Sebastien Le Toux Officially Traded To Vancouver Whitecaps For Allocation Money

Along the way, we’ve been given a bigger than ever peek into the Union organization and the man who clearly runs it however he sees fit: Peter Nowak. He has shown a clear disinterest in players who don’t fall into line. It doesn’t matter if they are accounting for more than half of his team’s goals -- as Le Toux did. What matters is that they buy into the program.

From the look of it, the younger a player is, the more Nowak is interested in molding them. That’s not inherently a bad thing, but it’s hard to see how this is all going to work in the Union’s favor during the 2012 season.

By Le Toux’s telling, it would appear that his relationship with the Union started to deteriorate after he tried to initiate talks about a contract extension. He was heading into the final year of his contract and was apparently looking for about $400,000. The Union, apparently, weren’t interested.

Le Toux went on to all but accuse the Union of being cheap, and said the team was none too pleased with him after he left the trial they had arranged with Bolton about three weeks earlier than expected. Upon returning to the Union, Le Toux said Nowak made his displeasure clear.

In Philadelphia, Le Toux established himself as one of the league’s best scorers and a MVP candidate. In two seasons, he accounted for 45 goals (25 goals, 20 assists) and contributed to 57 percent of the Union’s scores. That was good enough to earn him a Premier League trial with Bolton. But various reports have suggested he cut the trial short himself in order to return to MLS. The Union, apparently, had other plans and opted to trade Le Toux’s rights instead.

“Sebastien is a proven goalscorer and playmaker in Major League Soccer,” Whitecaps coach Martin Rennie said in a team release. “He is a durable, fit, and speedy attacker, who is capable of playing either up front or wide in midfield. We’re delighted to bring Sebastien back to the Pacific Northwest and add another quality player to our squad.”

If this development has your head spinning, you’re not alone. It was just about a week ago that Le Toux seemed to be heading to Bolton on a transfer. When news started to come out that he was heading back to the United States, most Union fans assumed it would be to play for their team. The Union, though, appear to have decided to move in another direction after stockpiling several young forwards during the offseason.

For more on this trade, be sure to check out Union blog Brotherly Game and Whitecaps blog 86 Forever.

Making Le Toux the odd man out in that situation would seem to be an odd choice, being as he’s excelled as a forward. During two seasons with the Union, Le Toux has scored 25 goals and registered 20 assists, most of which have come while playing up top.

Coyle denied that a deal is already in place for Le Toux’s transfer. What kind of price Le Toux could fetch is a bit of an unknown. He is 28 years old and really only has two years of top-level play under his belt. Previous transfers from MLS have usually been for more defensive players or ones that were considerably younger.

For more on Le Toux’s situation, be sure to check out Union blog Brotherly Game and Bolton blog Lion of Vienna Suite.