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Toronto FC continues to deal, trades Tchani to Columbus for Iro, Griffit

Tchani (Getty Images)

The revolving door at BMO Field keeps turning.

Toronto FC traded Tony Tchani to the Columbus Crew on Friday in exchange for centerback Andy Iro and midfielder Leandre Griffit.

The move comes a day after Toronto picked up Terry Dunfield from Vancouver and dealt Jacob Peterson, Alan Gordon and Nana Attakora to San Jose for Ryan Johnson, allocation money and an international roster slot.

A couple of weeks ago, the club announced the signings of Designated Players Torsten Frings and Danny Koevermans, who will be eligible to play for the club after the summer transfer window opened on Friday.

Tchani, the second overall pick in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft, was seen as the key piece in the deal Toronto made with the New York Red Bulls for Dwayne De Rosario back in April. He started 13 games for TFC and scored his only goal for the Reds against Columbus on April 23. After the ensuing celebration he was given a somewhat controversial yellow card, which was his second of the match and resulted in his ejection.

The 26-year-old Iro, meanwhile, had fallen out of favor in Columbus after being a regular starter a year ago. He played sparingly for Robert Warzycha this season, taking a back seat to Julius James, who was brought in after being cut by D.C. United in the offseason.

Griffit barely played with the first team in Columbus, where he has been since last season.

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What do you think of the trade? Surprised TFC gave up on Tchani so soon?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Both are correct, in all English speaking countries, though it is less common in so called “American English”. I tend to use British spellings, as I am a Canadian of British heritage and most of what I read is written by Brits. Plus it’s their language, so we should be following their conventions. Right neighboUr?

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  2. Lol. Yes slam TFC for bringing in a ‘reserve’ coach from a club famous for scouting and development…Barca should sack Guardiola. And why did Roma hire Luis Enrique?

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  3. Two comments

    1. Winter GREATLY underestimated the quality of the league. It has taken him until now to realize his team lacked quality.

    2. More importantly, the legacy of Mo Johnstone has to be discussed at some point. The reason this team had such huge turnover during his tenure is he received a “commission” from every new signing. His behaviour bordered on criminal and MLSE (Tom Anselmi) knew about it and turned a bling eye.

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  4. Yeah, Jeremy, I get that. Casey, Cunningham, blah, blah, blah. Zzzzzzz.

    May be you should think about who we got for ANY of those players mentioned above. They’ve all gone on to success elsewhere and the bags of hammers that we got for them are still holding down the banners at BMO.

    C.

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  5. Some supporter. Apaprently unaware that casey demanded to be traded; cunningham started for an entire season and managed to miss a CCL goal that was literally bouncing on the goal line in front of him; robbo is 34 and a backup; and Marvell Wynne is a career MLS journeyman with great speed and little else. The only real loss on that list is Sam Cronin, and you can thank Pricki for that one.

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  6. Yeah, as a TFC fan, keep your pity. After watching Tony Tchani’s ineptitude at delivering a pass and lousy work ethic in covering two ways, I’m not sure your opinion swings much weight up here man.

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  7. For the most part it was the style of speech, as opposed to the content, that bugged me. If that is a result of your bilingualism, then please accept my apologies.

    As to the content, I feel it is still very early to be choosing whether Winter is a good or bad coach. If a coach was judged by the fact that he’d only ever led the reserves…well, no one would ever become a 1st team coach, because they’d never get out of the reserves.

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  8. It is my real name – one of the advantages of having a very common name is that I don’t have to hide behind a username.

    Anyways, it is not hard to learn proper grammar, and even less hard to use it. If the original poster was using English as a second language, that is very fair and I apologise. My French grammar has never been good, and I wouldn’t expect ESL people to be great at English grammar. On the other hand, natural English speakers do need to improve their grammar. Why should you write differently replying a blog as opposed to writing your boss or a teacher?

    Anyways, I do see correcting people’s grammar to be the right thing to do. You won’t learn if you don’t know when you’re wrong. If you’re not trying to learn, then your life might as well be over already.

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  9. Hes doing it to instill a system that will be around for years (ideally decades etc). Ajax and Barca didnt do it in a year. Im not saying TFC is or will be either one of those but they do need to drill the system into the players they have and hte players they will have (the academy) so they can step into their position and perform the tasks that are demanded and expected of them

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  10. thanks Bob, Paul Stalteri IS a free agent and although 33 he could probably come in as a non-dp and play at an outside back for this team.

    almost seems too perfect of a fit for the canadian.

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  11. seriously Kevin Smith get a f*cking clue.. what kind of jerk goes around correcting people’s spelling/grammer.. what a duche..it the comment seciton of a blog!

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  12. Cant stand people like you Kevin Smith, hope thats not your real name b/c thats as common as people criticizing grammar.

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  13. I give him Casey and Wynne. Those guys drowned their sorrows in championship champagne.

    But yeah, Robinson had nothing left in the tank, Cronin doesn’t appear to be a player, and Cunningham had one more goal-scoring season, but the next time he’s an important part of a stretch run will be the first time.

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  14. Grammar aside, what do you disagree with from what I wrote!

    Side note: Incorrect grammar could be a side effect of being bilingual! Sorry about that!

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  15. Im not saying i have the answer (i dont) im saying i know a problem when i see one and its TFC’s management. Sure, Winter will be the scapegoat but TFC’s demise also should be attributed to people like Mariner and the owners who took forever in hiring Winter. My problem with Winter is that he is playing that darn 4-3-3 for the longest time even though he says he does not have the personnel to do so. So why is he still doing that? Yea, perplexing huh? Why doesnt he start implementing his total football when he gets the right players to do so?

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  16. Not true at all by anymeans. The average age of our team is something like 24, not to mention that we havent brought in any older players except Frings and Koevermans. All we’ve done is bring in players that suit our needs, rather than keep other players that dont. Tchani, regardless of how good he might be in the future, is of no use now, weve got players of his position both old and young. No big loss.

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