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Tim Regan to be named Toronto FC Chief Scout

Tim_regan_ap

Former MLS defender Tim Regan’s professional playing career just ended last season but he has already found his next career path.

Toronto FC is set to hire Regan as its first technical director to a head scouting role, a source with knowledge of the hiring process told SBI on Wednesday. Regan and Toronto FC are still in contract talks, and a working title for the position has yet to be agreed to, but Regan is expect to be put in charge of scouting for the United States and South America in what is the first step toward the club’s establishment of a European-style scouting department.

Regan had been in talks with Toronto FC about a technical director position but TFC officials determined that a technical director position was not needed with Director of Soccer Mo Johnston already in place. That lead to new discussion of a different title that will still have many of the same responsibilities of a standard technical director.

Regan, 26, spent five seasons in MLS, playing for the MetroStars and Chivas USA before returning to play for the Red Bulls. He has close ties to Toronto FC director of soccer Mo Johnston, who coached Regan as an assistant from 2003 to 2005.

Regan played a total of 80 games over five seasons and left the league as one of the most well-liked players to pass through MLS. Toronto FC will be banking on his knowledge of the league and of the college game to help assist Johnston in building Toronto FC into a winner.

A Bradley University product, Regan enjoyed his best season as a player in 2006, when he started 30 games for Chivas USA under head coach Bob Bradley, the same coach who drafted him and coached him for three seasons with the MetroStars.

After being let go by the Red Bulls last season, Regan moved to North Carolina to pursue a graduate degree.

Comments

  1. Gotta say, I have this feeling Regan plays a lot of FM and just has an encyclopedic memory for the North and South American leagues.

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  2. I wish Tim Regan the best of luck in his new career. While not the best player, I was a fan and wish he got an office gig with Metro.

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  3. VPjr – you probably hit the nail on the head.

    Why noone at MLSE hasn’t thrown the book at Mo for his insestuous boys club antics is beyond me. We finished last in 2007 because of his insistence on using MacLean and I can’;t understand why a ownership group with the reputation of MLSE would allow for such a blatant conflict of interest to exist.

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  4. There’s no point criticizing the hiring of Regan at this point. I’m inclined to give a young guy (presumably smart and likely a hard worker based on what I saw of him as a player) a chance to prove himself.

    It does concern me somewhat that Mo would see fit to hire a guy with seemingly no scouting experience and likely no significant contacts and who has no noteworthy coaching experience as Head Scout. However, everyone’s gotta start somewhere so he’ll have to be given some amount of time to prove himself. I’m sure some of the agents who have become frustrated trying to get Mo to consider some of their players will be happy to have someone new to talk to.

    I wonder if Barry McLean is Tim Regan’s agent?

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  5. Not to bitch overly. But this guy has very thin qualifications. It’s like Mo Johnston is running some sort of boys club.

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  6. Guys, I will address the Matt Kassel situation in the morning.

    For those of you actually here for the Tim Regan news, his position won’t have a technical director title but he will have many of the same responsibilities of technical director.

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  7. Adam, the academy system is new, so what you take as a precedent– when players were acquired by draft or by lottery (project 40)– doesn’t apply. The whole purpose of the youth development program is to provide a new model beyond the existing program. So there will necessarily be new procedures developed.

    And from various sources in the offseason, including Ives, teams can sign eligible players from their own youth system to GA contracts.

    What you’re saying FLAT OUT CONTRADICTS many other reports.

    That said, it wouldn’t surprise me if the current Red Bull front office is so stupid that they out-and-out screwed up the Kassel deal.

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  8. oh and PS – RBNY & “total stupidity” is a very likely scenario in this case….

    i know no more than any, just mere speculation

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  9. im not sure what i have to justify. all i said was that MLS signs these GA guys and they usually announce the list before the draft, therefore they are signing with any team. i went on to mention that while i do not know if there has been an instance where someone joined the GA program after that unofficial signing date, it seems that even if there was a written “signing date” MLS probably wrote it in pencil.

    if the red bulls want kassel, they cant just call up MLS and say ‘sign him to a GA so we can sign him’ there is a process…or with most MLS rules, SHOULD BE a process.

    so while i agree that kassel should help a relatively mediocre RBNY and i greatly appreciate the competitive banter, please explain to me what i “fact” i need to clear up that bothered you so much.

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  10. Haig: Good points re: Regan. It’s true that sometimes failed players become the best executives.

    To further expound the Beane analogy, Michael Lewis (the writer of “Moneyball”, not the Big Apple Soccer dude) wrote at length about how Beane struggled on the field because he over-analyzed everything and didn’t allow himself to just react and let his athletic ability take over.

    Though he was out of the league after a few up-and-down years, those same analytical abilities have proven much more suited to his position in the front office. I think he actually has enough modesty that he said he actively looks for players who are NOTHING like he was. Most GM’s (or technical directors) would tend to lean towards recruiting players that remind them of themselves (bringing it back to your Lalas analogy).

    Regan’s one of the nicest guys in the league, and I hope he can make it happen in his new position.

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  11. wow, i just watched the portuguese cup game between benfica and sporting lisbon.

    benfica was winning 2-0 going into the 80th minute.

    benfica lisbon blitzed em, scored 5 goals in fifteen minutes.

    nuts.

    i think the teams i support all start to lose when i watch their games, its been the case all day with the exception of hannover.

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  12. Adam, either you’re saying you know more than everyone else, in which case you should explain why anyone should believe you, or you’re making stuff up.

    I’ll willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, because I can’t figure out why else, short of total friggin’ stupidity, RBNY would NOT have signed Kassel.

    But do everyone a favor and explain why you’re presenting what you said as fact.

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  13. Haig:

    I completely apologize for the lack of a bibliography to back up my “authoritative” claim……what is this, 4th grade? where are ives’ and brian lews’ sources?

    are you going to go around and play “Internet Police” and monitor all BLOG posts? give me a break, snappy

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  14. I liked Tim Regan for his toughness, intelligence, and hard work, but he wasn’t exactly known as a skilled player.

    But I wish him well in Toronto. Other sports are full of great coaches and front office people whose unstellar careers ended early. Billy Beane hit barely over .200 in a handful of Major League games. Jose Mourinho couldn’t even make the reserves of cellar-dwelling Portuguese clubs. Contrast this to Lalas, whose notoriety as a player far exceeding his worth on the field– is it any surprise that he’s an egotistical, self-promoting moron as a GM?

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  15. Yeah well if this guy is 26 why isn’t he still playing?????

    On to more important things….Any word on Patrick Kluivert coming to TFC???

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  16. Adam:

    “The fact he would likely sign as a Generation adidas player, and therefore not count toward one of the team’s 18 senior roster spots, makes his acquisition all the more likely.” Ives, 3/26

    “But at this point, it’s less about determining whether to offer him developmental money or a Generation Adidas deal and more about trying to figure out if he’ll be better suited getting a year or two at Maryland.” Brian Lewis 3/25

    It’s certainly POSSIBLE that MLS rejected a Generation Adidas deal with Kassel, but you don’t actually cite any evidence to back your claim up, either in detail or in principle. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but put your cards on the table and explain how you can make such an authoritative statement.

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  17. wow, im watching the old firm rivalry.

    tied 1 each in stoppage time, rangers were about to lock up the title.

    celtic scored in stoppage, won, and cut thw gap to only 4 pts with 3 games to go.

    nuts.

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  18. b/c teams dont sign GA players, the league does. seems kassel missed that boat by not deciding if he was going to go pro or not. even if he did decide, no guarantee he gets offered one. that being said, should he decide to go pro, the way the league operates he could still sign one even after a “signing date”

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  19. Off topic, but Ives, what’s the deal with Kassel? I’d love to see some reporting on the rationale. He wouldn’t have taken up a roster spot or a salary room as a GA, right? Isn’t it a total no-brainer to bring the kid on board? Or did the Red Bull braintrust decide he wasn’t good enough to even play as a reserve right now?

    Seems to me that if Kassel goes to UMd and plays well, he could just as easily go overseas as to RBNY, and we then would have squandered a chance to sign a top youth prospect.

    There’s a strong perception among many supporters that the current squad isn’t good enough or deep enough to be a top tier MLS team… or maybe even a mediocre MLS team.

    And, considering the fact that waiting until mid-season to make significant changes has NEVER worked for us, and has only worked twice that I can think of in MLS history, DC getting Moreno in 96 and Chicago with Blanco in 07, the decision to stand pat with the players we have for three months (12 games) is very disappointing.

    So with a freebie like Kassel, why didn’t we act?

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