Kamara seemed to be a trooper, but made it aware that Schmid was not likely to play him. I believe this was completely Sigi's choice. I would have played Kamara more; Kamara had a reason to be unhappy. Ife Kamara was unhappy, it was because Sigi didn't play him; it wasn't that Sigi didn't play him because he was unhappy. Grabavoy got plenty of playing time. But toward the end of the season Schmid seemed to become less and less enchanted with him, and he did not appear in the final two games of the season, which the Crew happenned to win by identical 3-2 scores. Still, Grabavoy started 24 games and played in 26. The most games any Crew played in was 27. He got a lot more playing time here than he got in LA. Even if Sigi thought he needed a break or that Grabavoy was somewhat unhappy or that Grabavoy was no longer a surefire starter why not even offer him a new contract? Grabavoy had several opportunities to score in the playoff run that he bundled over the top. Had Grabavoy been re-signed and protected he would likely be starting most of 2008. Herron was given a chance at the end of the season to impress his coach and apparently did not do enough to indicate that he was still worth his 150k salary. As far as I could tell Herron was professional about his play, but I do recall one game where he seemed particularly lazy.
While I'm sad to see Gonzo go and think it's a big blow to the team. Gonzo and Marshall is hands down the best tandem in MLS, no one could convience me otherwise. The Crew's GAA was something like just under a goal less when those two played together. However, it's the same deal as Zuwarski for Celtic. You have a player that wants to go, for what ever reason, who is in the last year of their contract and who is unlikely to come back the next year. So do you hold on to the guy you'll get nothing for when you get an offer and he'd like to go? That's the biggest club in his country, that is perennially in the Copa Libertadores, and he's not getting any younger. Could be his last chance to play for them, a dream maybe he's held for a long year. So I don't fault player or managment for selling. Now the seperate problem I will take issue with is if Sigi and McCullers who have known about this for awhile, don't have a backup plan better then a rookie they didn't really plan on drafting, a converted D-mid, a two year player that has played 5 minutes, and 99 year old EZ.
If Gonzalez had his heart set on playing for Catolica, who are we to stop him? I wish him the best of luck this year.
Selling Marcos seems dumb to me unless they already have a deal lined up with his replacement. The Crew's next starting centerback shouldn't be one of the backups from last year. That's moving backwards, talent wise. Iro should be happy as his bargaining position just improved. I don't buy any talk that we need the money from a Gonzalez transfer to fund the Zurawski acquisition. If Marcos is in his last contract year, we probably didn't get much. I thought Marcos was the best center back in MLS the first half of last season. After the Villa match his play suffered. I don't know if Canales had anything with him wanting to leave, but the league sure didn't back him up and looks unprofessional by world standards.
I don't see how how argument follows, especially when there was a quote from Sigi saying that if Marcos left, we'd start with O'Rourke and Marshall. To put your own question back at you, if he's ready to step in, why not start him over a converted midfielder? Iro was a solid pick and I agree with it, given Marshall's issues, Gonzo's possible/probable departure, and the lack of a long term replacement around. Plus, CB was easily the deepest position in the draft. Zayner played outside in my memory, and I've never seen Peterson. Moss I've seen once or twice at RB, never at CB. Sigi said he wanted to build from the back, with Hejduk-Marcos-Marshall--?? we were a solid LB away from having one of the best back lines in the league, now, we are a Marshall injury away from looking at Hejduk--O'Rourke--??--??. Not all Sigi's fault, of course, but still disheartening. Let's hope we can get some CB/LB help before the window closes.
First off, "holding" Colorado is no reason to be proud or boastful. I think we're assuming Zayner and Peterson are worthless because we've never seen them play -- which makes me wonder how highly King Sigi rates them, since he's the one choosing not to play them (I know Zayner is recovering). You can spin this however you want, but I have a hard time not knocking this down to a single sentence -- A below-average team with poor defensive depth, featuring starters who are injury prone, is losing it's best pure defender and replacing him with an untested rookie. I don't know that's a sure-fire plan for success.
Right, because the dollar is doing so hot right now, we're in a good place to make fun of other countries' currency. No fault in that logic. Anyway, to answer the question, I would feel great if we got $10 million dollars for transferring Gonzo, as long as there was a sticky note attached that said the money could not be used towards any shortfalls in the stage funding. Heck, I'd be fine with $50,000. You figure that takes his salry off the books, so it's really like $150,000.
Peterson played the final game of the season, and Zayner played reserve games most of the season. I believe that in Jed's case, they don't think he is able to communicate and control the field all too well, based upon what Robert was yelling at him at the LA reserve match, basically that he needs to communicate better, etc. So I don't think he is a huge option for us on the back line, honestly. I think a GA status is the only thing that keeps him here, truthfully. He is GA, right? Or at least dev. He is basically around as a backup / reserve team player who is still learning the game...
This is an enlightening post from The Dispatch blog today: So...McCullers is bluffing? He didn't flat-out deny it, he didn't confirm it. He acted as if he was barely aware there was a possibility. Seriously, wtf?
I'm more than likely going to be proven wrong here, but I'd like to think that the league wouldn't sell a player without saying something to his team's GM. That being said, I'm sure that the message is probably on McCullers' voice mail.
Those messages run through PR first, to help shape the response of the coach. Should be any minute now...
Yeah, good point on the single-entity thing. I've been a Crew fan for a long time, but only in the last year have I really started actively day-to-day tried to keep up on what's going on. It's very difficult to get used to this league structure compared to a league like the NFL, where there is always a ton of info to be found. Also, the teams not having complete control with regard to the player is weird too. Still, Marky Mark should have some idea about what the league is doing with his players, no?
From SportsTicker: "Marcos Gonzalez has been a solid contributor to our team over the past two seasons," Crew general manager Mark McCullers said. "Catolica was very anxious to add Marcos to their roster for their upcoming run in the Copa Libertadores and made an offer that we could not pass up and likely would not have seen again. "While we have lost a very capable defender, we have added significant resources to our club that will be reinvested in our continuing effort to improve this team." Hmmm... significant resources??
Well..... I'm not happy about that... not .. happy .. at .. all. Side Note: I really hope that Mr. Mitchell's coverage of the team holds a small flame to the front office. I mean, if MM had to answer the same question as an outgoing Center on OSU's offensive line, maybe they would be a little more professional.
not that we're not already.. but i believe we'll need to get used to the phrase "shambolic defending" ........
Well, if it was an offer MLS/Crew could not pass up, I think you can assume it was for more than 50k. Why don't you guys all wait a month or two and see what our defense actually looks like going into the season before getting all riled up about one guy? Oh, yeah, and re-sign Jacob Thomas...