Toronto Sun sheds light on "future considerations" in Laba trade to Vancouver

Matias Laba may yet play for Toronto FC again in 2015.

Kurtis Larson of the Toronto Sun posted an article on Thursday morning that included some comments on the deal that sent Laba to the Vancouver Whitecaps from Toronto FC's General Manager Tim Bezbatchenko. The GM shed some much needed light on just what the "future considerations" in the deal means.

"People don't know what future considerations are," Bezbatchenko told the Sun. "But Vancouver has a high hurdle to get over in order to keep him permanently. Let's just put it that way. We're comfortable that if they do, we'll be in a very good position to reinvest (what we receive) into the team to make us better in a big way."

That is big news for Toronto FC fans who have spent the better part of a day thinking that the club traded away a valuable asset for nothing. That is clearly not the case based on that quote from Bezbatchenko and the team will either be getting the player back after the season or the Caps will be forced to provide them with substantial financial compensation. It may not be as much as Toronto initially spent on the player but if it is enough for them to reinvest that would make this a good move.

Larson's article also paints a picture that suggests this move made more sense for the club than a loan as it still allows them to get the player back or get a decent return for him. It appears like it creates a win-win situation for TFC in the long run which is impressive considering how little leverage they had coming in to this.

"We were looking at the best opportunity to get him on a loan outside the country and we had options there," Bezbatchenko told the Sun. "The player wanted to stay in MLS so we looked at places he could go in the Western Conference.

"There were a number of teams interested and we were looking at an intra-league loan structure, but in the end it wasn't going to be able to work like that. We structured the trade it in a similar way via a trade."

This deal makes perfect sense for Toronto FC when you consider all of that. They get Laba off the books for the 2014 season which they needed to do and they either get him back after the year or they get a decent fee for him. In many ways it is quite similar to loaning him out for the season but without the added restrictions that would have come from using the intra-league loan system that MLS put in place.

From the Caps perspective this deal also makes good sense. They get Laba for next to nothing for the 2014 season and all they had to do was be willing to take on his cap hit. If they like what he has to offer they already have a deal in place to keep the player and if it does not work out they can just return him with no harm. Again, a win-win situation.

For a deal that looked terrible last evening it is suddenly looking like a good move. Crazy how quickly things can turn.