Hassli move won’t be Toronto FC’s last move

Eric Hassli was shipped by Toronto FC to Dallas for a conditional draft pick. Al Dannity says we can expect more changes from the Reds soon.

The Eric Hassli move never worked out for the Reds and in truth it never looked likely to. Hassli, 32, was the youngest of Toronto FC’s three designated players. With the new front office keen to get younger and free up cap room, this may just be the start of a string of changes.

Last season was nothing short of ugly for the Reds. Champions League Soccer was secured by winning the Voyageurs Cup but everything else about the season stank. With little room to manoeuvre in the cap, wholesale changes were required to make a significant jump from last season’s bottom-of-the-ladder performance. When you’re this bad, there’s no risk in blowing up the bus.

That’s why Torsten Frings, 36, the oft-injured German veteran and Toronto captain is likely nearing the end of his time in Toronto. Likewise Danny Koevermans, 34, will hardly be part of the Reds’ long-term plans. The Dutch striker is best known for declaring Toronto the worst team in the world early last season. While an exaggeration, it’s not like Koevermans was making them better.

The shift in focus is on bringing in designated players aged 27 or younger. Toronto FC wants to bring in players in their prime and get the best years out of them. This is hardly new-wave thinking but it’s the type of common sense that has been lacking in Canada’s longest established Major League Soccer (MLS) club.

The MLS Superdraft showed the Reds still want to focus on developing Canadian talent so the core of the team will likely still look the same. There are however options out there that could prove far more tempting in the long-run. The dream move would have been going after Jonatan de Guzman, who looked an after-thought in Europe at the start of the summer. The Canadian-born player has however seen an upturn in form since going on loan to Swansea City and has been called up to the Dutch national team, moving him out of the price-range of the MLS club and out of the sights of Team Canada.

Ryan Nelsen however looks to be an astute hire as head coach. Having played the game with graft, he served Blackburn Rovers and QPR well in the English Premier League. Like his counterpart in Vancouver, Martin Rennie, Nelsen will surely be keen to bring in industrial players with plenty of gas still in the tank. You don’t get many guys like that on the field in their mid-30s. The changes have only just begun.