Ecks-tra! Ecks-tra! read all about it! Richard Eckersley officially signs with Toronto FC

Finally. After getting through all of the off-season without getting a deal done, and with it hanging at 99% for a long long time, Toronto FC announced today that Richard Eckersley will officially be back with the club for the 2012 season. This comes the day after he was officially released form his Burnley contract.

It is of course one of those "no details were disclosed" kind of announcements, so we'll have to wait for information to dribble out one way or another when it comes to salary and contract length issues, and whether there was any kind of money going to Burnley to persuade them to 'mutually consent' Eckersley out of his contract there. There was obviously a big difference between what TFC were paying him last year ($90,000 'guaranteed compensation) and what his contract with Burnley promised him (500,000 pounds reportedly), so his salary will be somewhere between those two amounts, hopefully for the salary cap's sake a lot closer to the TFC rate. I'd be comfortable with anywhere between $100,000 and $150,000 but i guess we'll have to wait until the union releases the player salaries to know for sure.

Whatever those details may turn out to be, it's very good news for TFC to get one of their best players from last season back, and is one step towards a more solid defence and a more stable lineup, so a big welcome back goes out to the ginger ninja. It's media day today (check back here later in the day for all the coverage you can shake a stick at), so hopefully more information will come out as the day unfolds.