Or send him into a homicidal rage. Actually, Utah may be more surpressed than most other areas, but just like ANYWHERE else, if you try hard enough to find trouble, it's there to be found.
And yet more... http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=318940&cc=5901 Kudos go to Arelius for this one
Wow, it is going to happen. That's awesome. And he should have so much to prove that he will probably play his heart out.
You would think so... but the one thing about unpredictable people is that they are, well, "unpredictable". He wouldn't be first talented athlete in the world to throw it away for no apparent reason... I sincerely hope he does act/play like he has something to prove, because he does.
For what it is worth..news from a hannover fan in hannover that posts in yanks abroad passed this along....
It is a german news site that she is a preimum member of...you can go to the yanks abroad forum if you want to know more about it.
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Hopefully they agree to a fee soon and MLS can actually announce it. The only "headliner" on realsaltlake.com is that RSL will join the Western Conference this year! Wow, that's some news. I was anxiously waiting to find out what conference they'd be in...
Well RSL.com is the official website, so they can't put every rumor up there. Thats what RSL.org and theloyalists.com is for!
The news is also being reported by Reuters... see World Soccer news under Yahoo sports... Mathis is not a bad guy!
Here's one from Hanover 96 official site: http://hannover96.de/CDA/news_-_detailansicht,577,0,newsid-3840,de.html?PHPSESSID=b3908144d366e9c25fb1d681b8b8b595 So since it's now on one club's official site, maybe RSL's official site is close to making the announcement? They'll probably do one of those stupid things where they tell us 2 days in advance that they're going to make a special announcement with a teleconference that you can "listen to live!" on mlsnet.com, rather than just writing us a nice article that explains everything. And here's that yahoo reuters link someone was talking about, but it's a totally vague article: http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-mathisdc&prov=reuters&type=lgns#Scene_1
Just an interesting tid bit thanks to bable fish translation's... the link at the bottom of the article means...
Yes Babel Fish works well... In English from German... Goodbye, Clint Mathis! The 28-year-old US-American will leave the red in the winter recess after a year again. The "Clint-Commander" how the offensive player was named in fan circle, will return presumably again into the amerikansche majors Soccer League. After Mathis in the past season came nevertheless sixteen times to the use and obtained at the same time four hits, was able to play itself it in this game time not in that tribe eleventh. So it remained in four further uses, that became through the Jokertor against Schalke gekrönt. Lienen thanked itself in the terminating christmas celebration at the past Sunday thanked itself Ewald Lienen once again sincerely in Mathis, that had advocated also after some Reibereien with the coach always the team concerns. We wish Clint all goods and much success in its new club!
Is he the right kind of investment for MLS or Real SL? He will not be a free transfer nor a cheap salery. Is he another Gazza? Great potential, no yeild. Would 2 to 4 young jouneyman players equal in cost yield a bigger return? Does Name Recognition sell seats in Utah? AND the big question: Would you want him to run a clinic for your daughters team?
2-4 young players is just as much a gamble as Mathis, probably more so. As far as attacking players goes, guys who can do what Clint can are rare, especially in the US. The chances of finding one out of those 4 players are very small. Ellinger is supposedly the guy who knows the US youth system better than anyone, yet apparently he's anxious to get Mathis. If you take 4 young guys instead of Mathis, what are you getting that's better than Mathis? Obviously it depends on the 4 guys you get. But not many rookies come into this league and really contribute. Dempsey and to a very small extent Adu are the only ones who come to my mind from this year. And you won't find a succesful team anywhere without a star. DC has Moreno, SJ had Donovan, LA had Ruiz. KC had Preki and Meola. The Fire had Beasley and Nowak. Well how do you get a star? Sure, you can take a bunch of young guys and hope one or two of them become stars. But if you have the chance to get one who calls you and says he wants to play for you, what do you do? Are you going to say, "I've got these 4 rookies I think one of them might become a star?" If you really think you have one, then sure. But if Ellinger is taking Mathis, it probably means he doesn't have one. There are 28 roster spots. There will be plenty of room to get young players, and hopefully having Ellinger will give us the advantage in that category. But it's stupid to turn down a proven playmaker, and he is proven, because they are so rare. And more and more they're taking off to Europe. And the other reason taking Mathis is better, is that until he is physically too old to play, there is always going to be someone willing to take him off our hands. His history is proof of that. That's not the case with young guys who don't pan out. If we don't want them it's tough luck; we're stuck with them. See Greg Ostertag.
Erm... last I checked Gazza was a huge success... a real star in the UK... Unless you are talking about the Gazza that went well passed his sell by date and tried to keep playing even tho everyone was sure he was washed up... then changes his name to G8 to try to milk one more season out of English footy. That latter gazza was certainly a "no yeild" but the younger Gazza was a true star! as for "Name recognition selling seats in Utah" Just ask the Jazz how well tickets are selling now that the big names are not there. Of course RSL, like any other team, is going to try to get a star in the roster in order to sell seats. This is a business when all is said and done... selling seats is a priority... {I would say that having a winning season is most important but the news out of KC and San Jose puts that idea squarely to rest}
I'm glad I don't have any daughters I wouldn't mind him running a clinic for my sons team. I can see how RSL management would think that Mathis on the team will sell more tickets because he is on the US Mens National Team. I think Mathis is a good player, perhaps a little lazy (or poor fitness?) but he is a decent finisher.
Supposedly last year in Hannover he was working real hard and in awesome shape and everything. Then for whatever reason this year he wasn't getting playing time so he might not be in as good of condition right now, but he's got until April. As far as his finishing, it's more than decent. He's got the best shot in the USA, period.
Clint will draw so much attention from opposing defenses that Kreis will be wide open more often than not. Get a decent defense and at least one wing mid who can really put in a cross (good luck!) and you could steam roll in the West. At least you could be the most entertaining team in the league next year.
I think RSL's defense is fair. They have Rusty Pierce of the Revs who was having a break out year there. As for a winger, who is available as a free agent or SuperDraft that can do this well?
Hit the nail on the head. RSL has done a great job of putting the team together thus far, but we need someone who can cross the ball consistently, and do it well. Otherwise we've got all the guns but no ammo! RSL will be a very fun team to watch.
I think it might be safe to "call you out on this" now... there are many more links that say he wants to come back to MLS and also now there are many that say he is! This is just one. I know no one likes to be called out and I wouldn't normally do it... but you did say that we should feel free to do so!