Interesting article from MLS website: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/12/13/red-bulls-targeting-central-midfield-dp-2012 The 3rd DP will be on offense and from one of the "Big 3 Euro Leagues" and they are looking for a "younger" CAM specifically. Don't get your hopes up here people--most likely they are looking at an unknown 2nd or 3rd teamer--no way we could afford the transfer fee of a young superstar CAM from a big club. Soler goes on to say that he's hoping Rost will stay but that the club is looking at "2 young Americans" at GK. Also looking for a CB but confirmed that Ream and Keel are returning. Confirmed that if Rost stays it will not be as a DP. Auvray and Bouna are out--not coming back next year. Sorry to see both of them go--if nothing else they are good depth players. And Auvray was better than Balllouchy it seems to me,
I wasn't aware there was a "big 3" Obviously La Liga and Barclays would be the 2 best but that leaves Serie A The French League and the Bundesliga which of those is the "top 3"? They all seemed pretty even to me.
Your guess is as good as mine-- to me it seems like a toss up between Serie A and Bundesliga, but i guess more Italian clubs have won champions league recently than German ones. At any rate--the important thing here is that it seems Red Bull is in the midst of doing some serious euro-scouting. I just wish they would put just as much effort into scouting south of the border where the cost of signing a player for us would be far less and the quality could be just as high.
Well we have Salzburg centered in Austria and Backe from Sweden, so much of this is going to be a Euro team while that leadership is in place. Solli, Lindpere, Tainio are northern European acquisitions that happened because of that influence. All are very good players in this league.
absolutely right--as long as the scouting turns up good products its hard to complain. However, we do need to work on is on cutting back on the number of duds we sign. Over the past 2 years it seems to me that we have signed one too many, such as nielsen who was always hurt.
I would love to know who these "young American" keepers are. Seems to me like every good American keeper is currently under contract elsewhere.
Agreed. Hamid seems to be the only one worth mentioning. Of course if they're looking at that 3rd GK as a really young academy kid I have no problem with that. However, your 2nd GK needs to be a guy that can actually...you know...play GK.
Joe Bendik may likely be one of those Americans... http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/11/30/postcard-europe-bendik-eyes-trials-mls http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Bendik Also Dom Cervi could be another...
There is another thread that applies to this topic. MLS offseason moves. Why start another thread about the same thing.
The Red Bulls offseason thread was speaking about things like how the MLS rights system to claim players coming into the league was "communist" and also about whether Rafa Marquez was leaving or staying. It felt more appropriate to not interfere in that conversation and just post this topic here. Besides, in the Red Bull forum we always keep a close eye on Soler and his actions and the potential consequences for the club--it definitely merits its own thread specifically in the Red Bulls forum regardless of whether or not there is a small item on it in the MLS News forum or the MLS General forum. I bet you that in those 2 forums what Soler decides to do wont be as closely scrutinized as it is on here, because in a general MLS offseason thread they mix it with news dealing with other MLS clubs and pretty soon everyone moves on. This is for the Red Bull diehards.
If you're gonna nitpick about forum etiquette, at least send him to our own off season thread where we discussed this when the news conference happened
Look if RB will spend the money, who cares where and how much they cost? JCO used to look south for his 'finds.' Remember his cheap quality from Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico. And of course who can forget Carlos Johnson.
And Jorge Rojas, Albert Celades, Gabriel Cichero, Alfredo Pacheco, and Juan Pietrovallo. Clearly, there are good players to be had at reasonable prices. For example, MLS has had generally a good experience with Colombian players. But there have been some real stinkers, and too many have played for the Red Bulls nee MetroStars. I have to go wash my eyes out now.
Fair point. However, he should be coming into his own right now as a starting GK. It was my impression that Soler wanted 2 keepers that needed much more seasoning.
Cheap quality? maybe those players didnt work out so well but do some research work of where some of them are and you'll see that cheap qualify is above what we currently have.
everyone who knows Rost as a GK knows he is at the end of his career and that he is slower and more unreliable than ever. He will NOT be one of the best keepers in the league. Soler knowing that even thought he single handed is signing him back, he will pull two GK out of a hat to backup Rost. If I was taking the risk of Rost I will really make sure of getting a very solid backup keeper the same way LA Galaxy that their net situation set up. Yet, in New York, that isnt logic and we must add no names backup to an aging, slow moving, poor reflex golie.
