Conor Casey, A Mess?

It's easy to see how things were going to play out with hind sight. The MLS finally announced yesterday that Toronto FC had signed Conor Casey. But not before WVHooligan posted about the mess that is Conor Casey. Hindsight aside, the tone of the blog was too cynical in my opinion. The league has been becoming more transparent with their player issues. More so, in this case the core issue was that Toronto was being reluctant to use a major allocation to bring in Casey. I didn't see how this was a reason to be cynical about the league's dealings. Casey is relatively known quantity and talent. And he's coming into the league on the heals of a year when Kenny Cooper went from a young ManUtd academy reject to US National Team player. More teams than just Toronto and Colorado were interested in Casey. Not only is it reasonable given his talent and demand that Toronto had to use a full allocation on him but it shows that the league is moving away from back room deals that may favor a certain team. Are they perfect yet? No but at least we've moved way from the days when league pet projects like DC United could cherry pick the best players from league controlled teams like Tampa Bay.