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Why. Cant. We. Be. Great? Those were the words of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment President Tim Leiweke back in January when Toronto FC unveiled the double signing of Jermain Defoe and Michael Bradley. Leiweke was riding in on his white horse to save a club that had been mired in failure for seven years. His approach was to throw money at TFCs problems; the club had never before had players of the calibre of Defoe and Bradley, and Leiweke felt that all that was needed to turn things around was to sign better players, regardless of their inflated cost. Leiweke is the man credited with bringing David Beckham to Major League Soccer, so fans jumped on board to support the President; TFC finally had a man in charge who had experience and who knew what it takes to succeed in MLS. Despite all the hype and fanfare, though, Leiweke failed to address the fatal flaw that has plagued the Toronto FC organization since its inaugural year back in 2007: internal disarray. When Leiweke fired Kevin Payne - the GM that Leiweke inherited when he joined MLSE in late April 2013 - many people close to the club viewed this as proof that Leiweke knew what he was doing. Payne had made a series of bizarre decisions during his time in charge, including the hiring of Ryan Nelsen as the clubs head coach. When Nelsen was hired, he was still a player for QPR in the English Premier League and had no coaching experience. Leiweke replaced Payne with Tim Bezbatchenko - the Senior Director of Player Relations and Competition at the MLS head office - as the club’s GM. On the hiring, Leiweke said, Tim brings an analytical mind to the job along with the best understanding that I’ve seen of the salary cap and how to manage it. He knows how to build a team that will win long-term and he believes, like we do, that his vision will have an immediate and positive impact on this team. Bezbatchenko was essentially brought in to be TFCs capologist - the person in charge of negotiating contracts and getting TFCs notoriously poor cap management under control. But rather than cleaning house, hitting the reset button and starting with a clean slate, Leiweke instead chose to perpetuate TFC’s problems; he shackled his new GM to a coach he didn’t hire. Rather than empowering Bezbatchenko to search high and low for his own coach, someone he knew he could work with, Leiweke instead forced his GM to work with Nelsen. Leiweke did this for a very simple reason: he wanted to use Nelsens extensive list of contacts to attract better players to the club. The strategy worked - to an extent. The signings of Defoe and Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar happened because of Nelsen, as did the addition of English striker Luke Moore. These were players that Nelsen knew well, and they joined the club primarily because of Nelsen. Many of the other players who were signed by the club during Nelsen’s tenure - the likes of Collen Warner, Domenic Oduro and Warren Creavalle - were also Nelsen signings” that Bezbatchenko allegedly opposed. Say what you will about Nelsens coaching and game management - he was a rookie coach who was learning his trade on the job under a massive spotlight, and was always going to make mistakes - but he is no fool. He has extensive experience in the game and is an intelligent man who saw very clearly the problems with which he was faced. Nelsen did some good things for the club, including getting them out from under a horrible cap situation, but he was set up to fail as soon as Bezbatchenko replaced Payne. In the North American sporting landscape, the GM doesnt work for the coach - it is the other way around. The GM has the power to hire and fire the coach as he sees fit, and despite the pretense under which Bezbatchenko was hired - that he would remain behind the scenes and manage the cap, leaving Nelsen and his staff to get on with coaching the team – he, too, would have known that. For Bezbatchenko, it was all about biding his time. Nelsen was always going to be the fall guy if TFC failed to deliver on Leiwekes promise that the club would make the playoffs for the first time in club history. And Nelsen knew it. To make matters worse, when Bezbatchenko hired Greg Vanney to be TFCs new Academy Director back in December, Nelsen had to look over his shoulder every day at the man he knew was lined up for his job. It’s hardly a working environment that is conducive to success, is it? If there has been a running theme at Toronto FC for the last eight years, it can be summed up with one word: dysfunction. It isn’t as difficult to build a successful club as Toronto FC has made it appear to be. It starts with hiring good leadership, who in turn hire competent coaches and staff to execute their roles in achieving the ultimate goal of winning a championship. When Bezbatchenko fired Nelsen, TFC were sitting in third place in the Eastern Conference with just 10 games to play. Bezbatchenko took a massive gamble, banking on Vanney being able to pick up enough points to see the team over the finish line. That gamble backfired and Toronto FC is now headed into the final weekend of the season with absolutely nothing to play for; their playoff dream is in tatters once again. Firing Ryan Nelsen was Bezbatchenko’s one ‘get out of jail free’ card. If he had left Nelsen in charge until the end of the season and TFC failed to make the playoffs, Bezbatchenko could have fired Nelsen then and fans would have thought nothing of it. By bringing Vanney on board with 10 games to play and then failing to deliver a playoff place, Bezbatchenko turned the firing squad towards himself and Vanney instead. Bezbatchenko and Vanney may very well be the right men to take Toronto FC into the playoffs next season. They might be exactly what the club has needed all these years, and this may be the start of a new era at club. But TFC fans don’t want to hear that. They don’t want to hear that a rookie GM - who hired a rookie head coach – needs time to turn the ship in the right direction. They’ve heard it all before, and they recognize the sound of a broken record better than most. Make no mistake about it: Bezbatchenko and Vanney are now firmly on the clock, and anything short of a strong start to next season will see fans calling for them, too, to be replaced. Why can’t we be great? Toronto FC proved this year that it has mastered one thing over the last eight seasons: over-promising and under-delivering. Michael Dunn Jersey . Saltalamacchia drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning, Henderson Alvarez won for the first time in three starts and the Miami Marlins beat the Braves 3-2 on Thursday night. Nick OLeary Jersey . Fans holding laudatory signs started showing up at Yankee Stadium when the gates opened at 4 p.m. Monday, an hour early in order to give them a chance to watch the New York captain take batting practice. http://www.wholesaledolphinsjerseys.com/?tag=youth-kenyan-drake-jersey . -- At the beginning of training camp, Andrew Bogut set a goal to play all 82 regular-season games and regain his place among the NBAs best centres. Nate Orchard Jersey .Y. - Major League Soccer is prepared to start its season this weekend even if there isnt a labour deal with its referees and other on-field officials. Matt Haack Jersey . Bjoerndalen broke the record he shared with cross-country skiing great Bjoern Daehlie, also matching his fellow Norwegians record of eight gold medals. Bjoerndalen earlier won gold in Sochi in the mens sprint biathlon.CHICAGO -- Trevor Plouffe is certain that even though his Minnesota Twins are stuck in last place in the AL Central, theyve stayed mentally tough. Thats why the third baseman wasnt surprised to see his team rally an inning after losing a late lead and beat the Chicago White Sox 8-6 Saturday night. "Weve kind of been resilient all year," Plouffe said. "Well take the blow and get back up and start fighting again." Plouffe got four hits and the Twins stopped Jose Abreu, rallying to end a three-game skid. Abreus hitting streak ended at 21 games, longest in the AL this season. He went 0 for 3 with two walks, one of them intentional. The Cuban rookie, who leads the majors with 31 home runs, had reached base in 10 straight plate appearances before he popped up in the first inning. "Thank God," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said when asked about the hitting streak. "We pitched around him a couple times in situations. You know what, the guy is a great hitter and when a guy is swinging the bat as good as hes swinging and youve got to pitch around him a little bit, youve got to try to get him to chase." Plouffe doubled twice, drove in two runs and started the three-run eighth-inning rally with a one-out single. Oswaldo Arcia was credited with a two-run double in the eighth, giving the Twins a 7-6 lead, when his liner glanced off the glove of left fielder Alejandro De Aza. Adam Eaton hit three doubles and a single for Chicago, but was thrown out at second by left fielder Eduardo Nunez trying to stretch a single to end the bottom of the eighth. "It was stupid. Stupid. Stupid on my part," Eaton said. "I need to pick up the ball better. I saw it go offf his glove and kind of thought it bounced a different direction.dddddddddddd. I thought it went toward more the warning track. Thats ignorant on my part. Thats stupid, unbelievable how dumb that was." Ryan Pressly (1-0) won and Glen Perkins pitched the ninth for his 27th save in 30 chances. Ronald Belisario (4-8) took the loss. In the opener of the series Friday, Chicago scored four runs in the eighth for a 10-8 win. This time, the Twins got three in the eighth and Danny Santana added a solo homer in the ninth. Alexei Ramirez homered for the White Sox. Chicago took a 6-4 lead in the seventh with four runs. Eaton hit a two-run double, Gordon Beckham had an RBI double and Ramirez singled home a run. Kurt Suzuki hit a single off Belisario in the eighth, and the White Sox then brought in closer Jake Petricka with runners on first and second. After a groundout, Arcia hit a liner that got De Aza turned around. CANT WATCH White Sox manager Robin Ventura is one of the few people who really knows what Paul George is going through right now. The Indiana Pacers forward broke his lower left leg in a gruesome accident Friday when his foot hit the basket stanchion and his leg snapped. Ventura suffered his own awful injury in 1997 when he broke and dislocated his right ankle on a slide into home plate. "I havent seen it," Ventura said. "I dont ... Im not going watch it. I dont need to watch any of that. You feel sorry for him. Its a freak accident, but I dont want to see it. Ive had enough." ON DECK In the finale of the three-game series Sunday, Minnesota starts right-hander Kyle Gibson (9-8, 3.94) vs. left-hander Jose Quintana (6-7, 3.15). 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