He is but most clubs - unless it's Hull City or Lazio with no players and no coaches - want to have full rosters at the beginning of their seasons (which start even before the transfer window shuts down).
As an unattached player the transfer window won't affect him - he can sign for anyone at anytime. The problem is, after being out for over a year, what quality of club will be interested in him? It's very strange, but at this stage it'd be reasonable to conclude that his pro career is over.
Haha Sc*nthorpe... Damn I'm getting old. Also a good one, Thomas Delaney, is that FCKer even a Yank??? I'll never forget saying that outloud when he played against us for Denmark
We need to set up a Kickstarter page for him. This is ridiculous. An MLS team with a USL affiliate couldn't take a flyer on a 23yo Yank with just shy of 1,500 Championship minutes & a full USMNT camp under his belt? It is a cruel sport sometimes. If he's not 250 lbs. this makes no sense to me.
At this point it's got to be a combination of personality and/or contract demands. He's gone trial with a couple different teams since being out of contract (including mls teams) and hasn't stuck anywhere. He's either a bad lockerroom presence, is demanding too much money or both.
What did he screw up again? It was a knee or a bad leg break, right? No one has wanted him after that
That's a possibility as well tho I still find it hard to believe that not a single team would take a flyer on him for a cheap 1 year deal and see if he can rebound. He had decent potential and is still young.
At this point, I can only assume he's playing for the best rec league team ever with David Arvizu, Felix Garcia, and Alex Nimo.
When he trialed with the Revs the rumor was that post-injury he was slow as molasses. Just couldn't do it. We can all name 50 players who had injuries that ended up being career-ending. Some gave it a go afterwards, but they just couldn't do it anymore. And while the NASL/USLPro levels may not be full of players with technical ability, they're sure as hell full of athletes.
This Packwood situation is a sad story. He was supposed to be our next savior in defense. Any rumors of any trials?
Reckon his career is over. Sad? I guess, but professional sports are like that. He always seemed to have a really good head on his shoulders, so I'm sure he'll be fine.
Not that anyone's heard of, but this post summed it up pretty well back in August. His injuries weren't that dramatic, but it's entirely possible that he lost a key attribute (or two) and suddenly saw a career that, with the right breaks, was no longer Championship or better, but League 2 or worse. If that's the case, he's done the right thing by jacking it in. It's one thing being Jonathan Spector, whose career didn't reach the heights hoped for (remember, Spector won the Jimmy Murphy young player award at Man. U, not a guy called Gerard Pique), but has established himself in the Championship. A Championship regular can expect to make at least 350k sterling per year. Extend that over 10 years, and after agent's fees and other expenses, plus income tax, he could have a very nice retirement. A League 2 regular? Knock a zero off. The Conference? Knock a zero off and divide by two. This Guardian article by Laurence Bell, graduate of U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, now at Macclesfield in the Conference, and once once at Man City's academy is revealing about life at the bottom. Money quote: The FIFPro Global Employment Report into working conditions in professional football revealed 45% of players around the world earn less than $1,000 per month. ... Results of the survey - carried out by FIFPro and the University of Manchester, canvassing almost 14,000 male footballers playing in 54 countries across Europe, the Americas and Africa ... show players in the lowest earning brackets far outnumber those at the top: 20% of footballers earn less than $300 per month, 45% earn less than $1,000, and only the top 15% earn more than $8,000 per month. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...just-about-managing-footballers-laurence-bell And, by the way, those one-year deals we read about? Down in the lower leagues that doesn't cover the off-season. In plain English, that means that you have to maintain peak physical condition for 2-3 months until the pre-season starts and you can be released at the end of the month the season ends in. For some leagues, that means you're paid for only 6-8 months of the year. Final quote from Laurence Bell: As Theo van Seggelen, the secretary general of FIFPro, put it, “not every football player has three different cars in three different colours”. I, for instance, have one vehicle made up of two colours: a 13-year-old silver Ford KA with orange rust patches grinning through the door panels. The Silver Bullet – as ex-Hyde United team-mates christened her – just about coughs and splutters her way into Macclesfield’s training ground each morning. But the day she gives up, I worry how I’ll afford a replacement. This is life outside the top tier. Call us the Ferrari-less footballers. It's disappointing, but he's probably made the right decision. At 22, he had a life ahead of him and a lot of employers in the real world would give him kudos for having the balls to pursue a dream and the brains to realize that injuries have cancelled it. Frank Simek kept going until almost 30: he might have a harder time finding proper work. Memories last a lifetime. So does arthritis, especially if you get it in your early 30s.
An innocuous aerial challenge and bad landing and a promising career is over. A sad tale. Props to Will Packwood in each of his future endeavors. http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/birmingham-city-boss-lee-clark-405691 The crack when Packwood landed on the floor was heard by almost everyone in Elland Road, including Clark. “It’s such a right downer because we should be celebrating a terrific performance from my young players,” he added. “I heard the snap, I was hoping it was his shin pad. “When we heard the noise and heard him screaming, we knew it was something serious then the lads are coming across to me in tears. “Even the Leeds lads, experienced players like Michael Brown, were saying that it was an horrendous one. “There was no blame attached. It was innocuous, they both went for the ball.