Fernando Redondo, 35, is available, and may retire if by january a team dose not sign him... Redondo has been playing with a amature team in spain and really wants to get back into the pro game... The former Argentine national team player will retire if in the January transfer window NO ONE picks him up. Redondo played in Argentinos Jrs, Sevilla, Real Madrid, and AC MILIAN. Why won't MLS jump? true he is 35, but with a respected career, why not?
Why won't MLS jump? true he is 35, but with a respected career, why not?[/QUOTE] And lets keep Steve Howey and sign Darren Anderton. If any Argentines are signed I would prefer players who are not in the tail end of their career. Their are many players in the Argentine league who could help MLS out. Of course someone like Tevez or Maxi Lopez is out of MLS' reach but there are many players along the lines of Christian Gomez who could benefit MLS. This is my 200th post, it took me a 4.5 years to get from 100 to 200. At last. YEAHHHHHHH......
This isn't a retirement league. When MLS signs foreign players they should be young enough that MLS can hope to garner a transfer fee from them eventually.
Players who lack speed, but can deliver a sweet pass, can have alot of success in MLS, *IF* their coach surrounds them with hardworking, ballwinning mids. Valderrama, Preki, Etch until the very end, Herzog until his coach changed. As a DC fan, we don't need him. If I were the Fire, I'd be taking a look at his fitness. If I were San Jose, I'd be thinking, Mulrooney needs a new playmate now that we're dropping Ekelund. Heck, if Preki can't come back, and they can retain Zavagnin, why not?
It depends. If he'll come to MLS and have a Herzog-esque MLS career (short and not great) then forget about him. But if he'll have a Nowak-esque one (longer and some great seasons) then sign him! Just, because he's old doesn't mean we still cant give him an oppurtunity, but if he's only thinking about playing a year or 2 more than forget him.
The problem with signing "late great" players like Herzog and Redondo is that they're a crap shoot. And since they'll probably be drawing the biggest salary on your MLS team, you're rolling the dice with quite a bit of your available spending money. When you consider that even a MLS minimum contract ($24k in 2004) is a pretty attractive sum in Central America and some South American countries like Uruguay and Paraguay, then it seems like a pretty dumb decision to hire an older European. Many of those guys still believe that the US is a place to pick up a few bucks before retirement, like in the NASL days. But since most of the MLS coaching fraternity has European roots, we'll probably keep seeing players like Powell and Howey.
Redondo announced his retirement today.. Diego Siemone is another Argentine great who has little to no 1st team action in Atletico Madrid... Sebastian Abreu, goal scorer of Uruguay is up for grabs, as San Lorenzo may want him back... MLS should jump in...
Give us a call if Luis Hernandez breaks free anytime soon. That's a guy who could have some success in this league.
Wasn't Abreu that other forward on the Uruguayan national team who started with Recoba up top when we played in that friendly at Safeco (was it there?). He was a pretty good player. Somebody should look into him. Simeone would solve 80% of the Metros needs I think. Dynamic, leader, hardnosed (at least that's what I remember him as). Again people, lets look at quality. I think people are quantifying things into certain quadrants (i.e. young and non-Euro...). The non-Euro doesn't work in this case (blatant bias on these boards, quite pathetic actually, just look at the facts, infinitely more busts with Latino players than with Euros...I can think of two..Lothar who paid for himself...and Grimandi, who also gave back all the money to the Rapids). However, we should look at quality. If a veteran Euro comes in, and is serious about playing, bring him in. Look at the difference Nowak made to DMB and the other young guys at Chicago. He made them into professionals. We need some of those guys also, it can't just be talented cheap Latinos.
I'd like to think that MLS has by now developed its own veterans who can mentor the young players, rather than having to rely on the Europeans. You seriously underestimate the number of expensive European flops the league has seen, especially recently - in the last two years, there have been Mark Williams, Galin Ivanov, Andrzej Juskowiak, Zizi Roberts (an expensive African imported from Europe), Daryl Powell, Vuk Rasovic, and Steve Howey. When you combine their high price, high rate of failure, and generally short tenure in the league - even successes like Andy Herzog (1 year), John Spencer (4), Ronnie Ekelund (4), and Steve Morrow (2) don't last very long - they're just not very good investments.
In regard to cheap latinos, we should also look for some cheap euros. Maybe we can find another Ronny O'brien. But as for old euros, I'm not for it.