So here’s a way to put an exclamation on a work shift here at PST.
According to The Toronto Sun, Toronto FC will unveil Jermain Defoe as its latest signing come Monday morning. It’s a move long-reported and even longer in rumor, but Mike Prindiville’s post that it was nearing completion is reportedly on point. TFC put this winking video teaser of a Monday announcement on the web:
Ready for a blockbuster? I’m hearing @torontofc on the verge of signing Michael Bradley. Would be a huge coup for @MLS and @torontofc#USMNT
— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) January 8, 2014
The analyst and former MLS star has lit the American soccer world abuzz with today’s Tweet linking Michael Bradley to Toronto FC. We’ve already written today that a move away from AS Roma may be coming into focus with i Lupi adding Cagliari midfielder Radja Nainggolan but this latest twist would take him far from White Hart Lane or Craven Cottage.
If you can have a surplus of crazy talented midfielders, they have it.
MLSE president Tim Leiweke is looking to make a splash in the American soccer conscious, and Bradley could empty the whole pool just after Defoe tucked into his cannonball.
Gilberto, Defoe, De Rosario and Bradley in one offseason? Come on. I’m not here to doubt or confirm, as Twellman just provided a wild new note for my “Defoe is official” post, but could a club have possibly done a bigger facelift if Bradley makes that trio a quartet?
UPDATE (3pm ET):As reported by @TaylorTwellman and @AlexiLalas, source in Toronto confirms to me Michael Bradley to TFC is “very realistic possibility”
— Luke Wileman (@LukeWileman) January 8, 2014
UPDATE (5pm ET): Our own Joe Prince-Wright reached out to Bradley’s representatives, who had declined to comment.