TFC varia

Ok, now I'm so totally psyched about the new season (a condition that will presumably last until the CSA decide to make some boneheaded announcement which will result in the Serbian White Eagles representing Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League) that I can barely do anything else. So, time to catch up on some TFC news.

First, cheers to the fans, who this year purchased 16,000 season tickets. With 2,500 or so seats going in mini-packages that leaves less than 2,000 tickets for walk-up crowds. Which means tickets will be scarce and scalpers will do well. An excellent boost for the economy all around.

Second, you may have noticed that there was something called the Superdraft a week or two ago. I chose to deliberately ignore this on the grounds that there was no point getting too attached to anyone we drafted because Mo would almost certainly trade them immediately. Now, trying to figure out Mo's motives in these things is a mug's game, but I am starting to think that he might - just might - actually not want to trade anybody.

Hear me out: Prior to the draft, we had five, maybe six defenders worthy of the name. Three of them (Wynne, Brennan and Dunivant) are at least theoretically capable of playing midfield as well, though Dunivant in midfield is technically something one should avoid. The arrival of Julius James and Pat Phelan (our two first-round picks) mean that at least two of these eight (including Phelan) would now be available for midfield duty.

Now, although much was made of TFC's offensive woes last year, the real problem was actually not in attack but in midfield. TFC have three genuinely good midfielders (Edu, Robbo, and O'Brien). When all three played, TFC were very tough to beat. When one or more of them were gone, they were god-awful. So to the extent that depth in defence is going to lead to more options in midfield, life has to be getting better.

And now add to this the East Country rumours that Mo is sniffing around yet another Norwich player - Darren Huckerby (pictured) to join former Canaries Jim Brennan and Carl Robinson. Unlike a lot of the other rumours out there about TFC-bound players (the Stefano Fiore rumour being the most ludicrous), this one seems to have a lot of traction, and frankly makes more sense given how close he is to the Dichio mold. If Huckerby plays on the left of midfield, that plugs the most serious gap on the squad.

Less promising are the Josh Wagenaar rumours. It's not obvious to me why he'd prefer being the reserve keeper at TFC to being the reserve keeper at Den Haag - unless he's being brought in to be the number one. This would suggest that Sutton is considered too brain-scrambled to play any more or he's trade-bait (though suspicions of brain-scrambledness obviously won't do much for his trade value).

59 days 'til kick off.