https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=361655 Personally I'd love to see him get on in England, at least if we get SOMETHING for him.
Unfortunately, in MLS, the getting something, is not at all transparent. Technically you get an allocation which means you get higher priority for a player that mls acquires. This past year the Rapids were at one point in 4th place in the allocation pool and used their allocations on Nico and Karanka. As best I can tell what it really means is that you get something if MLS decides to give you something, and otherwise you're on your own to drum up some SI. And right now, our 4 SI slots are full. Probably best we could hope for would be some returning American who gave up on playing internationally. But we know how MLS treats Colorado....
Conor Casey, maybe? What's his status lately, I know he was injured, but is he under contract anywhere? Otherwise, I have no idea who's out there that would be a good fit for the Rapids...
Wow, I didn't realize Niko was an allocation, I assumed he was a discovery. That shows the value of an allocation is in the eye of the beholder. Yes, it would be good to get an allocation for Pablo. Then it is all up to what Clavijo does with it. Aitor Karanka does seem like a good allocation at this point.
Make sure you read the original article. There is no mention of an American by name. So they're scouting the entire national team. In the linked thread there are some good options for them. If I were reading I'd be trying to sign Gooch, not Pablo.
I agree, Bonji. I really like Pablo, but if I had a choice between Pablo and Gooch, I would pick Gooch in a second. He's younger and stronger, with a bigger upside!
You can see the allocations list by going to http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/about/league.jsp?section=regulations&content=allocations Note that the Rapids currently don't show on the list of having available allocations. A weird thing is that it says Real Salt Lake used an allocation to acquire Jeff Cunningham. I don't remember hearing that as part of the deal.
It also isn't listed on any of the trade details either so I can make no sense of that for you. And right now the scariest team out there has to be FCD. They have 2.5 allocations to use and they are already tops in the west. Very scary.
I don't believe that was part of the deal for Cunningham. I am pretty sure RSL sent 1/2 a allocation (whatever that means) to KC for Klein.
Yeah, I was going off the BS speculation (dangerous I know), but there did seem to be a couple guys with some knowledge of Reading who felt Pablo would be a good fit for them, and Gooch would probably end up a bit too pricey for them if he has a good WC.