Urruti to Toronto FC deal off

Well, the end of the month is almost here and we finally have a formal update on the status of Toronto's pair of Argentine transfer targets. It is not the news fans were waiting to hear though as the deal that would have brought forward Maximiliano Urruiti from Newell's Old Boys to Toronto FC is not going to happen.

Speaking at training with select members of the media TFC head coach Ryan Nelsen confirmed that the deal was now dead and the club would be moving on.

Nelson confirms Urutti is NOT coming. Hinted that Labba signing is imminent. #TFC

— John Molinaro (@JohnMolinaro) April 23, 2013

After his comments last week about there being a battle at the player's club causing a delay in the deal being completed and suggesting that at some point the club would need to move on this news can hardly come as a surprise to fans who will surely be frustrated.

The issue here is not that the deal has fallen through but rather the fact that the deal has been trotted out as a reason for hope and optimism for fans by the front office staff for several months now only to have it come apart at the last stage. To be fair, it was not the club that put the name Urruti out where fans could see it (at least not directly) and it was a Canadian Press report that suggested the deal was nearly done a few weeks back, but that does not absolve them of blame for the fact that they have spent the past couple months mentioning Argentinians and Hondurans and to this point have nothing to show for all of that talk.

The simple fact is that TFC fans have had a lot of big talk over the past seven years and are rightfully sick and tired of the end results not living up to the talk that proceeded them. That goes not only for the results on the field but also the moves behind the scene. Promising the fans that you plan on bringing in new players is only going to further the disappointment when that fails to materialize.

There was a bit of good news from training as John Molinaro's tweet suggests that the Matias Laba deal has life left in it and when he questioned Nelsen regarding that Kevin Davies to TFC report the coach did not deny things so it seems like this one has legs, though he was not willing to confirm that any talks have taken place.

Nelsen evasive about whether he's had formal talks with Davies. #TFC

— John Molinaro (@JohnMolinaro) April 23, 2013

Nelsen also confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that Stefan Frei would be starting on goal for TFC come Wednesday night. The Canadian Championship match will mark the keepers first competitive appearance in over a year having had to work his way back from injury twice including a broken nose suffered in preseason.