I think he will. They are motivated by something completely different than our organization. Results.
Read the comments at the end of the article. You just don't get it. The Szetela signing is just one of the first steps in building the new Cosmos into a world soccer power.
I swear to God if they signed someone's cocker spaniel those geeks would go insane over how this was just the move they needed to put them into the first rank of world football. What the hell do they drink out there?
I come to this thread quite a bit late in the season and without having read all 500+ posts. Please forgive the source, but I was surprised to see Duka get traded as he was always one of my top performers in Football Manager. Always stuck him up front on the left as an AM. Granted, Oduro has been a good get for us with is production and his ability to get forward fast - but how are we feeling about losing Duka? This is my first season of paying attention to the Crew, so I don't know how he performed prior to this season and he was gone before I started coming to the games.
I think the general consensus is that he was not meeting his aforementioned video game projections and that nobody was really sad to see him go. Personally, I'm very happy with the way things have turned out. Oduro has a great attitude, is scoring goals, and wants to be here.
Good to know there isn't much buyer's remorse. Even if he did produce in his game against us with the Fire... lol
Duka had potential but never lived up to it. He was injured early in 2012 when he was expected to have a breakout year. Many posters also wanted to see him in more of a CM role. I think his downfall at Columbus was his attitude - he seemed to hate being here.
We have a couple very similar players in Speas and Ethan to Duka. A part of it may be due to McGee but Duka seems like he's finally starting to live up to his potential after a rough start in Chicago. I don't think that would have happened had he stayed here; I do have some fear that the aforementioned players are perhaps being Dukaed.
To be the Duka+Robbie Rights for Oduro was a rare win-win trade. Chicago parlayed Robbie into Mike McGee. Duka had a good June. Essentially neither side "lost" the trade
Duka also complained in the press about not getting playing time his Rookie year, and also their were rumors that his Parents Called the FO on why he was not getting any playing time. I will say his attitude might have to do with RW, there are tons of players that RW has rubbed the wrong way, Balchan, Grossman, Aaron Horton, Julius James, Nemanja Vukovic and the even the Great Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
You could make a list as long for Sigi, really (Busch being one). And how many of these guys are still playing at a high level? Sigi would not have put up with Duka's attitude either if the reports/rumors you noted are accurate (and I think they are). Part of it is pampered players in our (US) youth system. Duka wasn't the first (Adu, anyone) and won't be the last.
LA flipped Mike Magee ( 16 goals and 6 assist in last 40 appearances) + International spot for 2 seasons for Robbie Rogers, Pablo Mastroeni, and rights to Baggio Husidic. By trading Magee (2ooK salary) they opened up a monies to trade for Mastoeni. That is a really poor trade for LA.
Someone in the MLS:Commissioner forum, which I have to deal with more often now that I'm moderating it, pointed out something: The NASL Cosmos played 14 seasons. The original MLS teams have now played 18. That's right -- MLS has outlasted the Cosmos. Crew >> Cosmos.
I would hope though that any coach would find this absurd and land you in the doghouse your rookie season too. Duka I see as a very talented guy who has to have the right system and the a star player to work with. Magee maybe that guy and Klopas might provide that system. But you get him outside of that particular system and I don't see him shining.
I enjoy Football Manager, and have wasted too many hours of my life doing so. But be wary of projecting FM player potentials into real life. A few years/versions back, I (and I remember someone else on here) was able to train Griffit into a monster wing. Knox Cameron was able to be groomed into a solid, MLS all-star target forward. And acquiring Nik Basagno as a youngster became one of the keys to bring the Crew a whole case full of silverware...
No kidding... once I managed several years in the '06 or '07 version of the game. I picked up this kid in my '2012' season and he was gang busters! MVP, golden boot... all that shit. So 2012 rolls around in real life and the Crew didn't pick up this fictional kid... I was pissed!
He wasn't fictional, just the crazy estimation of his potential (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolas_Besagno). Depending upon the year/version of FM, his potential rating for a few years there was better than the likes of Dempsey, Altidore, Feilhaber, etc. Once you figured this out, you could get him early on fairly cheap, and groom him into the American Maradona. Which taught me to be wary of trusting FM's potential ratings on youngsters (especially American youngsters) for "real life" value. Otherwise, you might spend something of value on guys who are languishing in the PDL as a 24 year old player-coach... though I suppose that if there was some nugget of truth in his potential, the Crew wouldn't have much to lose by inviting him for a tryout.