Thank you, guys, this thread has been a great ride (with some ups and downs, of course). Best of luck to Tim Ream - in all aspects of life - going forward.
BBC Reporter: So, Mr. Shankly, is football a matter of life and death? Bill Shankly: Nae sonny! It's a great deal more important than that.
Ream had a really great arc for an American player. Start in MLS, long career in Europe, and coming back to MLS to finish things off.
How does his appearances rank among other Yanks Abroad. He must have the highest after Friedel and Howard right?
From the Guardian's pre-season preview for Fulham Adarabioyo, who has joined Chelsea on a free, was a popular player but may not be so sorely missed. Calvin Bassey improved as last season went on. The versatile Jorge Cuenca has been signed from Villarreal. Ream, after such sterling service, may be far more difficult to replace. The American was endemic of the collective spirit – a quality that transposed to fans – that made Fulham a comfortable mid-table team over the past two seasons, banishing a previous yo-yo status.
Will miss talking about Ream here. Good news is that I’ll get to see him play many games now here in CLT. He wasn’t going to play at Fulham anymore barring serious emergency. He’s too slow now. And now that the team needs Jedi as a key part of the attack, LCB cannot be slow anymore. It was time to move on. Very happy for him. Happy for me- two of my favorite teams get better with this move. I would like to see him as a coach one day. We will see.
He was very much a de facto coach in the GGG era and was called in seemingly when he was out of form and in his twilight (years ago, ha!) to be another wise head on the sideline and in the dressing room. Would be a shame if he has some natural coaching qualities but doesn't go for it. Though I imagine commentator is near equal pay with a lot less stress.
For posterity, here's his thread that directly predates this one: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/tim-ream-rumors-psv-others.1761711/ -- last post on the same day as the first post of this one. Shout out to Jurgen Klinsmann for helping to get his Bolton move over the line. He's a twat but he has his uses...
He's spent more time abroad than any other US defender (other than out German-born ones). More time than either Bocanegra or Gooch and especially DeMerit. Hope he's invested all those pounds well.
I think Kasey Keller might actually be 2nd, above Tim Ream and Tim Howard, if we're talking total appearances abroad including cup games and 2nd division matches. I initially thought Keller was closer to 5th, but I realized that was wrong. My mistake was relying on Transfermarkt. Turns out their tally is missing most of Keller's Millwall games. If you add those in, then Keller's at 556 appearances in Europe by my count. On the other hand, if LV was just asking about appearances in England, then Keller's not that high up there since over 100 of his appearances came on the continent.