Nowak to Revs>DC impact? Headline on www.mlsnet.com. How does this impact DC? ... what is the other trade that is soon to be announced (mentioned at bottom of story on first page)? Anyone?
Good trade for the Revs. They gave up little to get him and he fills their biggest need. However, and I may be in the minority here, Nowak's age is catching up on him faster than a speeding bullet. If the Revs are lucky they get 18 games and 12 points from him. That's optimistic. Still that helps the Revs. Possibly what the Revs had to do to afford him might impact United. The speculation is that APC and Rooney were both waived. Its doubtful that united would take either at their present salaries but we might if they took a big pay cut. I'd rather have Chacon myself as our forward line, even if we get a good allocation (Nunez, JMM) as the drop off after that is mighty big. But let's see what the Revs did to get Nowak first to see if we can gain any benefit.
How about a DC player (say, Prideaux) and the fifth draft pick for Armas? Just speculatin'. Now are the Revs under cap?
I'm really waiting for the other shoe(s) to drop in Chicago. They seem to have retained Razov, DaMarcus and Armas but shed all of their other attacking players. I find it kinda hard to believe that jettisoning Wolff and Stoichkov (both speculated at this time) they would still need to move Nowak and Kovalenko. If all of those rumored moves goes through, they should have cap space to acquire people. I figured Sarachan would try to deal CJ Brown and use Bocanegra, Kelly Gray and Curtin in a rotation for the two central back line defenders (Sarachan prefers a 442). I think Brown makes a good chunk of money. Chicago cannot go into 2003 starting DaMarcus, Mapp, Magee, Gray and Capano. There's just waaaaaaaaaay too little experience there. I'm big on playing American youth, but that would be suicide. So I expect Chicago--at a minimum--to acquire another central creative midfielder. Marsch and Armas do not fit that bill. I hate to even mention this, but the only attacking central midfielder who might be had cheaply next season is ... Alex Pineda-Chacon. Otherwise it'll have to be a Discovery selection I think. -Tron
As regards to the Fire's midfield, it makes me start to believe the rumors of Andy Williams going to them more. He'd be a better fit than APC, though he's a possibility. At any rate, their U-10 midfield now would be USDA grade A roadkill and it obviously needs some upgrading. I won't even begin to speculate onn the possible spin-offs of THAT trade- the Armas thing, the richie Williams thing, etc.. Over at Chris Bergin's site, he has heard a rumor (and he puts big flashing lights around it) that some team has messed up their cap. Wouldn't suprise me in the least. That could be one reason why, in addition to not knowing about the second Chicago trade we don't yet have the list of waived players (the other reason being all of those playe4rs haven't been notified yet).
I'll say one thing. We have more in common with Fire fans now that they're experiencing the pain of the salary cap. I was just over on their forum, and man, are they bitter about this trade. I have a feeling the second trade won't involve us. I'd bet it's either Wolff or Armas.
There are facts, and let's assume some of the rumors: Nowak to Revs. Wolff to KC (KC wouldn't have to waive anyone to make room, would they?) Revs release APC. DC not involved in the Nowak or Wolff trade.... DC doesn't pick up APC (I can't see that he meets a need, Ray's affiliations notwithstanding). So, after all this, we're left with 2 allocations and several prominent draft picks.... I think we're going into the draft keeping (at least) both our top two picks, and we'll use the allocations for ourselves (perhaps one for Stewart? and keep one in reserve). Why not? I know Hudson has talked up Eskandarian, and the consensus here seems to be that he's our man; but if we go for R. Clark instead (filling one need), and we know that the Metrostarswill take Eskandarian, then the next two picks become somewhat easier to predict. The value of the fifth pick is more quantifiable (p'haps Noonan, Jaqua, some fairly promising forward...). So then we take Stewart with an allocation. That gives us a starting forward (Stewart), a defensive midfielder (Clark), and some depth at forward (the fifth pick). With the other picks we pick up a backup goalkeeper and perhaps take a flutter on a defender. We're left with an allocation and some cap space and only needing depth (although wouldn't it be nice to get Hejduk and put him in the back line). The point is, though, that we'd have the starters fairly covered: Rimando Reyes, Nelsen, Prideaux Clark Olsen, Etch, Convey Stewart Quaranta I'm not so sure on all these in's and out's, but the point is that Hudson may stick to his guns, use all the draft picks and the allocations, without dealing with any other MLS team. I wouldn't mind seeing this at all, given the talent out there.