here is the story on the Rowdies website: http://rowdiessoccer.com/index.php?id=52&newsid=2961 I don't know how to feel about this. Sure its nice if the club made a little money, but we have two months left in our season, we are a real threat to win a title and we are playing the best soccer we've ever played. So we sell one of our top 2 or 3 players and our leading goal scorer? Immediate transfer? (I'm assuming its immediate, sure sounds that way) Did this move require Yoshi's consent? Don't see how it would. Uncomfortable with the fact that many other NASL teams have been trying to strengthen their squads and we up and sell one of the best players in the league. Would have been nice if the move wasn't to happen until the conclusion of the Rowdies season.
Bummer. What was the catalyst for this move? Did the rowdies need cash? Was the offer too good to pass up? Or did yoshi want to play closer to home? I wish yoshi the very best. I was one of his biggest critics, and he had shut me up recently with his play. I am just questioning why the rowdies decided this now, when there is a few weeks left in the season including playoffs. Things that make you go hmmm....
It is the life in the lower leagues, Remember we are in the summer transfer schedule, so it was now (until end of August) or wait until January, The Hong Kong team did not want to wait until January I am sure. http://nasl.com/index.php?id=3&newsid=2961
I am happy that the Rowdies have settled into a side that can challenge the best in the league this year. It has been much more enjoyable to watch them than in previous years. I am also going to qualify this statement with I have no idea what player salaries are around the NASL either. Maybe the Rowdies splashed the cash on who they wanted up front and Hill kept the faith in his players while other clubs decided they needed an upgrade. I am just a little concerned, however, that the selling of Yoshitake has to be about money. Cutting his salary and getting some sort of modest fee for him. Come on, how much is a club in Hong Kong going to pay for a player in the US second division? I even suspect that this may have been intiated by Yoshi himself. Maybe he is ready to go closer to home (I didn't realize he was 31) and he may have requested a release from his Rowdies contract. That is far more common in the US minor leagues than getting a fee. As a supporter I am just hoping, no matter why they did it, this move doesn't backfire on the club in the critical part of the season.
Blame transfer windows and mis-aligned seasons for the timing aspect. He himself seems to find it a good move for family reasons (which you can't discount). And he'll be 31 next month, not quite out of prime, but who knows if his value will ever be higher? We have no idea what (if anything) they got for him, but if the other team was interested in him and you can play the "he's our best player, we're in mid-season" card to make it lucrative, well, them's the breaks. If they were drawing 6,000 a game, that might be a different conversation. But at 3,400 or so, I don't blame them for selling him. THAT is the nature of the game.
This one just really stings considering how important Yoshi is to our title hopes and the fact that we have a very real shot at a title in the first place. Can't blame the team for making a buck, that's why they are in business. We were already working with a small roster and it just got a whole lot smaller. Kenn brings up a good point, if this ownership group was doing a better job and attracting a larger fan base/taking in more money, maybe they wouldn't have felt they needed to sell a player of this importance. But then its also good to keep in mind that if Yoshi is happy with this move, if he wanted it at all due to the reasons he claims in the article, then we can't really begrudge him that. He probably wasn't going to get another chance at a move like this. The timing is just absolutely horrible for all involved and I think that is what will cause the most angst for us fans and supporters.
Yoshitake's sale will prompt the Rowdies to bring another player on the roster. We were already at the league mandated minimum of twenty players. Hill has built a side that has only used eighteen players (two of those have played less than 30 minutes each), so I doubt it will be anything more than a bench player. The chemistry of this team seems to be working and barring any significant injuries, whoever this player might be won't ever see the pitch.
As I thought, the Rowdies have signed a new player, Carl Cort. http://www.rowdiessoccer.com/index.php?id=52&newsid=3013 A journeyman forward who has only scored eight goals in the last five years. Has been out of contract for nearly a year and a half. Enjoy the bench Carl!
I was curious how an out of work player from England gets signed, so I did some poking around. My assumption was that one of Ricky Hill's UK contacts produced the connection. More likely is that JP Rodrigues recommended him since he and Carl have been teammates on the Guyana national team this year for WC qualification. By my calculations, Cort is the fourth current international to play for the Rowdies in their short history.
He is just filling out the roster. The league requires 20 players on the roster. They needed to sign someone cheap before Saturday's match. If he continues to figure into Guyana's WC qualifying plans, he would miss time in September and October for four matches.
So in other words, we are pretty close to completely wasting however many dollars we are paying this dude between now and the end of the season. ughgh
Don't worry, I would think that an unemployed 34 year old forward would come pretty cheap, his outstanding international pedigree not withstanding. Certainly they are saving money compared to what they were paying Yoshitake. Now watch him make complete fools of us by scoring a hat trick on his debut Saturday night. BTW, under further review, he is the fifth current international player to play for the Rowdies. I missed Jarun, who we pretty much fired for playing for Palestine. Hopefully we treat Cort a tad better if he gets called up for Guyana during our playoffs.