the team's coach during its first season, promised the club's faithful fans he would bring in new players to strengthen the roster for the 2008 campaign.Worst record in MLS in 2007
We're now 15 days away from the start of the season and Johnston has made only two moves - he traded veteran midfielder Ronnie O'Brien to the San Jose Earthquakes (for a first round pick in the 2009 draft and allocation money), and he acquired Canadian midfielder Kevin Harmse from the Los Angeles Galaxy for a fourth-round pick.
The Toronto GM said that trading away O'Brien, who struggled through an injury-prone 2007 season due to knee problems, left the club with $450,000 worth of salary cap space and that the available money would go towards signing new players for the upcoming campaign.
But the Scotsman hasn't delivered on that promise yet.
Scouting trips by Johnston to Europe and South America haven't resulted in a single roster addition. Several players were brought into the team's training camp on a trial basis the past two months, most notably Dutch winger Kiki Musampa, but thus far Johnston hasn't signed any of them.
Cash to spend
Toronto FC needs to be re-tooled if it has any chance of being competitive this season. Completely rebuilding the team into a championship contender is an unreasonable expectation to have, but most fans and pundits agree the club needs a few new players to at least get the ball rolling.
Johnston doesn't seem to agree, and his lack of urgency in this matter is worrisome for two reasons.
For one thing, the $450,000 surplus that he is sitting on is dedicated to player payroll - it's not as if the money it will go into the coffers of MLSE if he doesn't spend it - so it makes you wonder what, exactly, is he waiting for to make a move?
What's more, John Carver was hired as the team's new coach in February so that Johnston could focus entirely on player procurement, instead of splitting his time between coaching and his GM duties like he did last season.
It's hard to believe in that time he couldn't find one quality player, unearth one diamond in the rough, discover one promising youngster, or stumble upon one seasoned veteran that was available, would not cost too much money, and would be a valuable addition to a team that only won six of 30 games last season.
Johnston, to his credit, has always maintained that he's interested in the long-term, in building the club slowly so as to ensure it has a strong future.
Building for the future
While some would have liked to have seen him get a player who could help him this season as part of t he O'Brien trade, Johnston pulled off a shrewd move in getting San Jose's first-round pick in 2009. The expansion Earthquakes will likely be the worst team in MLS this season, which means Toronto could be sitting on the No. 2 pick in the draft (the top selection will go to the new Seattle franchise set to join the league next year).
Drafting is one of Johnston's strengths. In 2007, he used the No. 1 overall pick to select Maurice Edu, and the Maryland midfielder went on to win the MLS rookie of the year award. The year before, when Johnston was with New York, he took defender Marvell Wynne (now a regular starter with Toronto) first overall and then picked American forward Jozy Altidore in the second round. The teenager has since established himself as one of the brightest young stars in the league and has garnered interest from several big European clubs, including Real Madrid.
Johnston's refusal to mortgage the future just so Toronto FC can enjoy short-term success is commendable, but the problem is he still has to put a team on the field this season, one that must be competitive and be better than last year's side, so as not to give the impression that the club is taking for granted the 21,000 fans who pack BMO Field for every home game.
The curtain is about to go up on the MLS season, and if Johnston's orchestra is still out of tune when it does, it'll only be a matter of time before it is drowned out by a chorus of catcalls from the peanut gallery.
John F. Molinaro is a reporter for CBCSports.ca whose chief love is international soccer. Contact John here.
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