Toronto FC has a long-term vision and plan but whether or not Jermain Defoe will be along for the ride is still anybody’s guess.
TFC management on Thursday met with a small group of local reporters to outline the club’s strategies for player development from the youth academy level right through to the first team, and its long-term developmental goals.
Dubbed a “vision meeting,” the media session focused on the technical aspects of TFC’s developmental program, with Jim Liston (the team’s director of sports science) and Michael Rabasca (director of cognitive development) giving in-depth explanations as to what the team is doing to develop players—tactically, physically and cognitively.
Coach Greg Vanney and general manager Tim Bezbatchenko also spoke, outlining how the work of Liston and Rabasca will hopefully help Toronto live up to its mission statement of becoming a team that is internationally recognized in the areas of player development and innovation, as well as becoming a regular contender for championships in North American soccer.
At the end of the 90-minute (give or take) presentation, questions from the floor were welcomed, and you don’t need three guesses as what the major topic of query was from the assembled journalists: What’s going on with Jermain Defoe?
Bezbatchenko said that Defoe is England and training on his own after undergoing off-season groin surgery, something a team source confirmed to this reporter earlier this month.
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Okay, so Defoe is working out, and he is expected to be fully fit for next season after missing 15 matches due to injuries and suspension in 2014.
But will he be back in Toronto after the club turned down QPR’s transfer offer for him in the summer? And does Defoe even want to be here after he gave non-committal answers to questions about his future posed to him after being linked with QPR?
Bezbatchenko said on Thursday that Defoe has not put in a transfer request, and that he expects Defoe to return and play for TFC in 2015.
However, the club’s GM also protected himself, explaining that things always come up during the winter transfer window, and that he’d listen to any offer that came in for the English striker. He also went to great lengths to say that if they do sell Defoe that TFC has contingency plans—that they’ve identified players who they’ll try to sign should Defoe leave.
But as of right now, Bezbatchenko stressed, Defoe is a TFC player and they don’t expect that to change in the near future.
So, nothing really new, then. He’s staying, but that could change—you never know. And if he does leave, the team has a “Plan B.”
Hardly earth shattering news, and not anything we already didn’t know.
Some genuine interesting news tidbits did emerge from the end-of-the-meeting Q&A:
• Bezbatchenko said the first phase of the renovation of BMO Field is “on course” to be completed in May. Although the regular season schedule hasn’t been set, Bezbatchenko revealed he expects TFC to start the 2015 campaign with seven or eight road games.
• Despite speculation about Gilberto’s future, TFC’s GM said the Brazilian forward is “absolutely” still in the club’s plans for next season. One of three DPs on the roster, Gilberto ranked second in team scoring during the 2014 campaign with seven goals in 28 league appearances.
• The club is talking to a number of candidates for the youth academy director’s job, and is aiming to fill the position by the spring. The job has been vacant since Vanney, the former academy director, replaced Ryan Nelsen as coach of TFC on Aug. 31.
• Later in the day, TFC announced it traded midfielder Jeremy Hall to the New England Revolution for a fourth-round pick in the 2015 MLS draft.