Aron Winter is hard to read at the best of times. As a European man who has spent most of his life in a far different football environment than you find here in North America, he often seems slightly bewildered by what he is expected to deal with.
This is especially the case with the media. In Europe, the players are protected from the prying eyes of the unkempt fourth estate. Access is granted reluctantly and rarely. The manager does the talking, but it’s on his terms – throw the bums a few quotes; they’ll make it all up anyway.
So, imagine his confusion here when he suddenly has to talk to every Tom, Dick and Blogger with a pulse. The early season dispute about dressing room access aside, he’s generally good natured about it all – he was in the habit of shaking reporter's hands in pre-season – but he’s developed an effective strategy.
He says nothing. Ever. Forget clichés, Winter doesn’t even really go that far. Instead, he sort of gives a different variation of the same response over and over again.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]“What did you think of Julian de Guzman’s play?”
“Julian is a good player, yes, and he’s played alright, but we all need to be better.”
Do you think the club can make the playoffs?”
The playoffs are always a goal, of course, and we’re making improvements, but we all need to be better.”
“Would you like to shoot the referee dead?”
It’s important that we play better so the referee doesn’t influence our improvements.
You get the idea.
So, don’t take too much from the article that appeared yesterday that seemed to suggest that Winter would view a non-playoff year in 2012 as, possibly, successful. He didn’t exactly say that, although that was the headline that was used on the article and the conclusion the writer seemed to draw.
"The most important thing is that we are making the right steps. When we get started in 2012, we're going to continue how we finished the end of the season.”
Translated: we’re doing better; need to improve still. It’s the same message as always.
However, if you listen to Winter long enough you can sometimes draw a more complete conclusion. The truth is, he’s had a consistent, if vaguely worded, goal since he arrived almost a year ago.
Winter has a three year contract. He talks a lot about that three year period – not in an infamous Mo Johnston 5-year-plan way, but rather in a matter of fact this-is-what-is-expected-of-me fashion. So, when he says making the playoffs in 2012 isn’t the goal, he’s being sincere. It isn’t – not exactly, anyway.
The goal of Winter and TFC is to be a realistic championship contender by the end of 2013. They aren’t naive enough to not understand that winning a title requires a significant amount of luck on top of good planning. So, you’ll never hear them say they will win it all with certainty. But, they are working towards the goal of making TFC a year in, year out contender within that three year time frame.
Winter won’t view his job done, nor failed, until the end of that timeframe. So, it’s possible that the club could miss the playoffs next year and, in his mind, still be on track.
He also likely knows all hell will break loose if that happens. It’s unclear if he cares though. To him, it’s all about the plan. The playoffs are not an end goal. Clearly, they need to make the playoffs to win a title.
The other thing that comes through when you follow Winter over a long time is a lack of desperation. It appears that he does not believe that his job is in question – not until the three years are up, anyway.
What's not clear is whether TFC fans understand any of this, or whether they’ll accept improvement in 2012 without an identifiable payoff.
It seems unlikely.
But, should they?