Almost surely O'Neill is "not ready", but pushing him further down the ladder to making the 18 or getting significant minutes is not the way to prepare him to be ready.
I'm assuming he'd be at the same salary? If so, that's a big cap hit for a sub/mentor. Also, if we traded JL, we'd then be down two MFs in a year or so when Pablo retires. I'm having a hard time getting my head around this one (no pun) because I'd assumed he was retiring and headed into coaching or broadcasting.
Agree with this. I honestly hope they find a way to move Jeff. We'd be screwed if Thomas went down, but I don't see why we carry 4 defensive mids on this squad.
I'm assuming not. I don't think even the Rapids would be dumb enough to sign Pablo on the same salary coming back from a year-long injury at 36. I think this works if the salary is under $150K or less. If its more than that then I'm less impressed by this decision. As to a possible JL trade, that's why I said "if the right offer comes along". You have to give to get in this league.
This is just what teams say when they bring players back for non-talent related reasons. The Rapids just jettisoned Casey, traded Kimura last season, put Jamie Smith and Marvell Wynne into the re-entry draft and I'm sure I'm missing something; my gut feeling is this is their half hearted attempt at some consistancy moving forward and definitely a peace offering to a very pissed off fan base (hence the phone call to STH's). I'm personally not a huge fan of the move. I think Pablo has done a lot of good for the club over the years, but its probably time to hang up the cleats and move to the sidelines. Unless of course he signed a league minimum contract; if that's the case it's a sweet move...
I would have thought the apocalypse purveyors would have delayed the Pablo announcement until the 21st.
Perhaps because our team defense was shit last year? And only if Thomas went down? I know Pablo has been medically cleared, but is he really more than a 50-50 proposition in terms of reliability? Is O'Neill anything more than potential at this point? Larentowicz is the only option right now we have at D-mid that we can even somewhat predict/rely on for consistency - Thomas hasn't played enough games against good competition to know if he's the real deal. Trading Larentowicz before we learn whether any of the others can step up and be reliable/consistent would be crazy. It's like saying, "last year, we carried 5 defenders who can play centrally on the roster. I don't know why we should keep Moor."
The Denver Post article quoted Pablo as saying "My goal is to be part of the team in whatever capacity I'm needed." Could Pablo be slated to play CB?
Yeah, this kinda leaves the door open. Coaching, mentoring, playing D-mid or CB, off the bench, probably not a regular starter. That quote leads me to believe that Pablo, and/or Braveja don't know exactly how he will best fit in for next season. The level of comfort most have with his return is probably directly related to the salary he will be paid.
Then why on earth sign him, let him go to school to get more games in. Remember there were only 10 reserve games played in 2012.
Neither do any of the DMs on our bench this year. Given how often we played in a 2-dmid system last year; given how Pareja's first formation choice with our talent last year was the 4-2-3-1; given that even after we acquired Thomas we still played with 2 d-mids; and, lastly, given the Rapids indicated they expect Pablo to be tutoring O'Neill rather than starting, I'm not convinced Larentowicz is going to the bench next year.
Whereas I was mystified by the Mastroeni signing, I now understand it fully. Hinchey said to Bravo, "The horse is gone." Whereby Bravo responded, "Quick, shut the gate." This is a lose/lose/lose signing. IMO, Mastroeni no longer makes the team better. IMO, O'Neill's grooming is delayed! IMO, Pareja's confidence is at low ebb, he may be pandering to the fans & he is grasping at straws!
Which are nothing more then scrimmages, I went to one and if thought reffing was bad in league games you should of see the wrestling matches in the free kicks during these things. The game saw little team play but a collection of individual hero attempts. Other then getting on field with a ball outside of a drill, I would find it hard to believe anything helped these guys for MLS games. The point is, in my opinion, Rapids would of never signed O'Neil if they didn't think he would be ready to play MLS matches shortly.
Based on the options not picked up/players cut and the 5% increase by eyeballing last year's salaries puts it at about 1.85 million of free space minus whatever we re-signed Pablo and Thomas for. This free space includes dropping all of Freeman's, Smith's, and Wynne's salaries, so re-signing them will take some of that money.
IMO, Rapids should save a little money and a lot of anguish by buying Smith an economy class (matching his service to the team) one-way ticket home!