Dutch (Glenn Loovens), actually, but yeah, that's more or less how it went. Technically, according to Gooch anyway, Wednesday never made an offer; but that seems slightly disingenuous, as they'd released everyone out of contract but three or four to whom they wanted to keep on. Presumably they were far enough apart upon initial negotiations that the club never tabled an actual offer, but Wednesday wanted to keep him, for sure. I never heard how much longer or how much more money Wednesday's offer was, but it's worth pointing out that they were really tight with money back then - it was before Chansiri bought the club - so it may not have been all that great. What we can say with near certainty, though, is that it was more than anyone else was putting on the table. I can't imagine that Charlton's offer to bring in November cover would've matched what Wednesday would spend for a starting centerhalf.
Dude wanted CL and he got it. I recall he had other Spanish interest and from Turkey. He has had 1 hell of an agent.
So def Gooch made a huge mistake in not signing with Wednesday. I wonder what offers did he think were gonna be much better?
To be fair, Wendesday were skint back then. He'd just come off a pretty strong half-season at the championship level, and he was out of contract. I remember thinking to myself that it would be likely that one of the division's bigger clubs might be interested and able to put him on higher wages. And given that most of those clubs would be better positioned than Wednesday to push for promotion, I had no difficulty envisioning more attractive prospects for Gooch ... if he even wanted to stay in the English 2nd tier, at all. Irish Rover has suggested that the terms offered him were superior to what he was on; and that may well be (probably is, actually) right - he'd just done a job for them. But I wouldn't presume them to have been greatly superior, or terribly good to begin with ... Mandaric had them running pretty thin back then. Factor in that he'd just been released by QPR to make the move to Wednesday (he wasn't loaned), and it makes sense to assume that he might have been on quite a bit higher wages at Loftus Road, just a few months prior. The rumor, remember, was that he'd 'dropped' down to Wednesday pursuant to a last ditch push into the USMNT for Brazil '14. Although that bit failed, he may have seen his performance at Hillsborough as vindication that he belonged at a club more like QPR - richer and poised to return to the Prem - even though he'd just struggled to get minutes there. It's pretty rational, really. Obviously, I have no idea what he was expecting or looking for, but I can't really blame him for thinking there might be something better out there for him. It does, in retrospect, appear to have been a mistake - at least if that's what he was thinking.
Unfortunately this seems to be the story of so many of our up and coming stars from the 2000s... I'll keep a look out for him next time he's in Qatar.
In addition to the previously mentioned Wednesday stint, he also had good times at Twente (a loan) and Sporting CP post-WC10.
I forgot about Twente I wasnt around when he joined Newcastle. Gets a lot of criticism for that but i guess he bounced back with his 2 Belgian titles
My friend went on a trip to England when Onyewu was on loan at Newcastle. Has a custom Onyewu jersey to show for it. That thing has to be a collector's item of one kind or another.
Why doesn't Onyewu come out and officially retire already? Can't see him ever playing again at this point.
Former USMNT defender Oguchi Onyewu, who most recently played competitively for Charlton in 2015, is hopeful of finding a club this summer— Matt Pentz (@mattpentz) May 15, 2016 Onyewu says he was injured following his trial with NYCFC last May. Open to playing in MLS or abroad— Matt Pentz (@mattpentz) May 15, 2016
He looked like the best American CB ever at the Confed Cup in 2009, which prompted the AC Milan interest. But after his ACL was torn he never regained that form.
which opens the WHAT IF? Though he's had a pretty decent career with some impressive clubs such as Sporting Lisbon and Malaga along the way
I think it was more being out of contract, Gooch's agent contactong Milan, and a fairly low salary that they took a flier on him rather than some big interest. The little bit he showed before his ACL didn't appear that promising.
He was a fifth or sixth centerback on the depth chart there. IIRC, he was making €1.7/Y gross then, which was slightly over $2M/Y. With Milan actually being good then, their top stars were in the $6M-$10M range.
do you think he would have been loaned had he not had his injury or would he just have rode the bench?
which I never understood. It wasn't like Gooch had tons of fans. He was a star in Belgium and that was pretty much it
The top global soccer brand is Barcelona, which sell just under 4 million shirts annually. ACM was a bigger club then than they are now and was looking to build on its presence in the USA. Gooch was a big name in the USA, so it made some sense. As Roma got Mikey for similar reasons. On the pitch, much like ACM, they'd want $20M+ stars but every club also needs depth at each spot. Both US players received salaries commensurate with their expected status. Had they outperformed it by a large margin, they would have gotten a raise. Had they underperformed it by a large margin, they would have been listed for a transfer. The status quo suited the club too.
And it was by far the biggest club an American defender has played at, which is consistent with my point that his form in 2009 was up there with the best American defenders ever.
let us remember that had he remained healthy, he would have started about 25 games for Milan that year because the entire central defense was broken the entire season! I believe he started the trend. He was good enough to be on Milan after that confed cup... not start, but spot start or spell defenders in other competitions, his knee injury was one of the worst timed, and afterwards, could not recover to the quality he was before.... 'twas a shame.
It seems that for many players, a significant injury makes them mortal. Prior to the injury, many professional athletes are super-human and can do things that most mere mortals cannot. They are born with a gift, but when something major breaks (patellar tendon, tibial plataeu, tib/fib) they lose that super-human level, and become mortal. Many lose that edge that makes them elite. Whether it changes their biomechanics slightly, or what I'm not sure, but most just never seem to recover to where they were prior to the major injury. The absolute freaks are the ones that sustain a knee injury and come back. We don't seem to make those in the US, at least among those that play soccer.
Gooch was a big name for NT fans but it's not as if everyone had jerseys with his name on it. For that $$$ they expected they should have aimed for Dempsey or Donovan, though they'd be essentially stuck on the bench but nearly every US fan would have gotten their jersey and watched games just to get a peek of them on the bench.