Today on theScore I explored the mess that Aron Winter has got himself into. Seemingly unwilling to adjust his tactics from the idealistic 3-4-3/4-3-3 experiment, the Dutchman has unbelievably brought himself to the brink of being canned.
And make no mistake, he is at that point. No one really wants to remove him from the position (and he'd be offered a new role with the organization, rather than being fired outright – whether he'd take it is unknown), but the club would be left with limited options if he doesn't turn things around soon.
The biggest issue isn't the losing. It's his inflexibility. There is a fear that he doesn't really know how to manage a club in-game and that his tactical choices are putting the team in a position where it can't win.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]Suddenly it's dawning of people the that the fact Winter had never managed a senior club prior to coming to TFC might have been a problem. His accent may be more exotic, and playing pedigree slightly better, but Toronto spent all that time and money only to hire a Dutch version of Danny Dichio.
No, really. Dichio has pretty much the same resume as Winter did prior to coming to Toronto – some youth coaching and a decent career as a honest, if not awe-inspiring, player.
This is not an argument that Dichio should have been named manager, but God help us the evidence is starting to suggest he might have been a better choice.
At this point the arguments for keeping Winter all harken back to past mistakes Toronto made – they've been inpatient, there has been too much turnover, not enough time has been given to previous managers. All of those points have merit, but we can't be blinded by them.
Toronto fans are starting to sound like the beautiful, but emotionally scarred, woman who stays with their asshole boyfriend because deep down they don't think they can do better and are sick of change. Everyone in her life knows what needs to be done, but they too are tired of her drama and have resolved themselves to the idea that she'll never get it together. So, they've given up as well.
As I wrote in theScore piece there is a persistent rumour that Winter has been given to the end of the Montreal Voyageurs Cup tie – that's four games. If things are still this bad then...
It's time to dump the deadbeat. It will be hard and people will judge, but the alternative – another hopeless, wasted season – would be far worse.