Quote Originally Posted by Pookie View Post
Oh, I never thought he was going there to train. That would be silly. I'm just taking a little shot at one of the defenses used in this whole debate.

I honestly think that TFC wanted him there in order that he could earn a longer term contract.

They clearly didn't want him going for a short term loan, saying no to the same, so giving "permission" (eventually) had to be done with the idea that if they could rid themselves of the contract on a longer term, they'd do it.

The only other plausible reason for TFC to allow him to stay there was to save face after having their hand forced.

Either way, I'm not sure how that parlays into him staying with the Reds in 2011.
I think that was the ploy from the agent from the start despite the public being told to the contrary. i.e. permission vs. no permission, training vs. trialing

But that would surely make you look like the bad guy for sure. Akin to a player not happy with his contract holding out at training camp.

The fact is DeRo was stuck. He had a contract that he signed for 4 years based on the promise from a previous GM that he would get raise at some point. He never got that raise and it appeared he wasn't going to get that raise. Unlike someone who has a regular job and could quit and take a job with another company, an athlete doesn't have the ability to "quit" and get a job with another team.

One option he has is to demand a trade out or the other is hold out. In both cases, the public isn't going to look to kindly on you.

So he and his agent found a way to force the clubs' hand to react in some way. They were able to exploit the incompetence of the previous regime or rely on that fact so when questioned what the hell are you doing in Glasgow? They could just respond "oh we were allowed to." And even if it wasn't the case they could just play it off as "see TFC is so incompetent, can't get their facts straight" and still save face.

That's why people in sports don't like agents because they'll come up with these kinds of scenarios.