There is a good chance that there will be more roster movement for Toronto FC early this week. On Thursday, Kevin Payne met with the longest serving season ticket holders when the annual re-location event kicked off.
He thanked the fans for their loyalty and then dropped a bit of news in their lap. Payne said that TFC was going to get a little younger and that to that end he had already completed a trade that was just waiting league approval.
Payne indicated that the trade should go through “in he next couple of days.”
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
There is no reason to think that the trade has fallen through. League approval can mean something as simple as needing to make sure that all the players involved are informed. It also usually means that allocation is involved.
For those new to supporting MLS, allocation is money that can be used to pay down the cap or to pay transfers into the league. Since it’s governed by the league, the league needs to cross the Is and dot the Ts before it can be used.
Putting a few more pieces together it would seem likely that it would be TFC that would be needing the allocation. It most certainly seems likely that TFC cannot afford to give any up.
Paul Mariner told fans at the townhall meetings that the club had made several offers to players in Scandinavia (and possibly Cyprus) last month. A quick look at the salary cap suggests that the Reds can’t add much now without adding allocation. So, as long as the players offered contracts have accepted, Toronto will be in need of some faux cash.
From that you can judge who might be willing to give up allocation. Rule out the bigger clubs – they’ll want it to make their own signings – and look at who has been adding a lot of it lately.
One club jumps out in big, glaring lights: Portland.
Continuing down our path of informed speculation is there anyone on Toronto’s roster that is both dispensable and who might be of interest to other teams.
It gets a little slippery here. By my count TFC has four assets that meet that criteria.
Joao Plata, Ryan Johnson, the 2013 first round Superdraft selection and one of Milos Kocic or Stefan Frei.
You’d need to get a hell of a lot of allocation to give up all four of those pieces. Without another significant player coming in to Toronto – and remember this is an exercise to get rid of current salary to add European salary – you are probably looking at a two player for allocation and a prospect deal.
Plata seems too much of a risk and Frei appears to be Toronto’s choice for No 1 next year.
That leaves Kocic and Johnson.
Toronto sends Ryan Johnson and Milos Kocic to Portland for Joe Bendik (a cheap back-up keeper that becomes disposable for Portland with Kocic and who can compete for the 2013 back-up role in Toronto with Freddy Hall) and allocation.
Book it. Or not. What do you think the trade is? Let us know in the comments.