Ryan Nelsen's thoughts on Defoe, Bradley and much more.

Just a quick article here, don't really have time for more, but this is definitely worth posting and a discussion.  This article was published in the Globe (online) last night by Paul Attfield and is well worth a read.

Some highlights for you

With Nelsen seeing the writing on the wall in the aftermath of a flat-lining 3-0 home defeat to the New England Revolution, the New Zealander texted Defoe in London to tell him he thought he'd be getting the sack in the morning. The Englishman's reply was succinct and to the point.

"If you're gone, I'm gone."

I imagine that's a heat of the moment reaction and with a bit more time to think about things, Defoe could be persuaded to keep going if he wanted to, after all, this is football, people get fired or traded all the time, I find it hard to believe any player would so firmly tie their career to another person's.  Of course the 'if he wanted to' part of that sentence is the key, this could well be a straw on the camel's back kind of thing.  Either way, yikes! Moving on...

There will certainly be suitors for Brazilian striker Gilberto - who was controversially denied what should have been a dramatic, winning goal in Saturday's 1-1 draw in Chicago - with TFC turning down a $4.5-million (U.S.) offer from Mexico's Club America just over three weeks ago.

Luke Moore, an Englishman who Nelsen acquired from Colorado earlier this year, may also look to return home, with the striker more than a little miffed that TFC turned down an offer from Premier League club Burnley last month.

$4.5m for Gilberto? I could believe that, and I'm glad we turned that offer down.

Luke Moore to Burnley though? That seems a little harder to believe, I can't really see an EPL team being interested in a bit part MLS player.  If it did happen though, I can't see why TFC would stand in the way of a player getting an offer like that, just to keep Moore on the bench. Who knows how serious it was and how far negotiations got, without those details it's hard to get too worked up.

Bradley is unlikely to be going anywhere though, especially given the five years and $33.5-million remaining on his contract. The length of his tenure in Toronto may be given added gravitas if the whispers of an MLSE approach for his father, Bob Bradley, as both TFC head coach and general manager ahead of next season, are proved correct, despite Vanney and Tim Bezbatchenko currently occupying those roles.

Well that would be an interesting development for sure, but does the fact that Attfield is merely referring to whispers that are out there rather than any particular source, even unnamed, suggest there's not much to it? Probably, especially as he merely talks of 'an approach'. I'd like to think they approach all sorts of long shot candidates to test the water, that's just doing your job.

Nelsen cautioned Leiweke about the size of the deal during negotiations to bring in Bradley, saying that at $6.5-million a season, the MLSE president was paying an awful lot for someone who had been largely a defensive midfielder for much of his career. That disconnect played itself out during Nelsen's tenure this season, with the New Zealander frustrated with Bradley's propensity to freelance on the pitch at times.

Interesting little tidbit there. I think anyone in the world would be wise to caution about the size of the deal, it's clearly way too high, so again, that's just Nelsen doing his job, and Leiweke doing his by taking advice and then deciding he wants to pull the trigger anyway.  The bit about Nelsen being frustrated with Bradley though, I could totally see that, Bradley, for better or worse does seem to try to do too much out there, and I think we've all at one point said that figuring out Bradley's role in the team hasn't been acheived yet. It seems as if due to his star name and wage packet, having him just be a very very effective DM would be a waste of his talent, even if it might serve the team best. This certainly gives added heft to the talk out there that Bradley would have helped get Nelsen the sack, if he's not happy with what Nelsen wanted him to do.

As always, it's best to take all these things with a pinch of salt, this is one side of the story, one coming from a probably aggrieved source (or somebody close to him)with a bit of a score to settle and a so far one sided record to balance out a bit. Other sources have already told other reporters other things, or they've been said in press conferences, there'll probably be more coming soon to rebut some of these points. Put them all together and you can maybe get a bit of an idea as to what's going on.

I'm a bit surprised we got this much really, usually TFC firees stay remarkably silent while the giant bus gets repeatedly ran over them as is tradition (cos it's always one person that's the problem, getting rid of this one part is all that needs to be done, just look at all these problems this one person caused, don't look harder at the organisation that keeps repeatedly failing, oh no).

The dysfunction rolls on.