The first rule of the Aron Winter rumour is that there is no Aron Winter rumour -- that's the official line from TFC, although they did use ellipsis in the e-mail they returned. "We won't be commenting today..."
This is happening. Credit should go out to the club for keeping it on the down low -- there was no hint of this hire until this morning when the Dutch press picked up on it. Although they were whispering last week that they would be doing something soon. Christmas came and went without Jürgen Klinsmann's promise being kept. Officially. However, it takes time to make an international hire and it's difficult to do things during the Holiday season (and the local media pays less attention) so a first week of January hire should appease all but the most persistent Chicken Littles that every little thing is gonna be alright.
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The MLS transfer window is still 12 days away from opening and the draft is 10 days off. Earl Cochrane and Jim Brennan were told back in November to act as if they were primarily responsible for the draft preparation anyway so the club really isn't behind. As Ives Galarcep told CSN last month, the Red Bulls operated in the early part of last off-season without a manager and it didn't hurt their re-building efforts. Toronto fans can be forgiven for being cynical -- the last three re-building plans didn't go so well -- but there is an important factor missing from the Reds' front office now. Hint: it's Scottish.
With the caveat that this isn't coming directly from the club, the structure I've heard mentioned today is as follows. Winter is being brought in as the Director of Soccer (Mo's old title), but will perform a more exhaustive role than Johnston did over the past three years (think more Alex Ferguson, less Mark McCullers). Paul Mariner will head up the coaching staff and perform a role that's less than a manager but more than an assistant (and he'll be well paid to do so). Ajax youth academy coach Bob de Klerk will be the first assistant and the current staff will be offered reassigned roles with the club (expect Danny Dichio to return to an ambassador and academy role with Nick Dasovic to possibly be put in charge of the reserve side, which will have an increased importance in 2011). Earl Cochrane will likely retain his title of General Manager, but his role will be almost entirely administrative.
As stated, the above information does not come from the club, but rather from a few sources close to the club. There is a degree of informed speculation involved.
Clearly this has the potential to be a good hire. It's not a cheap one. Whether or not it works out is next to impossible to know at this point because MLS is simply not predictable in that way. What might be a wonderful idea in another league could be a bust here. However, the inclusion of Mariner seems like a brilliant insurance policy. Getting him to come back in a role that isn't top dog was a coup and it provides Winter with MLS knowledge (from somewhere other than Toronto - i.e. successful MLS knowledge) that it can draw on first hand. That's important and it subtracts from the issue of having a MLS newbie in charge.
After a season of frustration and anger today's news represents the first bit of hope for Reds fans in a while. Hopefully for them the fifth time is the charm as TFC tries to finally live up to the potential of this market.