A guy like that would be good for filling the new stadium with STH's, but wouldn't make a heck of a lot of difference at BS, except for maybe 500-1000 more people per game.
Patrick Vieira may be coming to MLS after his contract with Man City is up. He recently played here in 2009 in a friendly between Inter Milan and Club America. Would be redundant with the Quakes since we are pretty set with Cronin and ALM at CDM. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/870238/contract-rebels-on-the-radar?cc=5901
So the weather is really all we have going to attract international stars? Besides SF, what cities are they talking about? Why International Stars Should Consider Destinations Besides NY and LA
Not much of a mention on San Jose. Seriously though, when my relatives came out here on visits from Italy, initially they seemd to all hate San Jose but loved San Francisco. I guess they found it more European than most cities in the South Bay however , they like SF more than LA. All my relatives who immigrated out here from Italy and went back, somehow ,some way, always tended to make their way back to San Jose. I think the weather, (with the exception of a few days in January, February and maybe part of March) has a lot to do with the way a person reacts to where or why they would want to live in a certain city. When you compare the hot summers and cold winters of NYC (including other northestern cities, I.E. Boston, Philly & DC) and the smog of LA and windy Chicago, I don't think I'd ever choose those towns over San Jose....
too bad this guy is too old: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart%C3%ADn_Palermo but his buddy would be a great addition, plus his contract would be up in time for our stadium opening: (i'm talking to you JD) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Rom%C3%A1n_Riquelme
There is a power struggle at Boca between Riquelme and the coach right now. He has a god like status at Boca. While he is a very good No 10, is that the kind of player we want in SJ?
Realistic possible summer transfer target: Harry Kewell. His 1 year, 1 million euro deal with Galatassaray ends in July 2011. 32 years old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kewell Problem is he plays left mid and second striker, so we probably won't need him at LM b/c of Convey (unless Corrales gets hurt again and we use Convey at LB) and we seem to have a ton of strikers on the roster now. If the strikers aren't working out by summer then maybe we should consider him. May not even have to DP him to get him... might be able to get him for Huckerby money.
Harry Kewell would be alright, but Milan Baroš would be a great potential signing to bring in with the new stadium in 2 years or so... Not sure if there will be much going on with him and the national team once the Euro's are over in 2012, so coming to the US could definitely be a possibility for a player like him. Just throwing it out there.
If we are worried about left back being a potential problem spot this season, the FO may want to inquire about Sylvinho. He is still out of contract since 2010. Kind of old at 36 but might still have enough juice left for a season in MLS. He used to be a good attacking LB who made good attacking runs down the flanks and would bag more than a few assists each season for Arsenal/Barca/ManCity. It would be nice if we didn't have to worry about having to slot Convey back there if Corrales gets hurt again. I'd like to be able to keep Convey at LM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvinho
very much into this idea, i like where your heads at there. Dude has an absolute cannon of a left foot too. We would flat out overwhelm teams on the left side of the field with he and convey out there. And Torres is still riding an awful lot of pine at Pachuca. Id love us to solve that situation for him. Hes certainly worth a DP pick. He goes a long, long way to making us become a much more possession oriented team.
And besides, the Quakes already have a 37-year old Brazilian left-footed player who has played a lot of outside back in his career I believe. Doesn't have the pedigree that Sylvinho has, but would Sylvinho be that much of an upgrade that the presumed cost would be worth it?
Excellent points and I have no way of knowing. I just think it's worth looking into. It is more likely than not that he is past his sell-date, but it's still reasonably possible that he has enough left in the tank to do some work in MLS. We've seen some players who can still do it at that age like Giggs and Scholes at ManU; here in MLS guys like GBS, Beckham, Valderrama, etc.