Over TFC’s history the club has made a lot of bad moves. Today, they might have just made the worst one of all.
In a staggeringly insane move, GM Kevin Payne fired a manager that, no matter what you thought of him, was actually in Toronto trying to make the club better, and hired a guy that won’t be in Toronto until June.
Ryan Nelsen is TFC’s new head coach. He’s also a centreback for QPR. At the same time.
Payne has certainly gone outside the box on this one.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
With two of the first three picks in the draft, and coming off one of the worse seasons in MLS history, the club will go into its preseason without a head coach.
This move isn’t about Nelsen, or even fired manager Paul Mariner. No, it’s about one man: Kevin Payne.
It was brushed over when he was hired last month, but one of Payne’s downfalls in D.C. was that he meddled (he called it “hands on management") in the technical aspect of the job too much. Informed voices in D.C. suggested that there was a reason he likes to hire inexperienced coaches – so he can control them.
What better scenario can there be for a guy that wants to run everything then a coach that isn’t even there?
To that end, it was troubling to hear that Nelsen has no coaching licenses and that his No 2, Fran O'Leary, got his pro license just yesterday.
Before that? O’Leary was coaching NCAA division III soccer. They don’t even give scholarships in Div III. The CIS is likely at a higher level.
O’Leary will, in essence, be TFC’s head coach until QPR gets relegated.
Or, maybe he won’t. Maybe Payne will be the head coach by proxy and maybe that’s exactly what he wanted.
If that’s the case, and there is evidence to suggest it might be, it’s staggeringly arrogant.
Pure arrogance from a man that has not been consistently competitive in MLS in nine seasons and missed the playoffs four of the last five years.
If it works he’s the genius he seems to think he is. For TFC fan’s sake he better be.