You want some Mo? I'll give you some Mo!

Toronto FC has decided to bring in Mo Johnston to helm the new franchise that begins play in 2007.

This news is a few days old so I'm not saying anything that most have not already heard. I just wanted to comment on how this is a terrific hire for the Northmen (or whatever they'll be called). I've always liked Mo Johnston and thought he never really got a fair shake at Metrostars/RBNY. He broke his coaching seal at an awkward time at the club and the organization was just too fickle for him to do much with it.

Mo is a coach that has a ton of potential and I really think that over the next few years he'll rise up there along Frank Yallop, Piotr Nowak, Bruce Arena (just going on early MLS glory) and Bob Bradley as the creme de la creme of MLS coaches.

I know it might sound a bit cliche to say that when he's able to bring in his own players and set up his own personnel he'll be able to excel and win, but in MLS this is a much more true statement than not compared to other leagues when discussing a new coach's ability to succeed. The discrepancy between the really good players and mediocre players on a team is much larger than in other sports leagues where the majority of players on a team are all about equal in ability save for a handful up upper echelon performers.

An example would be league dominating DC United. There you have Jaime Moreno and David Stokes. This is not a pairing of a good player and a really good player but rather a bad player and a really good player that occasionally start together.

I expect Mo Johnston to succeed though and sooner than some might believe. Let's just hope in Toronto he won't show up to the games looking like he just drug himself in straight from club hopping all night.