Paul Mariner made a brief appearance on Soccer Central Saturday, talking about what has happened so far in his preparation for 2013.
And it is Mariner that will be preparing for 2013. As reported by CSN 6-weeks ago, Mariner confirmed that he will be back in charge of TFC next year.
“Unfortunately for some yes, I will be back,” he told Sportsnet’s Gerry Dobson and Craig Forest. “I’m delighted to be.”
He indicated that he looked at “several” players over the past couple weeks while scouting in Europe. Specifically he indicated that he was in Scandinavia and Cyprus.
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Scandinavia makes sense. MLS-level players have typically moved back and forth between MLS and the northern Scandinavian leagues. It’s possible that Mariner could have been looking at former MLS players looking to return to the league, as Toronto holds the first allocation selection.
It was suggested to CSN during the summer window that the Reds were offered a second Swedish defender while they were chasing Olof Mellberg. He was described as being younger than Mellberg but not an international. Unfortunately, TFC by-passed the player as they felt they could not afford both him and Mellberg.
As all know the Mellberg signing fell through and it was too late to go back to Sweden for the second defender. Perhaps they are now?
The Cyprus scouting is bound to raise some eyebrows – although there are a couple Canadians: Mike Klukowski and Issey Nakajima-Farran -- playing there right now and APOEL did make a Champions League run last year.