Scotty

seems to be a pattern here ....... we seem to be signing (or trialling) players who have had major or persistent injury issues in the past. Its a bit of a gamble, but perhaps it means we get a player one step up from what we can actually afford in the "fully fit" list of available players?

Thought to have a general MLS topic that myself and any other MLS watchers can post in rather than just a TFC one ! Feel free to join in ...... Will start it with three bits of news for this week with an ICT or Scottish connection ... the first seems certain, the second gave me a chuckle, the third is still at the rumour stage. 1. Kenny Miller looks set to sign for Vancouver Whitecaps and join up with Barry Robson: http://www.bbc.co.uk...otball/18847695 http://www.thesun.co...e-MLS-move.html 2. Montreal Impact are taking a certain former ICT player on trial .... Myself and luvgravy have already laughed about this on Twitter, but respected journalist Luke Wileman reports Bajram Fetai currently on trial with Montreal https://twitter.com/LukeWileman 3. Toronto FC rumoured to be trying to get Carlos Bocanegra to steady up the leaky defence. Nothing concrete on this one, and they could face an uphill battle with New England (and some Mexican teams) for his services. New England have first refusal on getting him if he comes back to MLS, Toronto are #2 on the list, and although New England are 'interested' TFC last week traded one of the three DPs on the team to Dallas and many are speculating it is to make way for him and/or Canadian captain Kevin McKenna (formerly of Hearts).

you can see from your user group (Player Sponsor) that it went through. Usergroup changes immediately that its paid. It is just me being slow updating the page manually :)

not a huge amount of razzamatazz in MLS ... the MLS management are developing the league more slowly, a lesson they learned from the failures of the past. They may know how to do PR and such like but thats a bad thing ??? I would agree in principle with that. I think Scarlet is just being overly optimistic. However MLS 2.0 is setup differently to the previous incarnation that included the Cosmos, Beckenbauer, Best etc. Every team coming in must have a youth academy, every team has to spend (the vast majority of) transfer profits on ground improvements or youth, every team has to work within a salary budget, and every rule like this is designed to develop the league from the ground up and unlike the SFA/SFL/SPL to use the lessons learned from past mistakes to make things stronger and better this time around. I think you also mix-up 'best' with 'richest' ... it only takes one of those leagues to have a financial crisis and all the 'best' players will leave very quickly. ... then you are ignorant and have not bothered to back up opinion with fact based on the current league, choosing instead to remember the 70s. Yes there are still a few like that but the number of youth players coming through in Canada/USA and players coming from Latin America or South America with the express intention of reaching the big money of Europe when they get older make it a far different place. Have a gander at this article ... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/sports/soccer/mls-seen-as-steppingstone-to-europe-for-promising-young-players.html?_r=1 or consider some of the players who came over to Europe on loan at the end of their MLS season last year: Brek Shea (Arsenal), Teal Bunbury (Bolton), Landon Donovan (Everton), Kyle Beckerman (Kaiserslauten), Bill Hamid (WBA), Sean Johnston (Man Utd), Stefan Frei (Liverpool), Omar Salgado (Fulham) ... and those are pretty much off the top of my head Pele/Best were way before the current MLS and therefore irrelevant. Richard Gough too was barely in the "new" MLS making appearances in 1997 and 1998. 'new' MLS was formed in 1993 but is widely regarded as not starting proper development until around 2002 when interest surged after USA reached the QF of the World Cup. In those 10 years it HAS made huge changes and gone through a lot of development. I have seen Beckham play in person several times - have you? - and although he may no longer play to the same level as he did before, he has still got it ... again, this can be evidenced by the fact that he went back to Milan on loan two seasons in a row at the end of the MLS season !! Mo Johnston not involved in MLS since September 2010 indeed. you do seem to have an inane ability to selectively choose where to comment and how to comment and conveniently ignore the valid points or questions made to you .... like the ones in my earlier post. I am sure you could equally drag up google postings to back up any point

Dougal ... Have you ever been to an MLS game in person ? Have you ever even watched a complete one on TV ? thought not. Another one who bases their opinions on the New York Cosmos of the 70s ! No-one called him a 'top' player. I used the term 'solid' and yes he will be. Have you actually seen him play recently - at Middlesborough I mean, not in this inferior MLS product - or are you basing your assumptions on 2003 or earlier ? quite frankly, for anyone who is watching Scottish Football implode right now to have the stones to slag off the standard of any league as inferior is quite astonishing.

Cost you more than £8 normally though didn't it ?

actually ..... and perhaps surprisingly enough, he did display some maturity and even a calming influence on proceedings. I guess the petulant Barry we have all seen - and who is likely still in there if you wind him up properly - has added those qualities to his game. Best example was when Mattocks got the equaliser in 90 minutes .... The player was taunting the crowd, and behind him, experienced MLSer Jay DeMerit was also giving the 'come-ahead' sign ... but Barry was telling him, "ok, enough, lets go" Based on what I have seen so far, he looks like he is going to be a good and solid MLS player. He wont get the media coverage of other DPs like Beckham or Henry or even Frings, and he perhaps isnt in that bracket, but he will be solid I think. His touches and passes on Wednesday were pretty good and if one or two of his 30 yard efforts connect they will surely get a 'goal of the week' award or two .... I wanted to come out of this game hating him for being an opposition player .... but I couldnt ! He has definitely matured, still has qualities I remember from the TCS, and I felt quite proud of the fact that he used to play for ICT.

This jump you mean ? I was close enough to get a good photo......

it holds 22K and it was half empty at kick-off but I think that had more to do with the 7PM start, people working till 5 or 6, and the sheer volume and congestion of Toronto traffic at rush hour ..... there were people coming in all way through the game and official crowd by the end was 19K .... to me when it was fullest it looked about 17K A few pics from last night ......

possibly ! Like I say, decent enough player and quite a lot of TFC fans are sad to see him go even if we knew it was inevitable ... He played virtually all games under Aron Winter and was doing good this season (compared to previous seasons where I would say he was 'average') ... but Mariner just doesnt rate him for some reason and was looking for any excuse to cut him loose ... the drinking incident, which was blown out of all proportion gave him that excuse and its likely he will be followed out the door by Miguel Aceval a 29 year old centre half who was also arrested in that incident, but trust me, ICT dont want to look at that guy ... total liability ! The other one of the trio - Luis Silva - seems to have escaped unscathed as he has been playing regularly ... and he scored TFC's first goal last night !

Just had to share these photos from the TFC supporters group forum I post on .... Darren Mattocks taunting the crowd after scoring to make it 2-2 right on the 90th minute ..... then Terry Dunfield celebrating a couple of minutes later after scoring the winner 3 minutes into injury time !

Toronto FC just released Nick Soolsma "by mutual consent". He could be worth a punt if the wages were right .... (TFC wage was equivalent to about £1300 p/week but not sure he would be worth quite that amount) The 24 year old winger/forward was having a pretty decent season with TFC but was one of the three players who got arrested in Houston a few weeks ago for "public intoxication" (supposedly a very easy charge to be arrested for in Texas). The fallout from that arrest and the fact that he was a favourite of previous boss Aron Winter but not new boss Paul Mariner all added up to his release yesterday.

Finished 3-2 to Toronto !!! 2-1 up with 1 minute to play then Darren Mattocks scored for the visitors and classlessly taunted the supporters section ..... but step up Terry Dunfield, former Vancouver player, and one of those journeymen you mention with the winning goal 3 minutes into injury time !!! Justice was done and the smile on his face was HUGE when he scored ! Yes, Frings is class, and to be honest, Robson also had a decent game. Almost scored in first few minutes with one of his trademark 30 yard efforts and generally looked pretty good in bossing the midfield ... He did fade in the second half so maybe why you didnt see much from him if you only caught the latter part of the match. Word over here is that TFC might be targetting Bocanegra and they loaned out a player last week and released another today to make about $200,000 salary cap room for someone, just havent confirmed who ........

Big Match tonight and a direct ICT connection !!!! TFC take on Vancouver Whitecaps at BMO Field in Toronto. Although TFC did ok in the Champions League (falling at semi-final stage) and won the Canadian Championship again, they do not have their troubles to seek in the league after a disastrous start to the MLS season that sees them bottom of the Eastern Conference. After 17 games (exactly half-way) its 2 wins, 4 draws and 11 losses with 18 scored and 33 conceded !!!! Looks a bit better if you go with recent results where it is 2 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses in the last 8 though with 12 scored and 12 conceded ..... Tonight's opponents, Vancouver are 4th in the Western Conference after winning 8, drawing 6 and losing 4. 19 scored, 19 conceded and the ICT connection of course is that Barry Robson is now playing for the Whitecaps. He made his debut against Colorado last Wednesday and lasted about an hour in the altitude and heat, then he played again on Saturday in Los Angeles against Chivas and lasted the full 90 and tonight should be his 3rd appearance for the '****eCaps'. Looking forward to seeing the first former Caley Thistle player to grace Major League Soccer and hope he has a decent couple of years in MLS except when he plays TFC !!!! A good few mentions of ICT in his profile too ! http://www.whitecapsfc.com/players/barry-robson?quicktabs_=about#quicktabs-

Can't argue with that nor I !!!

I was thinking more Monty Python's Gumby ......

Yes, this is for our player sponsorship effort. You join the player sponsor group, which gives you a nice little "+07: Player Sponsor" designation next to your name on the boards and from that membership money we then sponsor a player on the members' behalf. As per the first post .... The simplest (and preferred) method is PayPal as the account can accept most major credit cards or payment directly from other paypal accounts, it is instant, trackable, and immediately assigns the user to the player sponsor group but we know not everyone likes to make transactions online, and some have had bad experiences with PayPal in the past (we have not, I hasten to add and we literally do all our online stuff with them) so for more traditional payments we rely on a few site users (mods/admin or other well known users) to accept payment in cash and then give it to CaleyD who then deposits it in the PayPal account. LG was also able/permitted to accept payment at the stadium last season on our behalf and although it didnt pass through PayPal it did go straight to the club and the members were manually added to the sponsor group. As the season gets closer to a start, and people start socialising before friendlies or league games again I expect we will be able to confirm who you can give it to and be sure it reaches the right place !!!! Will add you to the list, and hopefully by the time we start reminding those who havent paid, there will be a way for you to do so

To carry on the Picard Pics ....

now he's backtracking .... Press Association article from 10 minutes ago Scottish Premier League chief executive Neil Doncaster has played down fears of clubs facing immediate threat of insolvency events following their decision to reject the newco Rangers application. Doncaster acknowledged that the short-term commercial impact of their decision was difficult to determine given uncertainty over contracts including broadcasting deals. But when asked about an instant danger to clubs, he said: "I wouldn't have thought so. I'm not privy to the details of all member clubs' financial positions. The whole issue has an awful lot riding on it, there are some big numbers involved. The easy decision would have been to say 'yes' and protect commercial revenues. The clubs have decided to be bold and say 'no'." Full Article http://www.google.co...61341426171482A He still doesnt get it does he ??? The clubs are not being bold (well not as their primary purpose anyway), the clubs are following their supporters and even a large number of supporters of Rangers Oldco in placing sporting integrity before commercial gain. This fool needs to resign now if he thinks the "easy" decision would have been YES ... There was no easy decision for any chairman in terms of finances and keeping their clubs afloat, especially with all the alleged bully-boy (or was that Billy-Boy) and scare tactics coming from his direction ... instead there was just the right decision in saying no and preserving the integrity of the sport, a decision that may hurt now, but that hopefully will ultimately allow Scottish Football to bounce back, perhaps re-organise itself so it is not a duopoly off the park as well as on it, and shed itself of those who seek to further the agenda of just two clubs instead of all 42 .......

If Ian Black is not in an ICT shirt, and not in the shirt of an SPL rival, then he is irrelevant to me .....

I believe 12th Man is more likely to be correct than Proctor. If Kenny Cameron has publicly stated that ICT will (or did) vote NO on the basis of the overwhelming feeling of ICT fans who have contacted him, the Supporters Trust or posted on here, then that is how he will vote. I have known him for a long time and have always found him to be a man of his word .... It is Doncaster who is spinning in the wind here, and the sooner that this buffoon resigns, the better. The statements of the Raith Chairman and the Clyde FC Official statement surely make this man's position untenable, even if this cluster**** of a summer hasnt already done so in everyone's eyes but his own.

Why are they ignoring the second division Chairmen? c'mon, all the others have been pissed off ... time for some equality here !!!

Ironically, if Sevco Rangers are in the SFL after the voting takes place, County would not have been be able to share there as the legitimate SPL side would not have first refusal/control over their own home fixture dates ..... !!!

oh well .... better send me the sarcasm smiley !

I understood your satire Kingsmills