A real shame but it's obvious that he wasn't a fit in Hudson's system AT ALL. There's at most 1 spot for a creative midfielder in his system, and he seems to prefer Nicholson because of his work rate.
Gilles Grimandi 2.0 At least this gives us enough salary room in the transfer window to make a meaningful signing.
That's just empty speculation. We don't actually know what the terms of separation were. Granted, the Rapids haven't done much to make us believe they wouldn't royally fv<k it up like that.
Yeah but Aigner still had about $2 million coming to him between now and 2020. He's not walking away from that just to become a free agent. Barring another shoe dropping its a safe assumption that the Rapids paid him something to get out of the contract.
i would love to hear the back story on this. We all knew it was coming sooner than later. I'm sure fingers can be pointed all around. I just don't have the energy anymore to figure to who or what it at fault. These last 8 games has sucked every bit of Rapids Life out of me. At least Aigner gets a clean break. We don't. We have to continue to endure this nightmare even if admittedly, I've turned my head towards the Switchbacks more and more every week. I wish we could have dealt Aigner to another MLS team but international slots are at a premium so it's hard which I get. But now the Rapids are on hook for his termination - assuming a buyout happened - which hurts us in the transfer window. Ugh! This is a cluster******.
He wasn't anywhere close to that bad! Aigner not only appeared in game, but had goals and an assist. That makes this situation more difficult because we all saw the potential. Grimandi was never even here. When I think of bad FO decisions, there is still nothing that outdoes Gilles Grimandi. It is my fondest hope there never will be.
There are now multiple reports from connected fans than players were calling Ainger out on his crap in the locker room, including at least one core member of our younger players. While Hudson and/or Smith have some blame for causing this situation it appears that a large part of the blame is Ainger's.
When a team is doing some due diligence on him, they likely query soccer boards and such to see how fan reactions are. This post may cost him some serious $$. Which may not be a bad thing if he isn't a good locker room presence. (The response to Badji's 3rd goal appears to be an example, which we were wondering at the time. Also, how long has it been since that game and we were all so excited at the quality on the field!)
He didn’t play Aigner before Nicholson was signed. Heck, Hudson played a totally incompetent McBean instead. I have no idea what happened in practice, but Hudson’s record to date shows he did not play this situation well.
Maybe. What's "his crap"? I doubt Aigner's blameless, but if teammates were calling him out on not devoting himself to the crapola scheme the Rapids are pulling, or not devoting himself to the apparently Klinsman-like practices, I still don't know that I blame Aigner all that much for that. I'd want to know more about what he was doing. He played hard last year even though by the time he got here the team was not going anywhere.
To summarize the long MLS rules page: Sounds like KSE is going to eat the buyout and the salary hit against the Rapids cap. At least we have a foreign spot opened up.
Half assing it in practice. Also, reportedly, Hudson called him out in preseason during a game for not showing effort. He told Hudson that they were losing so he didn't care. Generally what I'm hearing is that he showed up to preseason with a huge entitlement complex and never gave a full effort to the team this year. Again, all that said, that doesn't mean Hudson and Smith are blameless in this and we're hearing multiple stories but nothing from Aigner's end. Where's there's smoke though there's generally fire so I believe that Aigner certainly contributed to the problem.
My guess is that Aigner was recruited using the 2016 Rapids, which gave the illusion of an up and coming team. I'm sure big promises were made. Then he appears in Denver and finds a team falling apart. 2018 comes and he realizes he's with the coach from hell, using a style that doesn't suit him and who expects him to run a marathon every game. The guy is a skill player, not a triathlete and he's pissed. He can't just leave, since there's $2 mil coming his way. So he makes himself a pain, being careful not to say anything publicly, until the Rapids finally agree to buy him out. Not exactly professional but I can't say I blame him. Players talk, so I doubt the Rapids are going to have much luck recruiting in Germany for a while.
Finally, someone got it right. This is EXACTLY what happened. He hated coaches style of play and with the decline of the season and less PT , it translated into him not caring as much at training sessions. I blame Hudson and the front office. They recruited guys that don't fit the system in which they want to play. How can you expect to win in an attacking system 3-5-2 with no real number 10 lol. This is elementary.
Except, according to some reports, he was giving an entitled attitude and not caring in preseason. Before he had less PT and before the season turned into a dumpster fire. Aigner is like the reverse Grmandi. When Grimandi flamed out everyone wanted to blame him when really it was a divided FO that led to the problems (the FO signed Grimandi when the head coach didn't want him). Here everyone wants to blame the FO when Aigner appears to have been the real problem.
Interesting note in this article about Aigner. We traded Cronin & Burch in order to free up funds to sign somebody in the summer window, which turned out to be Aigner. So essentially we gave up Cronin and Burch to get Saeid, Gatt, and Aigner, none of which are on the roster just a bit over a year after the trade and all of whom left on free transfers. http://lastwordonsoccer.com/2018/06/10/aignergate-season-finale-stefan-aigner-colorado-rapids/
The article also reiterares Aigner's contract was dissolved, not bought out. Presumably, his contract was not guaranteed. Therefore, the Rapids can use the freed money this year.