Juan Agudelo in "search" of a Club

not to mention selling its soul to old, crotchety british retirees

 

Sure, but Russian oligarchs only get so much ink. Juan has an entire BS thread to his name!!

 

So it's not just Georgians who get involved in these things???



Edit:
Not to mention laundering billions from Serbia's mass murderers.

I'm sure there are perfectly honest Cypriots, but as a polity the island (both entities) has organized itself as what Somerset Maugham called " sunny places for shady people."

Cyprus: getting a conscience:

 

Interesting to see that this Cyrpus stuff was really being considered an option.

It looks like Cyprus does not want to become loophole central for footballers, though.

 

And pig-ignorant and obtuse to boot.

Utrecht, like all Dutch clubs, is an excellent (not to mention well-scouted) talent factory, for the simple reason that being a finishing-school for talent is their only way of remaining competitive. Ditto for Feyenoord, except that they're even more heavily scouted.

Anderlecht and Liege are powerhouses of Belgium, which is now Europe's leading producer of top young talent, far outstripping Holland or Germany. And, there's Sporting Lisbon, home of Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Quaresma, Hugo Viana, Nani, etc, etc, etc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporting_C.P._Youth_and_Academy#Notable_Academy_Graduates ).

Any one of those clubs would have given him at least 500K - in Euros, mind you - a three-year deal (meaning an EPL deal that much sooner), and near-guaranteed European football. Become a first-choice striker at any one of these and an English WP is a formality. Become a regular rotation striker and it's at least 1 million per year - again, in Euros - guaranteed European football and, given Klinsi's preference for Euro-based players, starter status with the MNT for this cycle.

Obviously, any of these 5 could have been unsuitable for a variety of reasons (money, duration, place in the depth chart, style, etc), but all of them?

As this guy said, ...

 

People are surprised at this after he sat out for so long? Obviously the young man had different priorities than following a standard path of football development in Europe.

 

Exactly.

A lot of people were saying his agent was unprofessional/letting him down. A look at that list suggests that they did their job pretty damn well. He didn't.

This is a second chance for him. NE plays some of the better football in MLS, he's worked well with the coach in the past, and the fact that Kraft has historically been a bit of a tightwad has actually played to his advantage with the Revs being distinctly light in terms of "name" strikers - he's got to fancy his chances of beating "Cyborg" Davies for a starting place. Let's hope he takes that chance.

 

If he grows into a DP after one or two seasons, it could be a $mart move after all.

I know, Seltzer... but no one is offering anything solid about the supposed offers. Even the fans of some of those clubs (Anderlecht, Feyenoord, Liege) don't seem to know a thing. No rumors, no press, no nothing, except for our local pundits.

Excuse me, but I remain skeptical. No one can be that dumb.

 

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. And I am not entirely sure about the universe."
Albert Einstein

As for the fans of these clubs not knowing anything, fans are usually the last to know about someone being brought in (moved on is another matter).

Do you mean that Seltzer is wrong about all of these names Utrecht, 1860 Munich, Anderlecht, Feyenoord, Red Bull Leipzig, Red Bull Salzburg, Sporting CP, Standard Liège and Werder Bremen?

Are you seriously suggesting that nobody in continental Europe offered at least $500k a year to a 21 year-old international striker with 18 caps? The question answers itself.