By Ben Knight

 

So, sure, everyone in Toronto FC land is talking about Amado Guevara signing with a team in his native Honduras and there goes the playmaker and we didn’t get anything for him and I’ll probably get in on that tomorrow or something unless something else happens and you know how it goes, right?

So I want to write about Pablo Vitti.

The young Argentine has also been let float away, having produced little more than a headed-in goaltending mistake every not-quite-900-minutes on the field for TFC.  A couple of nice assists, too, one of which he didn’t actually get credit for.

We all got sold a bag of hype on this one.  A $300,000 contract was signed, even though the question “how does an allegedly good young Argentine goal scorer end up playing in the Ukrainian league?” never quite got answered.

Flashes of brilliance?  Certainly.  A darting run that beat three opponents, followed by a perfectly weighted rolling shot an inch past the far post.  Fans gushed.  Bloggers happily relaxed and said things were going to work out fine.

That play, alone, bought Vitti some very passionate defenders and fans.  And man oh boy did I start hearing from them when I started noting publicly that the “kid” wasn’t producing anything that ended up on the scoreboard.

And I was willing to buy it for a while, too.  Heck, maybe he was being played out of position all the time.  Maybe it was my fault that I saw good moves and lousy link-up.  Maybe all his link-up work came when I didn’t see it.  Which would mean it came when he wasn’t being flashy.  Which made me wonder why everyone was praising his flash.

So I just put my head down and kept watching.  I’ve been wrong before.  And I’d admit being incorrect if suddenly faced with a rising evidence pile of Pablo Vitti goals.

In the end, I don’t quite understand how TFC GM Mo Johnston found Vitti in Ukraine, and why he was convinced a chronic non-producer was going to light up MLS to the tune of more than tem per cent of Toronto’s salary cap.  Certainly there was pressure on Johnston to sign South Americans a year ago.

But, in all blessed honesty, the answer to the question “how does an allegedly good young Argentine goal scorer end up playing in the Ukrainian league?” is – they don’t.

Bringing a guy like Vitti in on a low-money gamble could have been a savvy move.  Paying him that much – for that little – hurt the team.

But the roster spot and the cap room are free now.  A South American playmaker or finisher might still be a good gamble for a team with big holes up front and on the flanks.

… As long as he’s playing south of the Equator, on this side of the Atlantic.

Onward!

P>S>>> Onward! has reached the final round of voting for Canadian Sports Blog of the Year.  Duane and Squizz are nominated also, so this is a banner outcome for the “It’s Called Football” crew.  Please vote http://www.demochoice.org/dcballot.php?poll=cba09r2spo early and often.  Thanks!