TFC, winners of just one game of the last 24 played in MLS, have added another piece. Joining the Reds on loan is Tal Ben Haim. As with all of Kevin Payne's recent signings, Ben Haim will be on loan. In his case until the end of June.
Coming off a year where he made just six appearances, Ben Haim is clearly battling for a contract. Payne appears to have confidence that he'll gain one.
"Tal Ben Haim has been one of the top defenders in the EPL for nearly a decade," Payne said in a release.
Well, then.
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With that absurd statement, TFC fans finally have a legitimate debate on their hands: Is it the most insane thing ever said by a TFC official, or is Paul Mariner's "greatest finisher of the modern era" description of Andrew Wiedeman still the frontrunner.
Reds fans desperate for a saviour have mostly given Payne a free pass up to now, despite the former DC United managers love of hyperbole. To use a cliche, the honeymoon might have ended with this. Fans can understand that signing players isn't a science. Some don't work out. However, being treated like we're stupid is not good way to ingratiate yourself to an increasingly bitter fan base.
Telling us that Tal Ben Haim has been one of the best defenders in the EPL for the last decade is to assume that we are know-nothing rubes that don't understand the sport.
It's insulting enough to make one point out other things that Payne has said. Like, say, when he told us that "(TFC wasn't) interested in 33-year-old halfway over the hill EPL players."
I suppose Ben Haim is only 31.
In that case, we won't point out that the last team Payne built is the only team in MLS currently worse than TFC and that club had missed the playoffs in four of the last five years he was in charge, finishing last overall in 2010.
We won't even express our concern that maybe Payne actual thinks that Ben Haim has been one of the best defenders in the EPL for the past decade. That would be far too terrifying to consider.