Official : Christian Gomez To Colorado Rapids

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

Cases in point:
--Christian Gomez was spotted by DCU a full 2 years before we signed him.
--Luciano Emilio was spotted 4-5 years ago by DCU and we first made an offer to him 3 years ago.
--My understanding is that we got Fred through a relationship developed with his agent.
--the Peruvian GK we just signed (their U20 GK), DCU got a call from his mother (who lives in Northern Virginia) which led to the team watching film of him (DCU has 3 people taping and watching all satellite broadcast games coming from S. America--the team has several thousand games on DVD).

It's really hard to just go down to a country and a week later have a good player in your pocket.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

Yes, Cummings was drafted. I believe McDonald came from Europe.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

http://wvhooligan.com/2008/02/01/early-happy-hour-gomez-zurawski-more/

The latest in the Christian Gomez situation, it appears that Gomez is near a trade to Colorado.

My sources tell me Colorado has offered him a two-year, guaranteed contract with a base salary of at least $400,000 and incentives that could bring his total close to $500,000 per season that he has desired all along. Gomez is apparently close to agreeing to the deal.

Once a deal goes through, the Rapids will acquire the rights to Gomez. DC will get plenty in terms of compensation, word has it they will get plenty of allocation and draft picks.

A deal should be announced in the next few days.

UPDATE: An anonymous source within MLS’ NY Offices is telling me that the deal will be for Colorado’s DP spot for two years and a draft pick or two. Verrrry interesting development on that if that is the case. More on this to come.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

Here is a quote by Jeff Plush prior to the beginning of last season. I am sure he meant well and may have believed what he said, but it shows just how much farther we have to go in acquiring talent.

"Look at the holes we had in our team last year, even though we made it to the conference finals for the second (consecutive) year," Plush said, pointing out the club's offseason moves. "Left back, we now have Greg Vanney, a former national team player. Left side at midfield we've got a kid out of Holland, Yherland McDonald. And at striker, we just signed Roberto Brown, a Panamanian player. So we think we've addressed every issue we have, all within the cap. We didn't have to do anything crazy to get any of those done."

Unfortunately, not doing anything crazy ultimately didn't do anything. It is interesting. The article quoted above says that Yherland came from Holland, but prior to coming here, according to Pro Player Management,he played in Norway. His place of origin is Costa Rica.

2005-2006 Fredrikstad Fotballklubb, Norway

2004 Fredrikstad Fotballklubb, Norway

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

very interesting.what would DC do with a second DP slot.Trade it or would they actually try to get Schevchenko for next yr.I hear his wife wants him to finish in America.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

You are correct. Although poorly stated, my point was that after all the time Mupohy and Clavijo spent in South America the best they could do with adding an international to the Rapids was drafting a college boy international.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

What the hell could DC want with another DP slot? Going after Palermo again? Finally found a good winger? That just seems like a really random thing to go after considering all the offseason signings this year.

That would also mean that Gomez's slary cap hit will be lowered with an allocation. It's actually a pretty smart move, and one that I thought most teams would have considered if they pursued him.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

Goes to show how little our GM knows about the game, the players and how much work is needed to succeed.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

Horrible trade if this is what we give up. Gomez is not worth using our DP slot, either on him or even worse, giving it to DC to be used against us. And then a draft pick or two on top of it? Gah!

Remember that Chivas traded their DP slot for Guevara, who was under contract at the time! We'd be giving up more and getting less than Chivas got (Well, Gomez probably won't abandon the team, but you know what I mean).

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

I agree with you. The odds of the current Rapids coaching/management picking a DP who could deliver what Gomez "should" is slim to none. Heck, look at the other DP's in the league, it's a crap shoot and the Rapids are playing with only one die.

I really don't care how many draft picks they give up. The next MLS team that producing a champion built through the draft will be the first.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

Just because we aren't planning on using it this year doesn't make it worth trading it for Gomez. first of Gomez isn't that good of a player to be worth of a DP slot. The fact is DC, a much better team and FO than Colorado, could use a DP slot to keep Gomez and is choosing not to. Secondly, even if he was worth a DP slot we'd be better off keeping the DP slot and making Gomez our DP than giving the slot to DC so they can go out and sign a better player than Gomez with it, and then use that player when they play us.

I'm all for trading our DP slot if we aren't going to use it, but handcuffing ourselves to a player that isn't DP value and doing so for multiple years that, by all indications, will include a coaching change is short sighted and won't make us any better.

If this happens its another in a long list of bad moves, regardless of how well Gomez plays or how much better he makes the team. Odds are we could get Gomez for less than our DP slot since DC has no choice but to trade him or let him walk for nothing.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

The DP slot really isn't worth using, unless it's on someone like beckham or blanco. I'm really not holding my breath over teams using their slots. What I really want, is a salary cap raise and some of the single entity rolled back. Clubs should be able to make more trades and transfers without having to go through the league.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

I disagree. Like I said earlier, KSE isn't going to splash the cash to sign a DP. So why not trade it if you're not going to use it? Get SOME value for it. It is better then just letting it sit there unused.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

But Gomez isn't DP value. That's like saying "We aren't going to actually sign Jeff Cunningham, so lets trade him for an overpriced Clint Mathis".

2 wrongs (Not using the DP, then trading the slot for less than its value) don't make a right.

If we feel we must use the DP in getting Gomez, negotiate DC down to something less than the DP slot, and sign Gomez as our DP instead of using an allocation to pay down his salary. Its still a bad move, but at least we wouldn't be giving DC a second DP slot to do it.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

I agree with Teddy and Bonji ... we're not going to use it - so why not get something out of it. A DP slot's value is only what you can get for it or intend to use it on.

It's more like saying - we've got this cog that we're not going to use - let's see what we can get for it on ebay.

I understand what you're saying - but we're sure getting more of out our DP slot than we did in 2007!!!

And let's be honest - the DP was a crap shoot like Bonji said ... and Gomez is nearly a guarantee - the only outstanding factors are the amount of deterioration of his skills in 2008 and 2009 - his commitment to an organization/fan base that isn't equal to DC's (let's be honest - no need to kill me over that) - and how our coach utilizes him/affects him. Big - but not as big as say bringing in Denilson or Reyna - which would have all of those factors - plus the - can he adjust to MLS - does he have anything left in tank?

It's okay with me - not wonderful - but okay.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

But a DP slot itself has value. It could fetch us more than the *rights* to an aging attacking midfielder. We could get a younger value player with more upside who is already under contract. I don't care if we're too cheap to use it. It still has value. DC wouldn't have refused a full allocation and some draft picks, instead we mortgage the last thing that we have that has any value. Obviously Pablo doesn't to the rest of the league, otherwise he would've already been dealt. So now we have no room for improvement this year. Who's going to be doing the rest of the scoring? Herc? Too injury prone, as is Connor. We can't trade our surplus requirement players like Niko or The Cone - FFC is the only person daft enough to want them. We're just plain handcuffed now. We've got to be the only team that pays 160 cents on the dollar for players, regardless of talent.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

The reports/rumors are $400K + incentives that might get him up to $500K. That may, or may not be, DP territory, depending on MLS's arcane salary rules. If it is DP territory, then we'll be using some of our allocation dollars to reduce the hit on the cap for this year, and we'll have to save some of our dollars to do the same thing as last year.

If that is what happens, I don't know how you call that anything but handcuffing the team.

I want to team to improve, not make moves for the sake of making moves. IMO using a DP on Gomez or to get Gomez is not an improvement, its overpaying for a "name", something this team has a long, long history of doing.

Now Gomez will instantly become the best player on the squad, but that doesn't make it a good move. I could suggest sending our DP slot, all of our allocations, and our first round picks for the next 5 years to New England to get Taylor Twellman. It would be an "improvement", but it wouldn't be a good move.

The only DP that didn't make the playoffs last year was Beckham. considering that we didn't make the playoffs I'd say that puts most teams with a DP ahead of us.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

The only time I've been optimistic about the direction of the Rapids was the end of 2005. I figured with another year of Dedi, Nkong, Beckerman, Cooke, Pedro, and Cunningham, the team would improve. That was sadly undone shortly after the end of the season when we traded away Cunningham and waived Nkong.

The normal state of being a Rapids fan is waiting for a bad decision to unwind in the hopes that we can start going in the right direction.

Bad decisions I'm awaiting the unwinding of:
Kirovski (yes he's first)
Clavijo
Niko

I'm apprehensive about giving up a DP slot as well as picks for the RIGHTS to sign Gomez. First, off because DC is holding Gomez hostage in a very cynical manner (that has to be limited in MLS there are many players that should still have a home here). Second, giving up the DP is just as good as signing Gomez as a DP, which he shouldn't be. Third, giving up the DP means that if Gomez craps out we're stuck with his salary and no back up. Fourth, giving up picks means having to trade to fill out future voids. Finally, this has the markings of being yet another desperate move by Clavijo and the FO in a foolish effort to try to win now, when winning now will require more than Gomez.

I don't know the deal with the DP slot. If we trade it do we ever get back? I don't like having yet another move that could require unwinding just to get going in the right direction. We're already saddled with several of those. When they unwind the new coach should be able to move the team forward instead of having to wait for the burden to go away.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

I want the Rapids to have the best team they can. That means signing the best players they can. While Gomez may have peaked, I confident he has enough stuff left to make the Rapids better next year.

Tell me why anyone is confident the Rapids could bring in DP that would end up being better then Gomez? FCD didn't, NYRB batted .500, I believe Gomez could be as good for the Rapids this year as Blanco was for Chicago's last year. That leave Beckham and Angel. Tell me with a straight fact you think the Rapids could sign another Beckham (mucho $'s) or get lucky with someone like Angel.

Would a top notch DP be better the Gomez, quite possibly. But I live on planet earth and our soccer team lives in Commerce City. T'aint gonna happen.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

Please...

Tell me how much Denilson helped FCD, by the time you got passed the comma, you should be done. Now, sing me the praises of Claudio with NYRB...

Now tell me how much the DP's helped the MLS finalists last year....

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

From your mouth to God's ear!

Blanco's impact on Chicago was massive, both on the field and at the turnstiles. Gomez is a good player, but he is no Blanco. Blanco was an Mexican international idol. Gomez is an Argentinian unknown! Blanco took a team that was floundering, put them on his back and got them into the playoffs knocking off Gomez and the Supporters Shield club during their run. He filled the stadium to capacity with excited and passionate fans for every game.

Mind you, I am for the Rapids signing Gomez but not at the cost of the post Clavijo future. Gomez will make the Rapids better but there are still too few good players on the side for euphoria!

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

I'm not, but that fact that the Rapids aren't likely to sign a quality DP does not suddenly turn Gomez into a DP-quality player.

IMO, Gomez is not DP quality. He's not DP quality for the Rapids, he's not DP quality for DC and he's not DP quality for Houston. The fact that the Rapids are unlikely to sign a good DP does not change that fact.

You want to complain about the Rapids being unable to sign a decent DP, fine, I'm right there with you, but combining that mistake by making another in burning our DP on a non-DP quality player is just 2 wrongs failing to make a right (and handcuffing the next coach to do it).

And to answer the question, DP slots are traded for a period of time, the rumor in this case is 2 years.

 

Re: Rumor:C. Gomez to the Rapids...

I won't deny the impact Blanco had on the Fire. Nor will I deny his history and drawing power. However, I think Gomez was actually the better all round player last year.