Ryan Nelsen to return for 2014 season with Toronto FC

Toronto FC may finally be closing off some of the leaks in their club but that has not managed to put a complete halt to news getting out.  Last night Tim Leiweke and Ryan Nelsen had what was supposed to be a closed door meeting with roughly a dozen members of the Red Patch Boys supporters group but it did not take long for word of what was said in that meeting to make it to the Toronto Sun's Kurt Larson.

According to a report that Larson posted on his blog last night and in the Sun this morning the key takeaway from that meeting was the fact that Ryan Nelsen is going to be given the chance to return for the 2014 season despite the team's struggles this year.

That is good news for a club that has lacked any form of stability in the coaching ranks as it has been a rare occurrence for any bench boss to make it to a second season with the club and even the ones that did were gone before the next summer.  With Leiweke describing Nelsen's job as 100% safe the pressure shifts onto the rest of the management team and the staff.

It seems that Leiweke is happy with Nelsen and the progress the team has made this year but that is not going to stop him from doing his complete review of the club this offseason.  He has already conducted similar reviews of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors which have led to a variety of different results including little change with the hockey team and a fairly large shakeup in the back-room of the basketball team.  It will certainly be interesting for TFC fans to watch what happens with TFC this winter and see who is determined to be surplus to needs or just not up to the required standard.

With the talk of review coming in the offseason the notable absence of Kevin Payne from the meeting led to some obvious speculation among fans last night.  It seems to involve a lot of reading between the lines to come to the conclusion that Payne's absence from a small meeting with supporters is a sign of his future with the club but that won't stop people from enjoying the speculation.

The other big news that came came out of the closed door meeting with supporters was that Toronto had $25 million on the table to sign a potential DP recently.  The board of MLSE approved the club to spend up to that amount but it seems it was pulled back since the player was not deemed to be the right fit.

That could mean any number of things but the simplest way to look at it that MLSE is willing to let the club splash out up to $25 million to try and sign the right DP.  That is big money for the club to be spending and would open up the possibility for the club to pursue some fairly impressive targets.

Both pieces of news help to set up what should be an interesting offseason around the club.  The review of the front office will likely have many staff members on the edge of their seats and the fact that the club is in a position to spend money this winter should have fans on the edge of their's for a completely different reason.

In the meantime, TFC still have some games to play even if there is very little left to get excited about for fans.