And another player who had Euro stars in his eyes returns with his tail between his legs. Can Red Bull sign him directly or does he have to go through some sort of draft?
If he does sign, though, doesn't that just prove MLS's status as the backup girlfriend that will always be around? What's more--I think too much benefit of the doubt is given to players who have played in Europe. All that Thorrington hype, etc. And after watching Jay DeMerit get badly toasted week after week in 1v1 situations, too many people have crowned him a national team starter. I hope Jeff doesn't just look at the resume on Philipakos.
What? Just...what??? Have we been watching the same player? I'm not going to say that he should be nominated for the EPL best XI, but to say that he has been "badly toasted week after week" is just ridiculous. If anybody has been toasted, I'd say it might have been you while watching. As for Philipakos, the question has never been his talent, its been his work ethic and his apparently inflated ego. And Thorrington wasn't a failure for lack of talent, either. The guy has been injured almost as many times as John O'Brien. I can't say if he was good or not, nobody ever got a chance to tell.
Roy Lassiter, Alexi Lalas (we're just naming random USA players right?) Is MLS level with the Greek league (once you remove teams that qualify for the CL)?
Remember Adolfo Gregorio? He should be the poster boy. Spurned MLS and went to Europe. Knocked around various clubs and tryouts. Came back to MLS for a year and was cut. The real joke is that the Rapids were begging for midfielders when they drafted him. He would have had a real chance to show what he could do.
Ryan Coiner, Jacob Thomas--I could play all night. Fact is, too many of these guys think they can waltz back into the league and they either flop completely or barely cling on for a year or two.
You're comparing guys who kicked it around in the 2 Bundesliga and the Regional Leagues in Germany to a kid who, before his injury, was considered to be good enough for the first XI for the premier team in Greece. That's pushing it just a little bit.
Wrong--Van Persie wiped the floor with him in an embarrassing fashion a couple weeks ago for the Arsenal winner. Dumb penalty yanking down Solskjaer when he wasn't in a threatening position vs. Man U. It's not that I think he's bad--he's just been grossly overrated on the Yanks Abroad and national team boards. Just as few have given Boca enough credit for how his game has markedly improved. It's all about flavor of the month, evidently, and putting the blinders on.
No, I'm merely saying don't let the resume do the talking. I would and did say the same thing about Kirovski.
You actually missed this one completely. I mentioned two players who came back to MLS and did very well.
i hope that he comes in the right frame of mind and busts his tail to fulfill the promise that he supposedly has. Maybe this ordeal has been a humbling experience for him. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
I'd be curious to see how he performs. If he's as good as implied, bring him on. Man, I can't wait for the season to start . . I really can't. Hurry up, MLS!!
Wow so Van Persie is the measuring stick now. Hes been making every defender look silly this season before his injury. He made Cole look just as bad so I guess that makes him crap too. Its nice to know that you discredit him based on one game yet you fail to mention to number of times hes been on the team of the week this season. Hes been Watfords best defender this season (I guess that ain't sayin much), hes been very solid all around, you could argue hes had a better season then Boca at Fulham. You claim hes been beaten constantly one on one yet you only bring up two examples, and poor ones at that.
Agreed. Because of a long, dreadful succession of injuries, JOB has become little more than a punchline for snide jokes. How soon everyone forgets. We'll never know what might have been because of all his injuries, but I feel confident in saying that he might have become one of the top three or four players this country has yet produced. As it is, he'll still be remembered for a quality, though very short, stint at Ajax and with the USMNT, culminating with WC '02.
Nothing random at all. I was going with resume vs. actual impact in MLS. They were supposed to set the league on fire and did absolutely nothing to impress. And, yes, I know JOB had injury problems, but that didn't stop him from playing in a couple of pre-WC games instead of playing for Chivas. He wasn't impressive for either team.
This is a moronic statement. You sign a player because he'll add skill and talent to your team. You don't give a crap about your league's perceived status. If I'm a manager, and I'm signing players based on how the signing makes the league look, someone fire me right away. BTW - I have no opinion on this player, since I haven't seen him play often enough. DeMeritt I have seen, and he gets burnt no more than other defenders on teams in the relegation zone. It's part of the reason these teams are in the relegation zone. Oh, and they all aren't American. And one last statistic for all you who think all statistics actually mean something: The US has a higher percentage of it's professional soccer players in the Premier league than England. (Yes, it's a crap statistic because they have many more professional soccer players, and most DON'T play in the Premier league, since they have a gazillion teams in a bazillion leagues.)