Scapegoat Mo

I've delayed writing this for a number of reasons, mostly to be honest because I don't have anything to add. But reading Jonathan Wilson's breakout article today on England's messiah complex when it comes to the national team set-up, my thoughts have returned to the Mo Johnston/Preki situation.

If I were someone else—say, a person who had carefully studied Preki's tactical approach over the course of his season with Toronto FC this year, including formations, team sheets, substitutions etcetera, or perhaps someone who had paid close attention to Mo Johnston's career in MLS and with TFC, his management skills, his ability to pick players at the right time for the right purpose, his understanding of the league of which he was a key player—I might be able to definitively lay down the case that Tuesday's groundbreaking news will propel Toronto FC forward to previously unreached heights.

I am not that person, which is why I have a modest following and why the sky doesn't cave in when I don't post for a few days. I am me, that is, someone who understands these things as through a glass, darkly. So I will only meekly add the things I thought about Mo and Preki, keeping in mind that my opinion is as valuable as the next person's unless the next person's happens to be closer to the truth. First, that Mo traded players too often and undermined the stability of a young franchise team, the first Canadian club in MLS. That the team was not mentally strong (whether or not that's down to the house that Mo built, I don't know) and were chronically incapable of securing wins on the road. That Mo was inept at bringing in coaches who might do something with a team with some fairly capable talent.

As for Preki, well, I just thought he was a tactical stick in the mud who presided over some turgid displays, but was probably a better coach than Cummins or Carver or Johnston when it came down to it. Ultimately though, this is about Mo Johnston and whether his departure after three years will have a significant effect on Toronto FC's future fortunes.

In his article, Wilson quotes Dave Brailsford, a man he calls "the most successful British sports coach of the last decade." Brailsford believes that "[if a] player is 1% fitter, 1% happier, 1% more motivated, 1% quicker, if the nutrition is 1% better, if muscle recovery is improved 1%, if the midfield is 1% better drilled, the defence 1% better organised, it can make a difference." In other words, a team's success happens not by accident, or by the leadership of one man or even a few individuals, but by the commitment of an entire organization to do the little, mundane things to get everyone to improve over an arduously slow period of monotonous effort and training from which there can be no guaranteed result. That means players, coaches, managers, marketers, owners, fans, together.

I'm not sure getting rid of Mo will answer some of these underlying issues. I know some Toronto soccer people have been ready to give MLSE a bye for a while now, mostly because the club has been generally earnest in working with supporter groups and listening to fans. But they bear as much a part in the last three years as Mo Johnston (and let's be honest: Tuesday's shake-up had as much to do with giving Reds fans a reason to renew tickets for next season as improving the club's performances). Ditto with some of the players who have too often spread rumours of "locker room schisms" in order to deflect blame for some seriously half-arsed performances.

I guess my point is there are no easy scapegoats in something as complex and arduous as a running a successful sports club. Its success and failure hinges on these tiny percentage points of improvement, and those increments come not from the grandiose machinations of coaches or GMs but as the result of the efforts of everyone involved with the club. Toronto FC's 4-1 drubbing against RSL is a clear sign there is hard work ahead, and it's up to the fans to ensure MLSE and the club work in good faith to complete it.