Richard Eckersley to New York Red Bulls for a 2017 4th round pick.

Well, that was mercifully quick. Rumours came out over the weekend and now here we are on Monday afternoon and the deal is done. Richard Eckersley traded to the New York Red Bulls for a 4th round SuperDraft (or whatever it'll be called then) pick in 2017. You can read the official release here, he deservedly gets a bit more than the bare minimum we've seen for other players, Bezbatchenko dredging up a few words about tough decisions and wishing him the best.

The 2017 4th round pick isn't really that important, the main thing Toronto FC get is the roster spot and cap relief. The exact numbers of who'll be paying how much of his over-inflated salary may or may not ever come out, but hopefully the cap relief can be (or already has been) put to good use and there'll be a lesson learnt in avoiding this sort of contract in the future.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Eckersley's play, but you can't deny the honest effort he always put in while generally surrounded by terrible teams, so I bear him no ill will. In the right situation he could be an effective defender, it will be interesting to see just how he does in New York and it wouldn't surprise me if he was another addition to the list of those who do well after leaving TFC.