Weber: The Bug Will Be Back

Brace yourselves, fans of good news: our favourite diminutive Uruguayan may be set to return to Vancouver for the 2016 season.

Marc Weber, Vancouver Whitecaps beat reporter for The Province, claimed in an article posted Sunday evening that The Province had learned of Techera's return, though a quick search through the news of the day shows no other credible (or, indeed, any) news source able to back this up - meaning either Weber truly has scooped everyone or, worst case scenario, has been duped with bad information. For our collective mental health, let's hope this is all true and above board.

If you're reading this blog, you're likely aware of what Cristian Techera, nicknamed El Bicho ("the bug"), brought to the Whitecaps in the 2015 season: pace, service, finishing - in short (ha!), everything we've been crying out for crammed into a 5'2" package. If it's true that Techera has indeed booked a return trip to Upper Cascadia for even a single season, you may commence rubbing your hands in giddy anticipation. Don't get too excited, though; Weber's article flat-out says there's no confirmation as to whether this is a transfer, a loan or some other crazy arrangement. A transfer would be fantastic purely from a let's-avoid-doing-this-dance-in-2017 standpoint, plus it could conceivably help burn off some of that use-it-or-lose-it Targeted Allocation Money (also known as "that hastily invented mechanism that allowed the LA Galaxy to sign Giovanni Dos Santos", or "TAM").

In other news, Weber goes on to mention that Darren Mattocks and Robert Earnshaw remain unconfirmed assets for the 'Caps, singling out Mattocks as trade bait and Earnshaw as "free to sign anywhere". He then concludes the article by kicking me square in the patriotic balls:

The Whitecaps no longer have Canadian international Simeon Jackson on their discovery list, a club source said. Jackson, 28, is available on a free transfer after League One Barnsley didn’t extended the forward’s contract this week. The MLS discovery lists dictate which team has the first right of refusal to sign most players from outside the league.

Booooooo - Rituro wantee repatriated #CanMNT players!

Now, this doesn't mean Vancouver are out of the running for Jackson - just that they don't get first dibs on him. Speaking as an unabashed supporter of Simeon Jackson (and Milan Borjan, and Atiba Hutchinson, and Tosaint Ricketts, and and and... you get the picture), I'm down for a triumvirate attack force of Octavio Rivero, Masato Kudo and Jackson, with Kekuta Manneh and Techera burning up the wings while Pedro Morales or Nicolas Mezquida provide service. (Apologies - I need to go wipe up some drool after visualizing that attack clicking.) It's a pipe dream for now - but at least Vancouver has Techera.

Happy 2016, everyone!

UPDATE - Jan. 4th, 12:55pm: It's a done deal. Techera has been transferred from River Plate Montevideo with the assistance of TAM. Weber has the details here.