CF Montréal: Jules-Anthony Vilsaint traded to Toronto

Dose
Crédit: Jules-Anthony Vilsaint walks off the field during halftime in a match between New England Revolution and CF Montréal.

As the MLS summer mercato drew to a close, my colleague Maxime Trumanhad already been sayingfor a few days that Montreal CF MUST move.Well, done and dusted, as Montreal CF moved this morning, but perhaps not in the way we expected. Montreal has just traded Québécois forward Jules-Anthony Vilsaint.

Vilsaint will head to Toronto FC (yes, yes, you heard me right), in return for 25-year-old English midfielder Matty Longstaff

[content-ads] Longstaff was trained at Newcastle United, a fairly prestigious English Premier League club in Europe.

In short, Montreal CF is unfortunately losing a Québécois forward who had enjoyed some good times with the team, even if his time in Montreal will have been mostly marked by injuries. Vilsaint wanted more playing minutes, but his profile no longer fitted head coach Marco Donadel’s system

Obviously, it’s a shame to lose a Québécois, but my colleague Maxime Truman has heard that the club is aware that several French-speaking players are leaving the team, and is therefore looking to acquire new ones. In short, we obviously wish Vilsaint the best in Toronto, and hope for his sake that it works out.

On the other hand, if it does, there will be a lot of people in Montreal who won’t be happy, including me. I liked Vilsaint’s profile, but you have to trust the club’s management, which isn’t always easy these days, especially this season.

[spacer title=’Prolongation’] With only nine days left in the MLS summer mercato, we can expect to see more movement from Montreal CF. It would surprise me enormously if this were the only trade made by the club. I’m expecting a few signings over the next nine days, especially to follow up on the rebuilding letter that CF Montreal has published in recent weeks.