By Mike Crampton
In light of Toronto making the Eric Hassli to Dallas trade official today there will be many that will question the decision of Paul Mariner and Earl Cochrane to trigger the option in Hassli’s contract days before Kevin Payne arrived in Toronto.
Payne seemed to try and separate himself from the decision in answering a question from Gerry Dobson last week. Asked if he was informed of the decision, Payne practically winked at Dobson -- how silly you’d think I’d be involved in their screw-ups.
His answer speaks to the defining narrative – that everything to do with Hassli’s time in Toronto was a disaster and that under Payne the option never would have been triggered.
Except here's the thing the discussion boards, most commenter’s on the CSN and other blogs, and too much of the TFC Twitterverse can't understand:
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
If TFC got literally ANYTHING in return for Hassli then the "idiot" who activated Hassli's option had left TFC in a better position than if they'd let him walk for NOTHING.
It's MATH:
ANYTHING > NOTHING
Seriously. A 2nd round 2016 SuperDraft pick. An international slot. A bottle of Brek Shea's leftover peroxide.
ANYTHING in return is better than letting Hassli leave on a free in the fall of 2012.
Today, TFC received a conditional draft pick that might even end up being better than the one they gave up to get him.
Criticize the original decision to trade for him if you want. (I still think it was a completely reasonable deal that made a ton of sense for the club at the time and should have still worked out to our benefit). But, in the absence of being able to successfully renegotiate -- and keep in mind, if you really don't want him on the team, that Hassli would surely only take less annual money in return for a contract over a longer time and that would tie the club's hands for longer -- the decision to activate his option was a virtual no brainer.
Outside the hothouse of TFC politics (where Hassli is disliked as much for who brought him to Toronto as he is for anything to do with his play) I'm going suggest that most of MLS understands that Hassli is a very useful MLS player who could contribute at a lot of other clubs if they've got the budget space and DP spot. It wouldn't even take much money for a "budget" MLS team to cover the cap hit portion of his DP contract. Further, because his existing contract is set to expire (or doesn't have to have it's next option year activated if he's in another next year) he's a very low risk sort of DP signing for another team and thus has trade value inside the league.
And here's the thing: Payne had to know this. Otherwise, he might not be as competent as most TFC fans hope he is. In general, I like to presume non-idiocy in people who've had at least a modicum of success and professional achievement. So, his comments in response to questions about Hassli's option being picked up are either being misinterpreted by those reporting, or he's playing to the gallery by insinuating that "it was those idiots before and look at the mess I've got to clean up" and setting up insulation for himself if this season goes to **** (again) before the end of May.
Again, for those still not getting it: activating Hassli's option left TFC with an ADDITIONAL ASSET AND MORE OPTIONS than if Hassli had been allowed to walk and sign somewhere else.
Over the years, I've learned to rarely play the "here's what you should do game." I'll never have enough information to know what's realistically possible. But this really, really, really better have been about Hassli's wife, or to get TFC a bonafide striker in return (somehow) because:
My understanding is that Payne also suggested that Koevermans is unlikely to be playing before June. That seems reasonable, or even optimistic, based on how long other players with a similar injury have taken in the past.
So why not this: play Hassli as the No 1 guy up top until Koevermans returns. Hassli is a known commodity in MLS. He'll probably pick up some injuries and suspensions, but he'll also get you goals and cause problems for defenses. With Justin Braun as back-up Toronto is actually not in a horrible state. Then, when Koevermans returns he can be eased back in and his recovery can be evaluated. If everything is good and there's confidence, as much as is reasonably possible, that his knee will hold up and it's determined that Hassli truly is surplus to requirements THEN you can either try to flip him inside the league, or, since it’s summer, you can try to sell him off, even if it's for peanuts, to a European club.
Even a tiny little fee (by European standards) could generate some allocation. You get your DP spot and budget space back and can go shopping while the summer window is open on both continents. Alternatively, if it's not looking like Koeverman's ever going to be his same old self again then you can keep riding Hassli for the rest of the year and maybe start renegotiation then to keep the younger-than-Koevermans Hassli around beyond 2013, if it fits your plans.
Maybe you even talk to the league about creating an injury exception and leave the option open of negotiating a buyout for Koevermans up to July 1 (with TFC's own funds) that would let you get his DP spot and budget space back in that scenario.
It all seems so obvious. Maybe it's even what "the idiot who signed Hassli" was planning.
In closing, this wife-doesn’t-want-to-be-in-Canada thing better not be a cover story for Hassli himself wanting to leave because he was a "Mariner guy" and isn't interested in staying at TFC with Mariner gone. If it is that's just another iteration of the same continuous train wreck TFC fans have been served for six straight years. It might be fun and make people feel good to hate on Hassli if he wants out, but constant changes in direction are why this team has been so bad.
In this league you've practically got to be trying to be as bad as TFC has been with such consistency: I've run the numbers; it's truly mind boggling. The only time there was any excuse was in the earliest seasons when Mo did legitimately face a stacked deck due to the more stringent Canadian quota. Ironically, we actually did better back then! To be that bad that often you've got to be burning the assets the league keeps handing you over and over and over and over and over and over...
And it's been the constant instability in leadership that's caused that.