Toronto FC have been one of MLS’s biggest spenders for well over a decade, splashing out on both salaries and transfer fees to acquire established Designated Players like Jermain Defoe, Michael Bradley, Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidore, Alejandro Pozuelo and others. In sum, the outlays stack up well into nine figures.
When it worked, it was scintillating: A unique ‘treble’ triumph in 2017, three trips to the MLS Cup final in four years, a stack of Canadian Championship titles, a run to the 2018 Concacaf Champions League final and periods of some truly gorgeous soccer that charmed Canada’s largest city.
When TFC’s high-dollar Designated Players didn’t pan out, however, things could get messy. That’s the context for the Reds’ mutually parting with Italian DPs Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi this week, which appears to mark the end of a freewheeling era on the shores of Lake Ontario.
“From an investment piece, we will look much different,” TFC general manager Jason Hernandez told reporters in a media availability on Wednesday.
“There's just no way around it, that TFC is going to continue to look much different in the short and medium term, which is exciting because I know specifically our supporters have been really wanting to feel real change."
Missing expectations
The Reds are utilizing the two contract buyouts permitted annually by MLS rules to complete these moves, all after the wingers ranked second (Insigne) and sixth (Bernardeschi) in the league in guaranteed annual compensation, per documents recently released by the MLS Players Association.
It wasn’t just that the Italians fell short of the high expectations that accompanied their wages and glittering track records in Serie A and with their national team. The Reds as a collective have underperformed for some time now, missing the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs four years running, while also being afflicted by internal strife during the early stages of the duo’s time in Ontario.
“It's reasonable to say that, certainly from a salary perspective, we should not expect ownership to be these unique outliers in the league space of having these really, really robust salaries specifically dedicated to two guys,” said Hernandez, who expects to have a busy Secondary Transfer Window with the two DP spots and roster flexibility gained this week.
“So certainly, the way we invest, I would imagine, is going to change, but I don't think that at all is going to be connected to the commitment and attention to winning and being competitive, if that makes sense. The commitment will continue in the investment space; it would just be dedicated and allocated much more efficiently.”
New path
The latter aspect calmed down significantly in more recent seasons, yet TFC remained stuck in the Eastern Conference basement despite one of MLS’s highest wage bills. Hernandez said the club had been working on a departure solution with Insigne’s camp “for probably a few transfer windows” before finally reaching this outcome, while the exit of Bernardeschi, who is reportedly set to join Bologna, took shape much more recently.
Now, a new path can be charted.
“It's the right approach. I think if the salaries are closer to being in line with the rest of the group or even the rest of the league, I think it builds more of a team feeling, and that's the thing that's really important, is being able to make sure that the team functions as a team,” said head coach Robin Fraser.
“It's something I talk about all the time. This is a club that has historically spent money, and certainly the last time I was here [as an assistant under Greg Vanney], a fair amount of money was spent, but we got great results. And the key is that whatever we do in terms of spending, we need to bring people who are going to continue to enhance the team feeling. And just by the disparity of salaries alone, there can be a sense of a great division within the team.”
Roster approach
It wasn’t cheap to cut ties with the DPs, Hernandez noted. Insigne’s deal runs through next summer and Bernardeschi’s performance levels – the ex-Juventus winger was by far the more productive of the two – had triggered a contract extension through the 2028 season.
Toronto plan to be a great deal more cautious with major acquisitions going forward, and could even shift from the conventional three-DP roster model to the ‘2/4/2’ alternative in order to gain additional General Allocation Money and max out on younger talent with four U22 Initiative slots.
“All of these things are in flux,” said Hernandez. “We’re talking about what exactly will be the final strategy moving forward. I think really what is the most important part for us, fundamentally, as a club right now, is we have flexibility, and we have options for the first time in a long time.”
Currently 13th in the Eastern Conference with a 4W-10L-5D record, Toronto would have to make a drastic turnabout to push into the postseason reckoning and have already been eliminated from the 2025 CanChamp.
Yet both Hernandez and Fraser pointed to last weekend’s emphatic 3-0 win over the Portland Timbers as a sign of what’s possible for the future, both in terms of the soccer the Reds played and the nature of the group that produced it, featuring a mixture of homegrown players, SuperDraft picks, prospects nurtured in their MLS NEXT Pro squad and imports much less pricey than the two who just left.
“The mentality that we showed on the weekend is critical,” said Fraser. “It's going to be everything for us, is to be able to play with that sort of commitment, that sort of work, that sort of covering for each other.
“We've dug ourselves this hole, and it's only us that can get us out of it. We talk about that all the time. There's no shying away from it.”
