apparently as a midfielder. Cunningham apologists come and gloat. But I still say his trade value is more valuable that what he can bring the team next year.
I'd say his trade value is even higher. We could get an awful lot of talent at some other weaker position for us in trade, and his market value is certainly higher than any other striker on the squad. We'd never move / be able to move McBride, Washington is woefully undervalued and we'd be getting ripped off, and there is no way in hell I'd trade Buddle, who clearly has the biggest upside of any player on the squad save Martino. DC needs a goalscorer. So does KC. I'd take either Baby Benny or Klein in return.
NO WAY do you trade Cunningham for either of those 2 Hacks. It is alot easier to find a defender than a gifted striker. Only way Cunny is traded is Eddie Pope. We are in a great position with what we have, all we need is a Midfielder who can play the right side and defensive help, and with our open roster spots we can certainly find that. What we need are good draft day acquisitions, not trading our leading scorer for a mediocre defender.
A player only has trade value if there is a willing dance partner. Of the other nine teams in the league you have to ask the following: (a) Which teams are willing to make a trade with Columbus; (b) Of the teams that are willing in (a), what do they have offer; (c) From (b), is the counter offer enough for Cunningham to make the deal. Depending on who's willing to dance with Columbus, I'm not sure there is sufficient value coming back our direction.
Teams that may need a goal scorer/striker like Cunningham... 1. DC United. - Quintinilla is not the answer to partner Quarantina up top. I think they'd be very interested. - Possible trade demands, Nelsen (SI), Pope, Olsen, Reyes (SI) 2. KC - Unless gansler thinks that a Fabro, Simultenkov partneship is the answer. - Possible Trade demands, Klein or Steven Armstrong (SI), Guittierez (SI?) 3. Colorado - I don't see Spencer regaining his form and Cunningham up top with Carrieri might be a potent partneship up top. - Possible trade demands, Henderson, Titus, Chung There are plenty of teams that could use Cunny is what I am saying and I think we are more likely to get a right sided player from the deal than a valuable central defender. Granted Nobody listed except possibly Pope is valuable enough to do a straight up trade, but a combination of Titus and Henderson or Chung from Colorado would definately intrigue me. I also would love Steven Armstrong on our right side but I am unsure what else KC would package with him as he is not valuable enough straight up at all. There are options out there, and I'd be suprised if we didn't at least explore them.
Chung would be awsome and possibly doable. But no way in hell does DC give up Baby Ben. Although, how many here would really be oppossed to that happening?
keep jeff. These are all horrible, horrible ideas. How many goals do you want to score next year? Seven? We have a history of making silly mistakes in the offseason, Baby Ben for Jeffro would anger me more than Bonseu for nearly nothing. At least I think it would, cause that sting has worn off.
Dante is from the DC Maryland area and there have been various sources saying that he'd like to be closer to home. I wouldn't be surprised if Dante ended up in DC.
Apparently you Baby Ben haters didn't watch Spurs - DCU. Ben was one of the top players on the pitch. He's back. We need someone to mirror Garcia on the left flank over on the right. Klein, Ralston, and Olsen are probably the top three right wingers in the league. Henderson could play there, but he's a little longer in the tooth than I'd like to trade Cunningham for. Chung is another player who is better on the left side than right. Realistically, Klein is probably our best chance out of the top right-wingers. But I'd love to have Olsen tearing up and down the right flank for us.
Re: keep jeff. You are a strange cat. When Buddle went down in the semi's you said our season was over, no more goals forus. Now its possible that Cunningham is the one who is resposnable for all our goal scoring from the sounds of this post. 1. Olsen is a long shot, and almost surely would not happen, but that would be a great trade for us, especially if your boy Buddle and McBride stay with us. Next year he will be the best right sided player in the league. (Though personally I wouldn't mind somehow working out to get Reyes and moving him up to right wing, I think thats more feasable. 2. What Foos said is right Klein would probably be our most likely pickup. Though straight up that is not a quality trade at all. Who else could KC package with Klein? 3. Where do all these Dante rumors come from?
I recall watching Olsen on his first game back, if he can stay healthy, he is a top notch player. I agree with foos, spurs/dcu, he was great. I'd love to have olsen on our side. Yeah he whinges but hey, if he's in a yellow jersey, maybe we get some calls to go our way through play acting? Klein would be awesome as well. Either way, I think we'll have a strong squad next year.
My opinion is that Cunningham does have trade value and that we should be able to get much more in return for him that many others on the roster. A trade with KC for Klein and some other body (Gutierrez, Garcia, Armstrong) would be beneficial to the Crew. Second, the goalscoring from Jeff will be absorbed by someone else on the team; usually mutliple players. Last year the midfielders went wild and this year we got 2-3 goals from them. Our goals per game average dropped from 1.8 to just under 1.6 between the two years, or about 1 goal less every 3 games or so. Not much of a change. The rest of the team will pick up the slack in one form or another. Third, the rumors about Dante surfaced in August when DC was trying to bring Gazza on board. He has expressed an interest to move back to a place closer to home, with the additional benefit for him to get some additional playing time. If both of these players get traded, then we would see McBride and Buddle on top with two new players (draft or trade) being the other forwards off the bench. Or they could move West up top as a third forward off the bench to better use his speed late in the match. Almost forgot, don't care too much about "Best XI" because they seem to be an odd arrangement of players. Putting Jeff into midfield and having Howard over any of Cannon, Busch and Hartman really brings the validity of this "team" down. Thank God that Graziani didn't score 20 goals in SJ; they'd have him in midfield and would have pushed Jeff to center back.
DGA57, I like Garcia alot. That's a good call. The rest of your post I also agree with. The departure of Cunningham would not make this offense anemic in any way. There is too much talent for that.
Re: Re: keep jeff. I'm far more alarmist on the boards then I am in real life. Anyway, the season did end, as I said, though I did not expect the Dante - McBride tandem to clean up in front of goal as they used to do in 2001. But you saw how many goals we scored in Crew Stadium for game 2. I think that our best offensive combo is Jeffro and Buddle. It seems to me that if i had the time to do statistical computation instead of Law Journal editing that it could be proved Buddle scores more when paired with Jeff and Jeff scores more when paired with Buddle then they both do when combined with McBride. I know that our offensive output in general is greater when Brian is not playing. In my mind trading Jeff is a large mistake.
ZipSix, so let me pose this scenario to you.... McBride isn't goin anywhere. He won't be traded and MLS won't move him overseas. If he's with the Crew he will be starting, that is pretty much a given. Andrulis won't change that period. That being the case we have three 2 very good MLS forwards sittin on the bench at any time. Wouldn't it make sense since all the above is a given to move your most tradeable one to benifit the weaker areas on the squad?
Let him start in the midfield if he must start. I think that your scenario is probably all certain, but it makes me sick. I don't understand why you trade away maybe you're first or second best player, the player leading the league in scoring over two years so that you can start someone who gets called up for international duty or spends five to six games a year hurt. I think that we have the speed to not need to go through McBride everytime we want to attack. We've built a system where instead of finding talent who can cross the ball in to a big forehead in the middle we went with blazing speed instead. Blazing speed and creativity to challenge and move to goal without needing an inswinging cross. Brian McBride ball reminds me of Jovan Kirovski ball, except that I know #20 is far more talented. The problem is that its very rarely fruitful. For all the work that Brian does, and to read the boards, you would think that he is the messiah, some more should be coming as a result of the work. Instead we're trapped between two different styles. For my money, Buddle-Cunningham is better than McBride-anybody. Listen, if points were scored everytime we got a flick on header 25 yards from goal that went to nobody and were easily cleared then we'd be the greatest team in the league. Do I think that Cunningham sucked against new england? Yes. Absolutely, he didnt shoot nearly enough and was entirely invisible for nearly all three games causing his removal mid way through the third. I see that. But I also see that he is our most productive player as a whole. And it's not because Brian McBride draws nine defenders. He works well with Buddle and Perez, and to the extent that the people he works well with aren't playing, he has a lessened impact. Again, we're a central defender and another young midfielder from the cup. With Jeff gone, if we address those other needs we've lost his role instead. Brian West and Edson Buddle are not Jeff Cunningham.
ZipSix, if your at the thistle tomorrow we'll continue this discussion there...if you see things my way maybe I'll even reward your intelligence with a Boddingtons. I'll be there round 9.