Sources from Dallas also believe that they don't suck balls - doesn't make it true. They also believe that renaming their club "F.C." isn't euro-posing. Sorry, I don't have anything to add to this discussion. I just hate dallas.
I knew that was coming, yet I brought them up anyways. I actually think MLS is coming a long way towards transparency, but the allocation/discovery/weighted lottery rules really could use a clarification (a lengthy one).
I like this acquisition quite a bit, if for no other reason than the club has picked up an experienced right-sided midfielder. Additionally: 1. Gone are the days of Sir Nate the Very Tall playing in the midfield. He is [rightfully, IMO] relegated to bench/reserve duty while he attends the Brian McBride Target Forward Camp for the Very Tall. 2. Bucky the Haitian Sensation either: Wins the right MF job, or provides rare wide-sided mf depth to the team. 3. Having a forward line of Herron/Ralph, with Sir Nate on the bench better enables Peter the Wilt to trade The All-Time Leading Scorer in Fire History and Most Expensive Player on The Roster Ante Razov. OK, so does the club win the Yi extravaganza next? I like what the club has been able to do hereto fore in the offseason...
You're assuming Dave S doesn't put Sir Nate the Very Tall (SNtVT) in the line-up. After last year's ineptifest, I'm not sure what it will take to get him sent to the bench. Let's hope we see more of JT than just 88th minute sub and Open Cup a-league games. Oh - I almost forgot- FIRE DAVE!!
Well, at least this seems to indicate there was other signing interest so we aren't like his last fallback or anything. http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/MLS/...ent_id=20852&vkey=news_chf&fext=.jsp&team=chf
And here I thought he chose us over his offers from Blockbuster, Borders and El Pollo Loco. I feel better about the signing now.
I'm not a big fan of this move. And I don't how you guys can rip on Mathis, he's a million times better than Thorrington. I would bet that Thorrington is closer to Tim Lawson's level than Mathis. But I hope he does good, and hopefully we'll get somebody good with our other allocations.
Stop comparing Mathis to Thorrington. Thorrington may be serviceable, and he may completely suck. We don't know how he will affect our team. Mathis sucks. He's got a Serie A ego with an A-League game. He's been a pain in the a$$ for every team he's played for, and would have been benched in NY had his manager had the balls to do it. Maybe his attitude will change in Salt Lake, but since the guy has been a hemroid on every other team, I wouldn't bet on it. I'd give you Nate Jaqua for him, but that's about all I'd give. P.S. How do you think his constant crotch grabbing will go over in the mormon state.
I like your thinking. At least Thorrington has the potential to be a special player, someone that can make a difference on our team. And of course, I'm for anything that could create a move by Ratso. I also agree with Greddy when he says, "Stop comparing Mathis to Thorrington. Thorrington may be serviceable, and he may completely suck. We don't know how he will affect our team." IMO, Mathis seems to require exterior motivation, as opposed to a self motivated person. Based on that way of thinking, it seems to me that Real is risking more on Mathis. In any event, I hope they both have successful careers in MLS, especially Thorrington - we could use some fun around here!
Anyone who speculates about what happened to JT in Europe doesn't have a clue about what they are talking about. Some of you know that I spoke of the Thorrington allocation to Chicago and the Mathis deal to RSL long before it was on the radar screen. While this does not make me some kind of soccer guru, I do have a bit of credibility. In over twenty years of coaching some very good soccer players in So. Cal., JT is the best that has ever played for me. His pace remains unbelievable and his ability on the ball to beat an opponent is as rare as it comes. If the Fire needs an attacking right-sided midfielder, JT is your guy. Injuries and bad luck have plagued him in his short career, but he is the real deal. JT did have some very good offers in England, but he wanted to come home. When Huddersfield was in Div. 1 and 2, JT made significant contributions to the team. When it became clear that the Terriers could no longer afford him, he signed with Grimsby. I've already bored people with the story, but suffice it to say that the same manager who scuttled Grimsby's chances to avoid relegation was the same manager who got rid of Thorrington and he's the same manager who got the axe at Grimsby - now, how bad a manager do you have to be to get fired at Grimsby? This should tell you the quality of the person who dropped JT. But, this should not be a reflection on Thorrington. I will be coming out to Chicago to catch one of the Fire's games this summer and I'll let each one of you Thorrington doubters buy me a pint in celebration of this signing! Go Fire!
I must say I have to reserve judgement on this player. As the Codheads (Grimsby) are our biggest local rivals over here I am trying to canvass some opinions from their fans as to what type of player Thorrington was for them. By all accounts the Grimsby team of last season was quite the poorest side they have had in years, even poorer than this season (and this season they are struggling in our division after being relegated). It is all very well that a player was once good, but I have seen many examples of players having a series of bad injuries and never quite returning to the level they were. Maybe he will maybe he won`t! I think the main reason Thorrington was released was financial but you do have to remember that he didn`t figure highly in the team when the team as a whole was very poor. We play the Codheads (This is the name we call them, as Grimsby is the home port of Englands biggest fishing fleet) our next away game so I will take the opportunity to ask around and I`ll post on here what their thoughts on Thorrington are. It is obviously difficult for me to gauge what the general standard of play is in the MLS, but one thought I will give you is this. Is a player who has struggled to hold down a regular first team spot in the lower echelons of the English game good enough for the MLS. Perhaps the style of play in the MLS will suit him better because over here lower division football is fast and brutal and many a time a player who has performed well at a higher level has failed to adapt to the blood and thunder of the lower divisions. Obviously only time will tell whether he is a good signing for the Fire or not. The match reports on their website seem to indicate that when he played he seemed to play reasonably well but he kept getting substituted. Anyway I will come back with what the Grimsby fans have to say.
The "Grimsby Codheads" .... England is sooooooo CUTE !!! Like a fuzzy little hobbit. I just want to give it a big hug.
We might want to look into Thorrington's former teammate Digby "Fins" Gorton. He's your typical #35, and exactly the kind of class player we've come to expect from Grimsby.
I especially liked the part where we're trying to trade Ring. We must have an eye on a new backup in the draft.
Important to note when evaluating this signing is that we used only one quarter of the allocation money for missing the playoffs on Thorrington...and that was just on paying a significant portion of his contract for the next two years to ease the cap burden substantially. So, his acquisition cost nothing, we still have nearly 3 full allocations remaining, and he counts a fraction of what his contract is against our salary cap. I mean, it's still up for debate how he'll turn out for us, and we'll see soon enough...but for the deal we got it's certainly worth the chance taken. (I rewrote this thing 4 damn times and got busy signals. damn bigsoccer)
at that (lack of) price, it makes taking almost any player a good deal, and an even better deal if the guy can play a lick.