Canadian Soccer News has learned that up until last week, Toronto FC's search for a General Manager wasn't going to fall very far from the tree.
Two sources, one a FIFA player agent with ties to Toronto FC and the other a respected member of the Toronto soccer community, confirmed to CSN that the next GM for Toronto FC had been slated to be the current Interim General Manager Earl Cochrane.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
But now, the FIFA player agent says, that has changed in the last 24 hours.
"We had put forward a guy with former World Cup experience, and time at Manchester United and he hadn't gotten a sniff...We were told at the time that it was going to be Cochrane and a new coach who was coming in. That has changed in the last 24 hours. They're interviewing a new candidate with Cochrane now waiting in the wings."
The player agent indicated that he didn't think the Dwayne DeRosario situation was the only influencing factor in the shift in course, but suspected that it was a reason they were now taking a second look.
"They had someone express interest in taking a larger role just after Christmas and that is who they are currently negotiating with. Cochrane is still the first choice but they're hearing out the new candidate based on his experience and salary expectations."
The other source told CSN that prior to the latest candidate appearing, Cochrane's role as GM was going to be defined as more administrative - a president of sorts - and that the day-to-day operations and management of first team resources would be controlled by incoming coach Paul Mariner. Mariner is the current skipper of England's Plymouth Argyle and former assistant manager of the New England Revolution.
The agent, who declined to name the coach, stated that the choice to go with Cochrane was a financial one and that it was designed to free up more funds to be spent on the next manager of TFC.
Both stated that an announcement of both GM and coach is expected by mid-January at the latest and that they still thought Cochrane, despite the new suitor, would be the final choice.
CSN will continue to follow this story and will update as information becomes available.