"The more I find out, the less I know." You said it Johnny Nash, you said it.

So, by now you've probably read the news about Toronto FC's coaching changes announced today. Bob de Klerk "promoted" to Technical manager, which as per TFC's website means he will..."be responsible for Toronto FC’s technical program, including advance and international scouting, as well as serving as the technical conduit between the First Team and Academy program. He will also assist players transitioning from the Academy into the First Team and support the education of Toronto FC coaches at all levels."

Jim Brennan meanwhile, as a reward for a year of fetching coffee and making fun little CCL promos as Mo Johnston's assistant, and just getting going with his second year of coaching the under 17 team, now takes his place as assistant coach with the first team.

People have been expecting changes for a while now, what with TFC's not so great 0 and 8 start to MLS, but most thought that for better or worse, advancing to the Voyageurs Cup final would have bought everybody a couple of weeks. Instead of a big clearout though, we now get this minor change, one that leaves us with more questions than just TFC's traditional "what the hell is going on with them now?" I'll get into those questions, and try to hazard a guess at some answers after the jump.

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Toronto FC announced today a bit of a reshuffle in the coaching ranks, with Jim Brennan being promoted from his job as academy under 17 coach to assistant coach with the first team, and Bob de Klerk being "promoted" to Technical manager, whatever that is. Paul Mariner will also be doing more work with the first team apparently, coaching the strikers.

If the talk of a rift between the Dutch idealists and the MLS pragmatists is true, then this certainly looks like the tables being tipped very much in favour of the pragmatists, at least at the first team level. Will there be further changes, or will this be seen as enough of a compromise from Winter's side to keep his job safe for now? And why Brennan? Expect more talk about developing Canadian coaches and continuing their investment in Canadian talent, but really is this the environment you'd want to throw Canadian's into to try and learn?

Who knows exactly what all this means, but at the very least it seems to signal the end of the always entertaining Bob de Klerk on the sidelines, which will be a real shame, though probably make thing easier for all the 4th officials out there. More information, quotes and clarifications should come out through the day, and I'm very intrigued to hear Aron Winter's views on all these changes. Things just got interesting, we'll have more on this later as the situation becomes clearer.

The German rumour mill has been in full force of late and this time around they are suggesting that Toronto FC could complete its collection of German holding midfielders this summer. Several outlets, of varying reliability, are suggesting that Michael Ballack may just be interested in joining Torsten Frings when his contract with with Bayer Leverkusen comes to an end.

One report suggests that the former German international and World Cup veteran could make his decision on where he will play next season in the coming weeks with a decision coming in late May. Both reports suggest that the two main appeals for Ballack to come to Toronto FC are Torsten Frings and Aron Winter. It would seem that Winter's record as a player with the Dutch National team is more important than his win-loss record as a coach.

The issue with Toronto making a move to bring in Ballack is that with Frings, Danny Koevermans, and Julian De Guzman on the books already they have no room to add an additional designated player. Even if Ballack were to magically accept less than DP type money that would still not work as the club is already pressed up against the salary cap.

The only way such a move would make sense is if you consider the fact that De Guzman's contract runs out at the end of the season and that should leave one of the DP slots open. That would not be until the end of the season though and Ballack would be available to join in the middle of the summer similar to last year's two big DP signings. So not really sure how the move would work out but here are the sources of the ever growing rumour (all 3 in German):

http://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/michael-ballack/wechsel-zum-frings-klub-toronto-24068366.bild.html

http://bundesliga.t-online.de/transfermarkt-michael-ballack-liebaeugelt-mit-wechsel-zu-frings-klub/id_56301964/index?news

http://www.sportal.de/sportal/generated/article/tnt_fussball/2012/05/10/22505600000.html

It appears that both Jeremy Hall and Dicoy Williams will be available for selection in the coming weeks. For the first time this season Hall was left off the club's official injury list entirely. Williams continues to be listed as being out with right knee surgery recovery but has been increasing his work rate and involvement at training in recent weeks. It seems that Hall could be available any game now with Williams not being that far behind.

Their return raises the question of what in the world is Winter going to do with so many defenders. If Hall and Williams are back they join Ty Harden, Adrian Cann, Miguel Aceval, Aaron Maund, Logan Emory, Ashtone Morgan, Doneil Henry, and Richard Eckersley in what was already a crowed back line. All those bodies have failed to provide any sort of consistent results as Toronto continues to concede scoring chances and goals at an alarming rate. The return of Cann was supposed to provide stability to the defensive group but it has failed to do that so far.

Instead, what we have seen is Aron Winter making constant changes to the backline and almost never playing the same pairing in central defense for two games in a row. With Cann back the logical first choice pairing should be him and Aceval but when they have played together the issues are obvious. They seem to be struggling with the language barrier and a lack of understanding on the field which had led to missed assignments in vital areas. The other issue is that the pair has a complete and serious lack of pace. That lack of pace is only compounded when Winter decides to push them up field to play a high defensive line. We have seen it time and time again this season with a simple ball over the top to a pacey forward being the easiest way for teams to break TFC down.

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So, seems like TFC's really proud of this one as they shuffled it out there on a Friday afternoon, but season ticket holders now have the emailed info on how to be first in line to get tickets watch their team be the patsies in a live 90 minute long Liverpool infomercial. Ooh, aah! And call in the next 20 minutes, 'cos you know we can't do this all day, and they'll throw in access to a Liverpool practice too! Wow, just imagine all the new TFC fans that will create!

Tickets are only $20 and can be bought here.

That is of course a link to one of two much better ways to spend the same money the cheapest tickets to Liverpool's marketing exercise will cost. At Canada's World Cup Qualifying games. First of all, for the price of one ticket after fees and service charges, you could buy a ticket to 2 games that actually mean something, and won't just be a bunch of reserves going through the motions against what will hopefully be TFC's academy squad. Tickets through the Voyageurs to Canada's World Cup Qualifiers this year at BMO Field are still on sale, and it's the same $20 price for the friendly against USA, and though it doesn't really count to anything other than marking the CSA's centenary, this friendly does at least serve a purpose to help the team get ready for the upcoming qualifiers. Canada needs all the support it can get so come out and see some quality players that are actually trying to do more than just not get injured.

The other way, which I wrote about earlier, is to buy tickets for kids from Toronto Community Housing to attend Canada's game against Honduras. There's over 800 kids offered sports activities through their Youth Engagament Programme, and the Voyageurs are hoping to collect enough donated tickets to send them all. Again, it's just $20 per ticket to help some kids out, and increase Canada's support when they'll really need it.

Unless you're a Liverpool fan, both of them make a lot more sense. If you are a Liverpool fan, well hey, enjoy your game, I won't begrudge you that, and why not help Canada as well. Cheers.

Toronto FC is a bit thin at the centre forward position and that has really been shown during the recent absence of Danny Koevermans. Behind the big Dutchman Toronto has the option of moving Ryan Johnson to the central role or taking a big tumble down the depth chart to Keith Makabuya. There is not really that much depth up front so the fact that there was a striker on trial today at the club's practice should not be a huge surprise.

John Owoeri, a 25 year old Nigerian forward, joined the club in training and is on trial with the club for now. It is not his first MLS trial though as it seems that Owoeri has been making the rounds of late. He has recently had trials with Chivas USA and Montreal Impact but neither of those turned into a deal for the player. While at Chivas he did bag a hat trick in the reserve teams 7-1 win over UC Riverside in exhibition play. He moved on to Montreal where he came and went in about a week without really making a splash.

Owoeri has been available and looking for a new club since the Egyptian season was abandoned due to unrest in that nation. He was most recently with Ismaily SC of Egypt's Premier League. He only made 13 appearances in his one full season at Ismaily scoring one goal for the club. Prior to that he was with a few different clubs in his native Nigeria including Heartland and Enyimba.

The high point of his promise came back in 2005 when Owoeri joined Dutch club Feyenoord but he was unable to make a breakthrough in less than one season at the club. His next stop was in Belgium at Westerloo where he got more playing time but again failed to impress which led to returning to Nigeria. He was a part of the youth setup for the Nigerian Super Eagles but as his career tapered off and he failed to reach his potential Owoeri has only managed to collect a single cap for his national team.

Bringing him in on trail is not likely to provide anything more than depth in the attack as there is good reason that he is already so traveled at 25 years of age. He has failed to make any of his stops work out in the long run so it is hard to imagine that this one will be any different. Add in the fact that he was once suspended, and later cleared, for a failed drug test and he is at the very least an interesting visitor to training, but probably not much more than that.

Jordan Hamilton is one of the top prospects in the Toronto FC academy and has been turning heads since coming on to the scene with the club as a 14 year old. Now he is 16 years of age and is clearly on the radar for the first team and for the Canadian National team setup.

Hamilton did well in his time with the senior team during preseason and the Disney Pro Soccer Classic before returning to Danny Dichio's senior academy team. He is now primed to take part in the upcoming CSL season as well as featuring in MLS Reserve League matches. Hamilton was involved against both the Columbus Crew and the Montreal Impact and despite failing to get on the score sheet in either reserve game he continued to show that he is quite advanced for a player of his age.

When TFC decided to release Stefan Vukovic they sent the clear message that they wanted to get Hamilton as much playing time as they can to ensure that he develops properly. As part of that desire to get him all the playing time possible the club will likely be happy that Hamilton is set to head over to Italy to take part in Canada's U17 camp.

Hamilton confirmed via his twitter account that he will join the team in Italy for the camp later this week. He also confirmed that he would be the only player from the Toronto FC academy side as there are only a handful of other players in the squad even young enough to participate in this camp.

Hamilton was one of the few Toronto FC players involved in last years U17 World Cup cycle, being the youngest player that head coach Sean Fleming called into his squad. He was called up for the qualifying stage but did not get the chance to join Tyler Pasher, Parker Seymour, Omari Morris, Sergio Camargo, Jay Chapman, Quillan Roberts, Michael Petrasso, and Chad Bush in World Cup squad.

It seems that the CSA will be providing more details on this camp tomorrow including the full roster. It is possible that there will be other Toronto area players, including ones from the younger academy teams, called so that is something we will keep an eye out for and update when available.

Sigh. It really should come as no surprise after the July 21st game against Chicago was moved, but it looks as if Toronto FC are jumping back on board the midsummer friendly bandwagon, with rumours of a game against Liverpool at the Rogers Centre on that date now getting as far as being all but confirmed by Luke Wileman on twitter. Really, it was as inevitable as it is depressing. Way back in November when the sale of MLSE to Rogers and Bell went through, I blogged for Sportsnet that this really paved the way for TFC to take part in all the big European Superclubs brand building exercises that sweep ubiquitously through North America each summer.

If Toronto FC can provide the competition for free, and only one big appearance fee has to be paid, that will help keep the ticket prices down - at least in the upper bowl, which should lead to a much bigger crowd and sense of occasion. Whereas before TFC would have had to pay the Rogers Centre rental fee, and gave up a share of the concession profits, now, if all that lost profit is actually going to stay under the same cozy corporate umbrella, well then giddy up.

I don't like the idea. I'm very much against mid-season friendlies, but now that this will be a whole lot easier logistically, I'm certain it'll happen. It's a win-win situation, unless you count the actual result.

The last sentence of what I filed "Get ready for TFC 1, random European superclub 6 next summer" was edited out, but my point still gets across. With TFC and Skydome all now part of the same money making machine, well it was obviously going to happen.

When the game against Chicago (you know, an actual league game, with meaning and points riding on it) was moved to September, in the middle of an international break no less, well it was blindingly clear what was going to happen to that weekend, especially after checking the Bluejays schedule and seeing they were conveniently away those days. Though I desperately hoped it wouldn't happen, I knew it was a foregone conclusion. It was just a question of whose marketing campaign TFC and the local media were going to gleefully bend over for.

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