When Toronto FC announced a current Premier League player as former head coach Paul Mariner’s successor, supporters were, at best, cautiously optimistic about the prospects of having Ryan Nelsen coach by correspondence.

According to Nelsen, though, that was never going to be the case — and both TFC and its new coach’s former club had already agreed to the terms.

While he and general manager Kevin Payne maneuvered through questions last month regarding when the New Zealander would join the Reds permanently, the former Queens Park Rangers captain told the Sun this week his arrival time was decided at the time of the agreement.

“It was always going to be Feb. 1 just to give QPR the ability (to work the market),” Nelsen said, explaining he and Payne tried to drop hints during a press conference to introduce TFC’s eighth manager. “If we’d said that publicly the price of centrebacks would have gone up (for QPR).”