Ljungberg leaving?

losing quality players to eurpoe is just part of life in the mls. you think montero or zakuani will be here next year. probably not. i just hope FL and the rest stick it out for the rest of this season at least, and hopefully bring home some hardware for us to soften the blow of losing alot of players next year.

 

Well to be honest it wasn't a complete "sod off" to ALL Euro teams ... as his agent says "All those teams know Freddie would not even look at anything else but Champions League teams."

Technically 76 teams are "Champions League teams" right now, though I assume he's meaning just the big English, Spanish, Italian qualifiers, in which case he's probably staying here through his contract.

Although if he's willing just to go to teams qualified through the group stages, meaning 8 games "in Europe" I'm pretty sure he could get on the pitch for a few teams already through to the group stage: Standard Liege, Unirea Urziceni, CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Kiev, maybe even Rangers.

And if he truly means any team "qualified in Champions League play" that opens up the rest of the teams including the Swedish qualifier Kalmar even though they'll probably only get the two "play-in Champions League", and he should certainly be able to find a starting place in one of those 76 teams although not sure some of those weaker teams would be willing to match his $2.5MM Seattle salary.

 

I try not to take any rumor in the European summer transfer window too seriously. Just about every decent player is linked with a move to 5-6 teams. But if Ljunberg does split early, its going to be tough to replace him and presumably Montero all at once. There's just not that many players out there with their quality willing to come to the MLS. Hopefully, the FO is already out their looking for that next diamond rough like Montero.

 

Yeah, what was that about Gooch definitely going to Real Madrid? I've heard a couple interviews with Freddie himself saying he will play his 2 year contract. You can take that with all the salt you like. But I choose to be naive and prefer to be an optimist so I'll err on the side of believing him. Of course the verbiage he used also seemed to suggest he would only play 2 years, but perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

 

After his current contract is over, FL will be what, 33-34? A little too late to play in any meaningful teams in Europe, plus the injury bug will always follow him

 

Today, Ljungberg told me -- and his agent Claes Elefalk of CAA just confirmed from Sweden -- that he is not interested in leaving the Sounders and that he plans to play both seasons of the two-year contract he signed last Oct. 28.

After training at Starfire today, Ljungberg said: "I've said that I want to stay in Seattle, and I'm happy here."


That puts that to rest.

 

A big difference between Ljungberg and Beckham is that the latter is still actively wanting to play for his country while the former actually retired from international competition.

 

Either David Beckham is delusional or the English national team sucks so bad they believe they need a narrowly-skilled 35-year old midfielder to succeed at the World Cup.

The irony is that Freddie Ljungberg is two years younger than Beckham, and Sweden is supposed to be a lesser team than England.

 

Or I'd go with Beckham still has some skills, I mean the guy started for AC Milan just a few weeks ago; which isn't exactly third-tier.

I don't think he makes England's squad, but Beckham still has skills, it was on display last year and was on display this year in Italy.

As for Ljungberg, you can see the frustration on his face sometimes. I think he'll probably leave us, based on how trashy MLS can be; and how awful the officials are.

I don't understand the weird nerd-rage about Beckham; there are players who are far more arrogant, players who are far more disloyal to their respective teams; and he served England well, even his famous red-card incident was more about how Argentina plays dirty and then foils refs. I don't forgive him, but I also saw it go down live - and remember the butchery that led to it.

He's not my favorite player or anything, not even close, but the negativity he generates amongst some fans, is really weird.

 

Reading the Beckham book, its pretty easy to see how Ljungberg could be just as frustrated with the amateur-hour MLS road experience as Beckham and the other Euro's coming over here.

MLS mandates that the teams fly commercial, with almost everyone sitting in coach, and stay at the same hotels, two to a room, so that there's no "competitive advantages". The Galaxy only offered a few players first class seats and one of the funniest parts of the book was when their hot-shot Newcastle signing Babayaro first flew coach with the team in the preseason and a "comically overweight American passenger was bulging over the armrest into his personal space" "This is ********ing bullshit man. ********ing bullshit! What the ******** is this, man? I'm a ********ing professional." They waived him before the season started....

The league mandated road hotels sound terrific too, like "the nondescript Marriott" in the Chicago ghetto, next to "dimly lit bodegas, boarded-up car-repair shops, used car dealerships and a railway yard" or the league mandated hotel in Braintree, MA that serves greasy fried chicken as a pre-game meal instead of nutritious food, or the one in Carson where a guy was killed in the parking lot the night before Landon Donovan's team spent the night there.

 

I have only read the two main excerpts of the book released to the net, but I think SeattleSt's summary captures it nicely.

I rant a lot about the officials, and the professionalism of the league; because I'd like to see MLS rise another notch higher. Now that we see we can capture 30K of fans here in Seattle, I'd like to use that as a catalyst to get Garber and the power-brokers to focus on league-quality, rather than expansion.

If we don't, we will lose players like Ljungberg, who has been a total pro since arriving here. And a brief reply to this comment...

Beckham played for AC Milan for the same reason he played for LA Galaxy. Because he made a shitload of money for the owners.

Yeah so the spin went, when the deal was first done; especially amongst those who seem to resent Beckham for reasons I do not fully understand. Then of course, he played well, and was praised by the Italian press and he was pursued for an extension.

The fact is, while he was decent enough to help support AC Milan to the Champions League...and convince AC Milan to try and bring him back. So he must have done something right. Playing as well as he did for one of the best teams in Serie A, is a level of calibre many of the players on the US Men's Team still has not yet reached, so can we concede Beckham can still play?

It is good to be cynical as a fan, but with Beckham it has become a bit distorted. The man is no saint, but he isn't some infernal apparation either...and he can still play a quality game. I don't think he makes England's team when World Cup rolls around, but he's certainly an asset to the Galaxy.

What I hope the book does, is embarass the league a little to take another step upward; shedding some of its amateurism. More than likely, it will just sharpen the nerd-rage people have over Beckham. I mean even England has forgiven the guy for the red card.

 

They had to ride coach?!!?! Thats Terrible!

But seriously, i understand the sentiment behind what you guys are saying. If we want to attract the best players we should make them want to come here, and that includes things like paying for First class airfare i guess.

However, isn't it funny that fans of the NFL, NBA, MLB, ect complain about overpaid players that are treated like royalty and have no connection with the fans anymore, and soccer fans in this country complain that we don't pay outragous sums to players and we don't treat them like royalty? I mean, its not like they are hopping on the Greyhound or something! Its just coach... If its good enough for me its good enough for everyone haha

 

By helping out with soccer camps, coaching, appearance fees for little things etc. etc. etc.

I bet they help them find other means of making money outside of playing for the team.

Remember Nyassi taking part in that fashion show during preseason?

 

Some of us make more money than a lot of the players in MLS. So I think we have a long way to go before the players are "spoiled". And I complain about having to fly coach in my job too! And I think most of the conferences I go to provide better accomodation than some of the hotels in MLS. So yeah, whining athletes suck, I agree with that; but the league could at least try to provide a better career than some grumpy old goat like me has.

Back on topic: Ljungberg came out today and categorically denied he'd leave at the end of this year. That's really good news and shows the level of class Freddie has. Our owners did a really good job recruiting him; and its been a joy watching him play this year.

 

Well I think the answers to our questions about whether MLS player will get some more love will be answered soon considering the CBA expires next year Jan 2010? I believe? I'll be interested to see if MLS loosens up the purse strings enough where guys like Ljungerg start coming to this league with regularity.

 

Montero is ownd 60 - 70 % by US investors or Real Betis its not certain....

the rest is ownd by himself and Cali, it has been said many times and was offical on the dept cali website that they sold that much of his transfer for like 3-4 million US

 

Any merit to this?

Seattle Sounder Montero Interests Premier League Fulham
The young Colombian currently plying his trade in America is attracting at least one Premier League club.
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110...under-montero-interests-premier-league-fulham