There's also the possibility that he wasn't playing up top all the time - note that he has more assists as well. There was one season in which Brian McBride only scored 1 goal, and it was because he was playing d-mid for most of the season.
Yeah, but if that's the case, it doesn't help his cause with the Quakes. We have plenty of midfielders, we need forwards.
Iordache came here 2 years ago, for his wedding. At that time he wasn't signed by any clubs, so i guess he tried to stay close to his wife and the only team in the area was the Earthquakes. Of course that's some other team down South, but Iordache is a smart guy and he probably heard how bad that team is. J Moore told me that everybody was happy about his talent, but the guy was asking for too much money. Something around $250 000 , if i remember right. Anyways, he ended up playing for Energie Cotbus, for the past 2 years. He finished his contract there, and 6 weeks ago he signed a new contract with Rapid Bucharest, the third biggest team in Romania. His salary was supposed to be $160 000/ year. Few days after this signing, the club bought another Romanian forward who previously played in Spanish second division. I guess they considered that guy to be better than Iordache, because immediately, they told Iordache to accept a cut in half of his salary or just leave. They took advantage of some weird stipulation in the contract, and they did him pretty dirty. The guy refused that of course, and he left, after only 2 -3 days of practicing with the team. I don't know whether he had other options, or the Earthquakes was the only one, and i don't know if he was actually called by the Quakes, or he just invited himself. His main asset is his speed. I didn't see him playing in Germany, but I know his main asset is his speed. By the way, the best person to ask about Iordache's last 2 seasons at Cotbus is Greg Berhalter. Maybe Dom already called for some reccomendations. In case Dom wants to use him upfront, i think it would be a good match with Ching, because Brian lacks speed but he has the body, while Iordache is the opposite. I would say he is better then Moreno, and he has the age advantage over Cerritos, but that really won't mean anything, if the guy doesn't have good chemistry with the rest of the team. We still have to see how well he will adjust, if he is signed. The main problem, in my opinion is his salary. If he doesn't have any other option, then he better accept what the Quakes offer him and bust his ass off to prove that he is worth more than that. Since Dombrovsky just got loaned to Minnesota, i was thinking, that this move was meant to create an additional space in the roaster, possibly for Iordache. These are just my simple speculations. We will have to wait to see what happens.
Well, doesn't sound like a Ching-type target guy then, but Quakes could really use speed up front too. And he's pretty tall, 6'1" or 6'2", so I imagine he'd find his way to the net with his head from time to time too. I hope he turns out to be good and a good team fit, and, if so, the salary stuff works out.
Thanks for the information UltrasSanJose. Your point on his salary is interesting; if he's in that kind of salary range, then we'd have to sign him to a senior contract and we would have to either cut someone or demote them to a developmental contract. Can't see any way he would accept $16k, which is the most he can get as a developmental player (at least as far as I know.....maybe they can offer him some performance incentives as a developmental player, not sure) As for loaning out Dombrowski to create room, that doesn't happen when you loan someone out. Tighe still holds a roster spot. Based on the salary information published, it would seem the Quakes have plenty of salary room (and they still have a partial allocation if necessary), but they don't have a senior roster spot right now. Will be interesting to see what they do. Based on his stats in Germany second division (which didn't seem that impressive), I'm surprised he would be in that kind of salary range.
Speaking of wages this is the info I got from my friend in Romainia: He signed with Rapid earlier this summer and a week later Rapid wanted to pull a quick one on him by cutting his wage in half from 130 000 euros to 65 000 euros. He refused, of course, and he was set on a free. As for his skills, I'd say he's quite average (just to avoid saying he's crap); I mean, he scored like 7 goals in over 60 matches in the German 2nd division. That's an awful record for a stiker and I don't know what was Rapid thinking when they've signed him. In Romania he started for FC Arges, and even there, he was average. Edit: Guess some of this was a repeat of what's already been said
Geez - 130,000 euros is about $200k. And the lower salary, 65,000 euros is about $100k. This guy must be out of our price range, unless he's more desperate now just to get a paycheck and maybe a chance in the MLS....
Like i stated above, talent is not enough for a player in order to become a star in a certain team. That's a lot of factors influencing a player's performance, beside his skills. We have the bext examples: Ching and Mullan. LA felt like they were not good enough for their crappy team, and since they moved to SJ, they proved to be excellent players, National team material. I hope the same theory will work in Iordache's case, if he is going to end up playing for us. Rapid is a strong team, with a greedy owner, who wouldn't buy a player, if he is not convinced that the player is worth the money. So hopefully this will be a good move for the Quakes, if it happens. We definetelly need a forward, or an attacking mid, so we can move DeRo up again.
Why do you think that he is out of our price range. We've got a crapload of room under the salary cap, and half of the allocation - may as well sign this guy, and see what happens.
Also it may be better to be a franchise player in MLS than a benchwarmer in Europe, even if the pay is less.
Ask "you know who" about it. Wait, is "you know who" getting less in MLS? I doubt that. Btw, I don't remember trading or acquiring that many players mid-season in the previous years. I may be wrong. My mind tells me that since the beginning of the Yallop era, our mid-season is pretty quiet in terms of player transfer. Right? Injurry is a factor this year.
We've acquired players several times (when needed). Remember Faria? Agogo? What's interesting to me is how this came about. It looks like Adrian got pissed off at the Rapid offer and just decided to visit his in-laws. It doesn't look like we went looking for him, he just showed up and asked if we were hiring. Who gets to make that call? I can't see AEG agreeing to sign someone when a deal is imminent. Why add payroll to the team now? The new owners would like to make that decision. If we DO add him, that's a hugely positive sign that we're staying here. That means that the new ownership group ok'd it. If it's CA, there's no way they'd do it. I can't see them spending one dime more then they have to in SJ. As a matter of fact, I think it's possible that they could even replace Dominic in the middle of the season. Why? So that their "guy" could train and evaluate the players for next year's team. I'm not saying they would try to lose on purpose, just that they would be more interested in "test driving" the franchise with different formations and tactics (plus trying out more players). Since CA isn't getting the team, that's not something we have to worry about......
BTW, if his offer was slashed to 100k in Romania, then I could see him going for 85+ but not much less. He may want to stick it to Rapid, but he won't work for dev wages. This means that we will have to "restructure" the roster to add him. That's tricky because it could cause some resentment. According to the salary thread, that would pay him more then Cerritos, Clark, Robinson, Davis, Russell and Moreno. All for a low scoring sub in Bundisliga 2.
The answer to this question is in the post below from jeff_adams: I just can't see Dom agreeing to pay this guy more than virtually everyone on the team, when he doesn't have any kind of track record. If he had torn up the league last year, then maybe.......but he didn't. Dom is such a "team oriented" guy, it seems out of character for him. As pointed out, I could possibly see the Quakes signing him for a lot less, it's just for a few months and gives Iordache a chance to demonstrate what he can do in MLS and/or figure out where else he goes to next. Maybe he just happened to be out here because of his wife's family, and this is an opportunity that he'll take. That would be great. But paying him $100k or so? I just can't see it. Not saying I have any inside info, and I could be wrong, that's just why I said he's out of our price range if he's thinking he should be making the kind of money that was posted.
he's no longer trialing with the team, so it's moot how much they would pay him. figure if they were going to sign him, they wouldn't have let him leave without a contract.