[TequilaJoal]

How else do you explain no major Korean or United States signings to top flight teams in Europe or to Any European teams.


All you hear is interest from English Premiership teams of USA national team players, then they go ahead and sign the same old Euro' riff raff.

Big Slap in the face is the fact that United States is loaded with young impressive talent and No English Prem Team has signed any of them. And our MLS league which helped produce these Talents might end up signing "gazza" an old out of luck, shape England national.

So this Tournament that was in Korea & Japan that saw both the United States and Korea finish better than England... provides obviously no real talent able enough to play in their domestic league. But Rio Ferdinad who is on level with Eddie Pope talent wise is worth 30 millions pounds.


So let all the Euro's complain that the World Cup was started to close to the end of their domestic season and that caused them to preform poorly... Why dont they just it never happend cause they still see the USA and other non- european countries the same way they saw them on May 30th 2002.

[Red Card]

How can you say the US finished better than England? They both were eliminated in the quarterfinals.

If you take "tie-breakers" into account, England finished better than the USA. They did not win their group either but lost out based on goals scored as England and Sweden tied with points, and goal differential. Ended with 2 wins, 2 draws and their only loss was to the eventual world cup winner. The USA did not win their group, ended with 2 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw.

[Dixie]

who cares if the English or Americans finished better based on Fifa tie-breakers. The point is nobody thought the Americans would do anything and the English dissapointed once again.

Also let them keep their leagues European the MLS will get stronger, American Soccer will get stronger, and fan interest in the US will get stronger.

[SoFla Metro]

The current financial crisis in Europe has a lot to do with it, plus the fact (in England anyway) that players have to apply for and receive a work permit.

Transfer values are way down this year compared to previous years. There have only been a few high-valued signings.

Had the WC taken place last year, you probably would have seen a few more Americans on the move, simply because the transfer fees would likely have been larger. As it is, there are a few reports of offers from Euro clubs that have been turned down because they were too low.

[YanksFC]

It's not a slap in the face -- it's an economic reality. Many European clubs and leagues, even the big ones, are heavily in debt and cannot afford to buy new talent, no matter how little that talent costs. Add to this the fact that MLS is determined to keep its young talent in the States in order to promote the league. Therefore, MLS's asking price for many players like Beasley and Mathis is more than most clubs abroad are willing to pay.

[striker]

Originally posted by TequilaJoal
How else do you explain no major Korean or United States signings to top flight teams in Europe or to Any European teams....

Is Leverkeusen top flight enough for you? Cha of Korea has been signed by them. IIRC, there have been other Korean signings too. You may want to check the Asian board for more info on this topic.

[NNCRed]

Originally posted by TequilaJoal
But Rio Ferdinad who is on level with Eddie Pope talent wise is worth 30 millions pounds.

Eddie Pope is a good central defender, but he's not worth anything more than a couple of million pounds, tops. Why would a club like Man United want to sign an aging central defender that is often hurt and seems to always miss spells of the season? Fergie would be stupid to make an aging central back that is always injured the cornerstone of his backline that needs repairs badly for the upcoming season that includes 2 games a week throughout most of the season for United. Oh, and Pope has yet to play a game, let alone a season in England. Who's to say that he will adapt well to that style of play, the weather, being away from home, etc.? Too big of a risk for a club like United to even think about buying Pope over Ferdinand, even if they could save 25 million pounds.

But I do think that it kinda sucks that more US players aren't on the move, or at least the current Yanks Abroad aren't finding a better situation, like Lewis, Berhalter, Hejduk, JMM, etc. I would rather see the MLS players stay in MLS IF they can't go to a club where they'll see consistent first team action.

[appoo]

Originally posted by TequilaJoal
But Rio Ferdinad who is on level with Eddie Pope talent wise is worth 30 millions pounds.

Did you watch the same world cup? Rio Ferdinand was probably the second best defender out there behind Lucio of Brazil. Plus how old is he? 21? He can stop offensive forays by himself. Pope is an injury prone, aging defender. Yes he played well, but how long will he keep that up? The fact of the matter is that we played a better team game than everybody else. Take a look at individual players.
Mathis, Wolff, McBride vs. Djouf and Rivaldo? Or even Henrik Larrson? midfielders. This is our strength. Landon, Claudio, and JOB can hang with anybody in the worls. Landon a young superstar in waiting, Claudio a class midfielder in his prime. And JOB is trying to become one of the best 2-way players in the world. But let's start the comparisons again. For Landon the young talent. Landon vs. Saviola, Ronaldinho, Cisse, and Owen Hargraves. Claudio. He plays in a bunch of spots and would probably draw alot of attention if he were availible. Now JOB I can guarentee you would draw around 15 - 20 mil in the transfer market. He has the potential to be Roy Keane with more offensive skills. Defenders? Hejduke vs. Ashley Cole?

[nowhere]

Originally posted by NNCRed


Why would a club like Man United want to sign an aging central defender that is often hurt and seems to always miss spells of the season?

Laurent Blanc, anyone?

Signature - I'm a cheap bastard

[Chachi King]

Actually, the big reason why many Korean players haven't made the jump was because their clubs are not letting them go. The K-League has been drawing record crowds lately, and their clubs are simply not letting foreign clubs sign them. Plus, a lot of these foreign clubs are trying to screw over the K-League clubs in terms of transfer fees. For instance, Southampton wanted C.G. Song for 600,000 dollars, which is crap when you consider Song played every single minute of the world cup and performed better than almost every player out there. He stole the ball 5 times in the first half from Luis Figo for pete's sake.

Sadly, it looks like as the K-League becomes more popular you're going to see less Korean players moving abroad. Lee Chun-soo and Song Jong-guk were already denied the chance to move to Southhampton by their clubs. Ahn Jung-hwan stuck in Perugia for the time being. Kim Nam-il is pining for a move to the Bundesliga although his club isn't about to let Korea's most popular player get off that easily.

Three Koreans are moving to Europe however: Lee Eul-yong is going to Turkey, Cha Du-ri is going to Bayer Leverkusen, and Yoo Sang-chul is going to either England or the Netherlands despite his advanced age (31).

It seems that Hong Myung-bo is thinking of moving to the MLS, which would be pretty cool. Also there are rumors in Korea that Brian McBride is mulling a move to the K-League.