FWIW, Norway isn't in the EU which means they make their own rules regarding immigration/work permits. Concerning Brown, if the Rapids get the transfer fee, or most of it, then I say they sell assuming he doesn't fit into their long term plans and/or they are bringing in a player(s) that will be able to produce at least 10 goals a season .
A little added information here: http://blogs.denverpost.com/rapids/...alerenga-boss-spotted-in-commerce-city/26860/ Seems that the managing director was in Colorado, which would definitely give the rumor legs. rod.
Does anyone know the contract status of Brown? This is his 3rd year, so I assume he is in a 4 or 5 year deal with MLS??? Such things often help explain these situations. Others have posted the Rapids complete roster/salary/contract info at times in the past. Where does one find that?? R
Hello, greetings from Norway We've just seen the article mentioned above, and it seems that our managing director was indeed at your training grounds. We lost our striker (Kjartansson) a few weeks ago, and it seems like Deshorn Brown is the replacement. Indeed it was said by the manager that we were looking for a long term deal, which would cost a bit of money, but would be worth it. It was also said that we, the supporters, would be surprised. Either because the person we sign is concidered too good for us, or that no-one has heard about him. Do you think he would do good in Norway?
Brown is very fast, and like those very fast guys, he is always open, but at that speed one needs to slow down to finish, and his momentum has led him to miss some goals. As long as your system uses his speed to back up the defense, opening the middle, he'll do great. If you also have some accurate long pass players, he could be special. He is not the prototypical back-to-the-goal big target, really, but at 6'2" (188cm) he can get up very high to head. Given his current low salary ($75,000) , I think we are nuts to let him go. R
Contract lengths are usually not released, but the salaries are by the players union. A GA contract is generally four years but it depends on the player. It could be 2 years + 2 club-held option years, 3+2, etc. Odds are that Brown is on at least a 4 year deal and this is year 3. Brown is a lightning-fast striker with a great nose for getting into good situations and generating shots. He's less good at actually putting those shots on target. I've said for the last year or so that he makes the hard shots look easy and the easy shots look hard. If he shoots on instinct he can make the keeper make a big save but if he has time to think about it (being 1 on 1 with the keeper for example) he over-thinks and turns a dangerous chance into a bad shot or puts the shot off target. Despite that he led the team in goals the past two years (10 each season) without a ton of help to draw defenders. In a good system where he can be one of multiple dangerous threats he could excel.
I disagree. If the money is good enough the Rapids should sell him. Especially if Doyle (or somebody similar) is still in the plans. Using the 4-5-1 Brown is going to have a hard time getting on the field and if we can get a good chunk of allocation money for him then we can use that to improve the team.
I would say that Deshorn still is not ready to be the starting forward for the Rapids. I do not know if he is ready for Norway. Brown has good physical attributes, he is very fast and strong. He has scored for the Rapids and likely will for this club in Norway. He requires an awful lot of shots to achieve results and too many of those shots come after ignoring opportunities to pass the ball or for sensible hold-up play. The result is a good crop of goals, lots of shots, fewer shots from teammates, and no - or very few - assists. MLS is known as a physical league. Norway is often considered to be a more tactical and disciplined league. If Deshorn goes to Norway he may benefit from the tactical focus and greatly improve his game. As a young forward with a young Rapids team, he's been given more free reign than he has merited. A move to Norway could be just the right thing. For the Rapids. We will be alright without him. I reckon with 121 shots Bandji can get 10 goals. Bandji is not ready to be the starting forward either, but the Rapids are poised to make the same mistake with him that they have with Brown. In any case I think the plan for Bandji is not to be the goal scorer, but he foil for Torres. I reckon with 120ish shots Torres would prove to be the DP he was hired to be. It would be much better if the Rapids could acquire a mature forward who is not too far past their prime. If only Sanchez were several years younger and the one taking all the shots.
Are the OPTA chalkboards still hidden somewhere? I'm curious how many of Brown's 20 goals came on shots from outside the box. How many would you guess, 4 or 5? It doesn't seem like many but I don't trust my memory to be very exact. Adding to this, Brown appears to be a poor penalty taker (1/3 in two years), and has not been the club's regular penalty taker either season. Last year, on a bad team, he had a tendency to keep his head down and not look for other players. Hence the 0 assists after 4 in his rookie year. On the plus side, his work rate is great. He has at times been used out wide and energetically tracks back on D.
I found it for all 10 goals in 2014 and 4 in 2013. He had 1 from outside the box last year (in Philly) and 1 in 2013 (home late in the season against Vancouver).
Can Badji get 121 shots? It is certainly true that Deshorn takes a lot of frustratingly off-target shots. OTOH, many are shots other Rapids would not have been in position to take. I think everyone agrees the Rapids could use someone better than either player so they don't *have* to play Brown or Badji. I'm not sure what to think about selling Deshorn for Doyle, if that's the angle this takes. While I don't want the Rapids to be like the Rockies and rely year after year on prospects developing in "wait til next year" style, I'm not sure a player in this stage of Doyle's career is the right use of resources. Again, this assumes they need to sell someone to bring in Doyle. It doesn't seem that Doyle's the missing piece in a contender--this team still has a ways to go. Though, not being horrible would be a good thing, and they could certainly use help at striker.
Getting 121 shots isn't hard, it just means taking 121 shots, which says nothing about rather or not they were a good idea. In Brown's case it helps to be fast and provides the excuse. I don't except the excuse. Badji's hardly slow. A little slighter than Brown. Throw balls down towards the outside channel and I believe he can catch them and rocket a shot into the 30th row with the best of Brown, doesn't make it a good idea. It misses the point in any case. Badji's not ready to be a starting forward any more than Brown - probably less so being as he's a rookie. From a tactical standpoint the goal shouldn't be to get shots to Brown or Badji, it should include Torres, Sanchez, Ramirez, and Serna. 2014 isn't on Brown, but he is a symptom. His 121 (second in the league) shots is followed by Dillon Serna's 39. That is a ridiculous imbalance. It's not unusual for the top forward to have a lot of shots, but it tends to be somewhere closer to 1.5 to 2 times the number of the next shooter. Three times hints at an extraordinary tactical failure. Even if it's a failure of coaching a player needs to have the smarts to learn and grow.
Stumbled onto this thread, so I'll add a few points. Norway's top league Tippeligaen (named after a betting company) has no foreign player limits (it's a non-EU country anyway) but instead has a home-grown requirement ... which, I think, is ~ 12 players per roster. Rosters themselves, however, aren't limited because the reserve squad members can be used as well. The league itself is sort of an English style long ball, flank & cross, slightly ahead of the Championship on the technical aspects, slightly below on athleticism. Norwegian YA posters think the top half is middle-Championship quality overall, the bottom quarter is the top of League One. Valerenga seemed to have some oil money when Troy Perkins played there but had some financial problems since then. Still, they're one of the bigger clubs traditionally, being based in Oslo itself. Oh and Brown is already listed on their Wikipedia page. Who needs Facebook when you got Wiki!
What I am saying is we do *often* say it's on Brown. We bemoan his off-target shots, which is understandable as they're often the best chances in a given match. But I disagree with you in that they are often shots that are not easy to get. On other teams, sure, other players would have more chances around goal. But over the past couple years, the Rapids will often find themselves stymied and resort to launching long passes to Brown, who's speed gets him behind the line, and his relative strength and balance allows him to fight off defenders. They're not shots that Torres or the Rapids' other strikers would get. (Could Buddle get any shots?) As a bonus in a lot of these cases, no one would be running down the field along with Brown. Brown did annoyingly keep his head down too much last year, but that's not the cause; he was alone a lot in 2013 as well. I do agree the solution isn't to keep doing that and hope Brown (or Badji) shoots straighter. You are right about the shot imbalance being a huge failure on the club's part. It's also kind of crazy Serna was second in shots as a lot of his are speculative as well, and 39 isn't that many.
Brown missed plenty of opportunities, but I put that more on the team then on him. Too many times the team hung him out to dry while at the same time putting all the pressure on him to be the offensive answer. Proper support and a consistent team message for offense would help him a lot and I expect him to do well in an environment that allows him to be a part of the offense and not THE offense. I'd rather keep him than Badji but its sounding like this is far along the tracks. Last weeks game Badji didn't show any of his supposed speed, the Philly defenders kept up with him easily. Can he develop into something better? Possibly, but for now he is definitely a step backwards. I really hope we show a better attack next week. We have decent pieces, but have yet to show an ability or willingness to put them together into a cohesive unit, last year or this. Instead it seems like we're relying on individual abilities to pull something off.
I think we'll have to agree that we don't see it the same way. I don't think Deshorn's chances were easy, but I do think still think many were unadvised. Could there have been alternatives? There always are, soccer always presents alternatives that's why it's fun and frustrating to watch. Would the alternatives have resulted in better outcomes? That's an alternate universe, that we can't know. Brown, to me, didn't seem to see any alternatives. Hopefully, that's what they'll train into him in Norway.
With this Brown stuff looking like more than a rumor, I am now wondering if Powers will be moved too.
I'm guessing that a lot of this depends on player's desire. Maybe Deshorn was shopped, or maybe scouted, but I'd guess he has an agent that's been putting out feelers rather than the Rapids just selling him. It would fit with the Rapids strategy to begin shopping players abroad. If they are, wwouldn't it be unique for an MLS team?
Deshorn's agent is former MLSer Damani Ralph of Global Premier. The top dog at Global is Pat McCabe. McCabe and his agency are very connected in Europe and have been very instrumental in the transfer of many Yanks across the pond. Global is a wheeler and dealer and has a pretty sterling reputation for placing their clients at appropriate level clubs. Since Ralph has assumed the VP title at Global he's taken an active role in the recruitment of Caribbean players. Many of those guys have landed in MLS or Scandinavian clubs. I have no doubt he's shopped Deshorn around. I have no doubt Global has been the catalyst --- rightfully so that's what you want your agent to do. Coincidently, if you go to Global's webpage and look under Testimonials no other than Paul Bravo is quoted.
The only real connection I see is that he is young talent that can bring a price the Rapids could find desirable...and he seems to be somewhat uncommitted to the line-up right now. But I think the Rapids have plans for using him as possible starter material, and/or certainly first off the bench. IMO he's staying for the time being, unless he wants out.
If Brown goes I think Torres moves up top and Powers gets the central mid position, at least until we sign Doyle or somebody similar. I can't believe they think Badji is the answer right now.
If Doyle was *here* then I get the moving Brown for the money thing, Jason. But he is not. We are in a salary cap situation here, with, um, cheap ownership. OK they are responding to last year. How much are we really going to get in transfer fee anyway? Likely less than Doyle's salary.............................................................................. Moving Brown now, at his cheap salary, isn't a great idea and repeats one of the RFO's key recurring mistakes: Sucking up some loses over two years letting Brown learn, only to send him off and let some other time benefit from his time here. Remember Kyle Beckerman? Is Klute the last one (we will see how he goes this year)? Is Brown next?? Suppose 2015 is Brown's breakout year? Can't we double down and make that a breakout season for *us*? Badgi is a Brown two years less experienced. Who knows which has the better upside, but now, we are nuts to go back two years and re-start the development of a young striker. R
Drafted same year, contracts most likely expire same year so best time to sell is now in 2015 Both seem to be thought surplus to top XI, by either PM or RFO Powers has went and gotten an EU passport Powers knee tendenitis is a very real problem, but not much being said publicly