It has been a while since we have had nuts to ride. I think a World Cup winner, multi-time Bundesliga winner, Champions League winner, multi-time DFB-Pokal winner, and most expensive player to don a Chicago Fire jersey deserves.
According to his twitter feed, he met with the Fire "team doctor" (the Fire have a team doctor?) in Munich yesterday. Assuming he passed his physical, will he suit up next Saturday or is this all just a giant April fool's Day joke on us long suffering Fire fans? By the looks of it, it appears the Fire team doctor would have difficulty passing a physical. He is a rotund man, for a doctor. Great to meet the team doctor of @ChicagoFire in Munich yesterday! Looking forward to the new city and club. pic.twitter.com/JbvUS2U8lA— Bastian Schweinsteiger (@BSchweinsteiger) March 25, 2017 For BigSoccer App and Tapatalk users: Basti SchweinsteigerVerified account @BSchweinsteiger 2h2 hours ago Great to meet the team doctor of @ChicagoFire in Munich yesterday! Looking forward to the new city and club.
i'd rather see Fernandez, Mihailovic, and Lindley in our MF instead of a guy that probably didn't even know the club existed until a few months ago. And I'd rather 4.5M go to a residency academy. But we got a guy we don't need simply because ownership and FO needs to shake a bad reputation. He is going to have to play pretty great before I ride any nuts. Last Fire player with a nut rider thread was Mike Magee. A local guy, who wanted to play here, and won a league MVP while not even being a DP.
I'd rather not finish last for a third straight year. Fernandez, Mihailovic and Lindley won't do that. Not yet anyways.
You are, of course, entitled to your opinion, but I call crap on this. 1) "Until a few months ago" nobody their parents knew Mihailovic and Lindley existed. 2) Lindley is not even on the team and I honestly have no idea who the hell he is. 3) Fernandez has demonstrated nothing to indicate he is a star MLS player. Three years and waiting. We still have hope. 4) Put those three in midfield right now and we have a guaranteed fourth Wooden Spoon. F*ck that. 5) As @Salvatore Giuseppe stated, we are sick of losing. 6) I was pissed when they let Magee go, but they did. He wanted to leave, had a decent season for LAG and retired. Time to let that one go. 7) Schweinsteiger won't care if you do or do not ride his nuts, but there should be room for you!
What I meant was that I'd rather let our HG kids play in MF and take that money and fix actual problems in the club instead of signing a 8 month loan for a player we don't need simply to save face for Hauptman. If my choice was between another wooden spoon AND Andrew giving 4.5M to fix problems (academy, training facility, scouting...) or Basti...I'd take the kids in a heartbeat. This is an 'own the conversation' investment for a team that won't invest in things that actually builds clubs. Its the same mentality that leads someone to invest in a pay-to-play beer league center instead of a training facility. Its not about building a club its about building a brand. Its like ignoring that your car needs a new transmission and instead investing in a custom paint job and rims. I'd rather ride on hubcaps and fix the damn thing. So, knowing the big picture of what this investment means and where that money wasn't invested...Basti is going to have to play pretty amazing before I'm riding his nuts.
Screw that. The actual problems in the club is so far much deeper than an academy. I completely and totally disagree on that one. An academy is not going to win MLS Cup. This is not a face saving thing, at all. Schweinsteiger is a player we need. What he brings ON and OFF the field will be invaluable. It is so much more than an "own the conversation" move. It is signing one of the world's great players. This can build the club. Schweinsteiger is not a "paint job and rims". He is a world class soccer player who is only 32, has been 'resting' for a year, should be healthy and ready to go. This is less a vanity signing that Blanco was. He can do 10x more to "raise the kids" than Rodriguez and Hauptman or an academy could ever do. Let's talk in July. If this turns out to be a bust, I will say, but I really do not think that it will. He has not been a "diva" player and I cannot see him being a bust (except for health reasons). If he is still Bastian Schweinsteiger, climb aboard!!!!
I'm on board with Das Nuts. I wouldn't want to see a MF of inexperienced unproven rookies. The Fire are going to be good this year, Schweinsteiger will have a positive impact and even though we already have multiple quality players who play the same position as Schweinsteiger, we have no player who can bring what he does. I've said this before and I'll say it again; theres a very noticable difference between a good MLS player like Dax and a world class player like Schweinsteiger. I believe the main reason he wasn't in their 18 is because Jose Mourinho doesn't like him. Yes he's that petty and that crazy.
McCarty and Schweinsteiger will teach "the kids" more in the year or two they will be with the Fire more than any academy could ever, ever do.
The time now is for the 3-5-2 My starting 11 would be MDL and Niko up top,Dax, Schweinsteiger and Juninho in the Midfield, Accam and Alvarez as Wingbacks, Meira, Campbell and Kappelhoff as CB'S and Bava GK. This puts our best players on the pitch.
Let's NOT pretend that Andrew Hauptman had ANYTHING to do with this. Maybe just maybe the league is trying to do something about Andrew, this is league's doing. Hopefully it means that the league has somebody lined up to buy the team. NO WAY in hell, alligator arms Hauptman would reach for the checkbook to write that check.
Here's what you can look forward to @ChicagoFire fans -> @BSchweinsteiger's top 3 #Bundesliga goals! #CHIweinsteiger pic.twitter.com/1XAap3aWMY— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) March 21, 2017
The league has to pump up the price of admission for the dozen, or so too rich groups who can't wait to get one of the 6-8 golden tickets to the MLS/SUM Country Club. A distressed "franchise" in Chicago is an albatross around the neck of those efforts. Any money over the cap, whether GAM, TAM, transfer fees, or DP salaries are likely paid from the league kitty. That money will probably be a "lien" against whatever profits Andell realizes on the sale of the club. My guess is Andell gets out from under actually running the franchise, but retains a passive stake in SUM much like when Ken Horowitz wound up the Fusion. The big difference is the league will work to make Chicago worth more than the $150 million fee MLS is reportedly asking from the new kids to join the club, less the SUM value. With LAFC joining next year, they have about a year, or so to peddle the Fire before any new franchises are doled out. Schweinsteiger and the MLS ASG are all part of the plan to sell the club this calendar year. The new ownership can choose to opt out of the Schweinie deal for 2018, settle with the Village of Bridgeview, and chart their own course whether as the Chicago Fire, or something, or somewhere else.
Yes to all of this, AND we signed a World Cup winner, great world-class midfielder with an awesome name, who my absolutely non-soccer liking friend recognized. Hell, as he sat down at the bar, he mentioned Bastian to me as someone the Fire signed. Anyone who does not think that this should be (barring serious injury) an absolute positive signing on and off the field just sucks at being a Fire fan. Man, I sound like iron81, but this is such a great opportunity for the Fire. He is the biggest signing since Blanco and probably bigger. Oh, and why yes I gave been drinking, thank you very much. I stand by everything I wrote.
I'm going to have to go into full fan boy mode for Schweini because frankly I'm worried that his body can't hold up. But as a Fire and Bayern fan Gott Sei Dank!!