Two names have dominated the thoughts of most Toronto FC supporters this off-season – Joao Plata and Richard Eckersley. Most view getting the tiny Ecuadorian and redheaded Englishman back in the fold as a major priority for the Reds, if not the biggest priority.
News broke this week that securing Plata long-term might be days away. Since MLS teams treat salary information as state secrets we won’t know how much TFC is spending to bring him back, but you can expect that he is receiving a considerable raise from last year. As well, the Reds have likely used a great deal of allocation to pay for the transfer fee needed to buy out the player, who spent 2011 in Toronto on loan.
Getting Plata back was important. With the Dwayne DeRosario era quickly becoming a distant memory, Plata has become the face of the club. And, although his MLS stats weren’t as strong as many might remember, he clearly has talent and is just 20 years old. On a club that has had far too much turnover from year to year, it’s nice to get a young, exciting player locked up long-term.
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It would also be nice to get Eckersley locked up. However, it might not be in the cards. The problem is that TFC is very tight up against the cap. Without factoring in Plata’s new salary, the Reds only have about $500,000 available to them. As all know, they need a centreback or two (and, it should be noted, Adrian Cann is out of contract). It’s a bit bleak.
Eckersley can make far more money staying in England, even if his parent club Burnley doesn’t want him. The Championship side would probably be open to releasing him, but Eckersley would need to be willing to leave a lot of money on the table. If he’s open to a short term contract, or a structured contract, that pays him a low amount in 2012 (say $100,000) then he might be back. If he’s not, then TFC is going to need to find a fullback that will play for about that.
Eckersley says he likes it here. We will find out how much he does soon.
Toronto’s money problems go beyond those two players of course. If they are to upgrade significantly they are going to need to get creative. Paul Mariner built his reputation in New England as a guy that could find undervalued talent and he’s going to need to tap into that skill this off-season.
TFC fans looking at the SuperDraft and re-entry draft need to remember the cap situation. In the SuperDraft, Generation adidas players are even more valuable to TFC than they are in years when the cap is less of an issue.
They need free players. In the re-entry draft you can pretty much forget the idea of TFC going after a pricy veteran. Any player taken will be a guy that makes less than $100,000 (Former Red Andrew Boyens is an interesting possibility as a depth player). Most likely, TFC will be sitting the re-entry draft out.
It seems likely that academy players will be given a good look as well as the Reds look to find cheap depth wherever they can.
The other option for upgrading the talent is through trades. The most likely candidate to be moved is Stefan Frei. It would be a shame to move the longest serving player, but if a starting quality MLS centreback was available, they might not have much choice. Regardless, the 50 days from today until training camp opens in January are bound to be busy for Canada’s first MLS team.