Because he is 27. He is not a prospect, he is a known quantity, and it is felt he isn't really MLS quality. I think he is perfect for a team a team that is trying to be super cheap and not forward looking and has no talent of their own that is ready to get minutes. He is ready to go now. I am glad for him, there is nothing more for him in USL. He'll get his cup of tea, and he will have his chance to prove his ceiling is higher than the consensus. I am also glad that his space at Reno is open for more development. Win all around
That isn’t old and the Quakes like any other club in the world can always use a goalscorer. Wondo at 35 is old but Kelly at 27 isn’t.
27 isn't old to be a pro. It is old to be getting your first chance in MLS, don't you agree? Any team could have had him last year also. He scores goals, he has had exposure all across the continent for several years, so every team knows about him. But the scouts don't think he will score at the top level or else he'd have been signed already. I wish him luck, but I trust the Quakes' scouts when they weren't interested.
Sure but my initial point remains,that you or anyone else won’t know until they give him a chance. That chance should have been given by the Quakes as they are Reno’s supposed parent club. If he fails , well then ok but you won’t know until you put him out there. Also, I’d rather go after a guy like Kelly who has the potential to score goals as opposed to their Gk, defenders or mids. I want to see Wondo around forever but at 35, there is no stopping time. That isn’t me talking those are the facts and sooner or later they need to find a replacement.
He would be behind Wondo, Hoesen, hyka (if seen as a second forward for playing time), Amarikwa, and whoever we’ve drafted or loaned in from Reno at forward. Why waste a discovery tag on a likely sub. He’s a good player for a team who has no options up front, like DC. But for us he’d be depth and likely loaned back out to Reno.
A fair point, Falvo, but remember, you can only sign three players from Reno. Consider who those three were. - Ockford - Led Reno in minutes and anchored what was a solid defense (setting aside their shaky start last year). SJ badly needed depth at CB, as we've already seen. - Felipe - Five goals and three assists in 27 appearances, 16 starts. Not bad, and he's only 21. - Wehan - USL rookie of the year and assists leader. The idea of taking Kelly over one of the two midfielders is reasonable, but I also think the above are better options for the long run.
I would argue that the Quakes need another forward a lot more than a midfielder like Felipe and Wehan, though, yes, they are good players. But this guy (Kelly) won the USL Golden Boot and is the USL scoring leader. And the Quakes have only 3 "pure" forwards on their roster, and about 300 midfielders..
This is my point. The whole world loves a goal scorer and Kelly was their best player. Of course he should have been moved up to the senior team. This is the reason for a farm club.
Cam Weaver once won the USL Golden Boot. We ended up getting Wondo in a trade involving Weaver, so maybe we should have signed Kelly so we could have traded him away for the next Wondo.
Yeah, but Cam wasn't the USL most prolific goals scorer ever . But sure, Cam had some value, and if nothing else it was enough for us to get something else of value, that turned out to be something of a lot of value. Weird, though, I don't know that they ever even invited Kelly into camp.
US soccer doesn't define what a "farm club" can do the same way you might wish it did. But the rules are the rules for affiliations. I think the limits for discovery actually make sense in terms of what's good for players to prevent the rights of players being hoarded unnecessarily. Reno is also used as much to loan players to and that's a signficant purpose of the farm club, as is consistancy of approach. But I think it was posted earlier in this thread that the Quakes did want to sign Kelly and he wanted to go to India. While he dilly dallied around figuring out he couldn't play there, the Quakes moved on. Also they're paying Quincy already to be the guy off the bench. The only thing that would give the Quakes exclusive rights to Kelly in MLS would be to file one of those discoveries and if they didn't do it then DCU can do that. I think if Kelly had said he wasn't going to sign in MLS, that they wanted to lock in some younger guys and so they moved on. Really compared to other teams and their lower division affiliates, the Quakes did as much with it as any other MLS team last year. And they have new signings this year of younger players they want to look at in the attack in addition to the Quakes draft picks that were loaned. Also they took a long look at Hoppenot. Reno, IMO, may well now even have too many forwards to give them enough playing time. But it can't be said they're not looking at lots of guys at that position or that they haven't created a lot of competition . It seems like they have so many forwards they've had to call some of them midfielders on the roster just so the roster doesn't look so very top heavy the closer you get to goal.
It's almost like a Donovan - I'm leaving, no, just kidding, oh well, guess I'll be playing for another team. And Quincy (or Wondo or Hoesen) can get injured. Most teams carry more than 3 forwards, I can remember times when the Quakes had 5 or 6. When you figure there are 28 roster spots, and 2 of 11 spots for forward on the field generally, in a balanced roster you'd have 28 * (2/11) = 5 forwards. This may be an area they address with a midseason signing.
Cam wasn't the most prolific scorer because he went to play in Scandinavia and then joined MLS. Why didn't anyone take a chance on Kelly until now??
Good question. Was he ever even invited to an MLS camp? Maybe his plan all along was to rack up USL stats like Cam dog and parlay that into a higher paying gig in Europe or Asia or somewhere like that. And then, after the India thing fell thru, it was, never mind, guess I'll play in MLS?
Drat. I hate being on the other side of a debate with Jazzy, especially when he's been repped by xbhaskarx, but here goes... When I've watched Kelly (admittedly, a small sample size) he's been at his best running down the long ball and attacking on the counter. Viewing the SJ offense through the Watson/Kinnear/Yallop prism, he's a fine fit. My first impression of the new management, though, is they're concentrating on short, quick passing and finding space. Maybe he's not the right fit.
I think under Stahre the quick counter is still the thing so he'd be a good fit. But I haven't really watched him play enough to know his strengths and weaknesses. If he's got good speed, that's something I think the Quakes could have really used as a change of pace at forward. But oh well, water under the bridge.
Imo, if the Quakes were even interested in Kelly, it would have been for small money and a depth roll...with an opportunity to claw his way past a couple guys. We have several guys currently at mid who could play the underneath forward role...a lot of competition. If he's just a one dimensional late game over the top burner...even less minutes...Russell would know what he is capable of doing. If his impact USL speed would translate to MLS. I doubt that potential role was very appealing to Kelly. I'm sure he wanted to go to a team where he could compete for starter minutes, at least be in a rotation at forward. ..at a minimum, first off the bench. It just wasn't a good fit for either side.
Kelly agreed to sign with India in September of last year. San Jose and Reno tried to entice him back but did not meet what Kelly wanted. I think he was looking to get more pay and play in a higher level league. Although I am not sure the the Indian Super League is that high in quality. It will be interesting to see how he does with DC.
The Indian Super League is really low in quality, I don't remember the last time India won a WC qualifying game
With comments like that you're not going to curry any favor with fans of the India league, their going to tell you "naansense"!
I'll be interested to see what Kelly does this year. I am rooting for him because he's put the years in. But I watched him play some games and I wasn't super excited. He punishes bad defenders on the counter.
India, is the answer to the trivia questions, "What is the most populous country to have never qualified for the World Cup?"
Or you get there and suddenly it hurts like hell . (I used to play with @Chris thebaseplayer on that team but failing knees sent me packing)