Stoitchkov to United a reality?

Yeah saw that too. I'm tending to shy away from that as the Fire have already gutted their creative midfield and sending away Stoichkov- by itself- would just aggravate the problem. I can still imagine Hristo coming our way but I think the trade is more complicated than that as they seek to get some sort of veteran a-mid.

 

Acquiring Stoichkov as anything but a coach is a huge mistake.

 

There's no question that the Fire are cutting Stoichkov loose. But I darn sure hope they don't trade him to United. If Ray wants him as an assistant coach fine, but please do not waste salary cap and roster space on him. He's a mere shadow of his 2000 self, much less him in his prime. He has a tremendous injury problem and any money spent on him needs to take that into consideration. I thought Moreno's unavailability taught us that lesson.

Please Ray, no, don't give up resources to acquire Stoichkov. If it means he retires and then becomes a coach-only, then so be it, but don't throw good money after bad!

-Tron

 

If we could get anything for Hristo, I'd be thrilled. I think most Fire fans would prefer him cut loose.

I still don't understand why we can't waive him, but oh well.

 

And the flipside of that is that we don't want him either. No one wants to trade for Etcheverry, but at least we know Etch will play 90% of our games. Plus, Stoitchkov's temper is even worse. Anyone that has to pay for his services as a player is getting screwed.

 

Here's a possibility where it could work:

Say Hristo comes to United as a player/coach getting $100K per year (split 50/50 between the player cap and the coach budget). Essentially we have someone for the final 15 minutes of games when we need to press the attack at a $50K salary.

Sachin

 

I still don't like it because we'd have to give up some resources to get him here at all. Anything more than a 6th round SuperDraft pick would be too much IMHO.

-Tron

 

Chris Bergin, on his soccer website says that there is a strong rumour that Hristo to United will be as player coach with half his salary counting towards the cap..

Additionally, one of the posters logically suggests that Hristo is the key man towards getting the yet unnamed Bulgarian defender to come to United via allocation..

This would seem logical to me though I don't see how getting an over the hill and oft injured madman like Hristo will help this team (though I will concede that he has been a tremendous influence to Chicago Fire youth players like Wolff, Beasley and others from what I have been reading the past few seasons.. Is that enough to put him on the books? We'll see..

I'd much rather have a younger goal scorer myself but I don't pay the bills..

As for using Hristo to get this Bulgarian defender, this could only spell curtains for Prideaux IMHO...

 

I just read the story on Bergin's site. Sounds pretty real. I'm not so much against him coming since it does look like he'll be more in a supportive role than anything and seeing him line up a free kick with 10 minutes to go- well I can imagine much worse. I'd expect any goals he scores will be game winners.


Now about that Bulgarian and Prideaux: If said Bulgarian is really good than I'm all for it as Prideaux will get us possibly Washington or a similarly valued attacker. If this Bulgarian has some skill in moving forward than he's an upgrade to Brandon. If Prideaux is traded than I'd expect that would be bad news to Curtis and/or Q2 as our forward group will probably look like:

Allocation (Nunez or some other)
Trade for Prideaux- Washington or similar
Quaranta
Escandarian
Stoichkov
Kovalenko who can play forward if needed

No doubt this lineup is way better than last year's.

That leaves Quintinilla and Curtis on the proverbial bubble. Of course we could still be seeing more trades that will change this.

 

If we get Nunez I could see the good side of this deal, provided half of his salary is as a coach. If the scenario Skip outlines came true, we'd be really quite good:

-------- Rimando
---- Reyes Nelsen Petke
Olsen Kovalenko McKinley Convey
--------- Etcheverry
------ Nunez Washington

With Quaranta, Stoitchkov, and the Bulgarian defender on the bench...there are much worse teams in this league.

 

How is Stoitchkov's English? I know he speaks Spanish fluently (which means he can deal with Etcehverry and Reyes), but I've never heard him speak English. Even I have trouble understanding Ray Hudson at times. I can picture Ray and Hristo in the mid-field conference that Ray uses at the beginning of half time. Hristo will be thinking "No puedo entender ni una palabra de este ingles"

If we get Stoitchkov on some sort of half-pay basis I could see it providing some benefits. But his injury record the past couple of years tells me that Hristo is damaged goods. If you thought Moreno missed too many games, you'll really be complaining when Stoitchkov pulls or tears a muscle and then misses most of the season. He could be a good teacher for Quaranta and the other pups on the roster, but Hristo isn't the same player he was when he came to the league, let alone the one he was at his prime.

 

The few times I've heard him interviewed, he had a heavy accent, but his English was certainly passable. He seemed to have no problems understanding the interviewer.

 

It's improving & passable enough for playing & coaching footy. It's not nearly good enough to do interviews. Nowak's English is good, but he has rarely done English interviews.

 

Yeah, and while he may not be able to run, I'd wager he can still hit a better freekick than anyone else on the team, including Etch. Plus, from the little I saw of him last season, the refs gift him with touchy foul calls, giving him opportunity to take said freekicks. That's not bad in the final 15 minutes.

The question is, is that worth $50K to you? If it also means we can get the mystery Bulgarian defender, then maybe yes.

 

50K just to take free kicks? Where can I get a gig like that? I want to know who the mystery defender is before deciding that spending 50K is worth landing him. So in a way we are paying this defender his salary plus 50K in cap space, I'm not sure this is a great idea.

 

I think Stoichkov as a player is unlikely. He's still an SI--yes? So is Nelsen. We're likely to use an SI spot on a finisher. Yet we're looking at a Bulgarian defender? That would make 4.

 

I agree that we need to know who the mystery defender is before judging.

However, the real question may be, can you get someone to play the role of proven offensive impact player (even for only the final 15-20 minutes of a game) for $50K, and do it better than Hristo? Surely you can get someone who will contribute more over more years, but what about right now, just next year? If he only takes freekicks, but scores enough goals to win 2 or 3 more games, then the $50K is worth it -- that $50K puts us in the playoffs, unlike last year.

Obviously, if he gets hurt in his first outing and never gets those 15 minutes a game, then it's a bad deal. If Ray is smart and uses him judiciously, perhaps he avoids those injuries; and then maybe it's a good deal. Only time will answer that. I honestly don't know. However, given the salary cap, and the likelihood of getting even nearly his value for $50K (especially given our track record of waiting in vain for offensive hopefulls to blossom), I'd be inclined to try it for a year.

Note, I am assuming that Ray knows that whatever is spent on Stoichkov won't prevent him from signing one of his other targets. That's why I would hope the Hristo thing would be announced last, after all other major deals are done. I think JoeW suggested something along these lines in another thread (or, at least, that the imminent Chitown trade would not be the Stoichkov thing, but something else -- hopefully that's the same thing).

 

Good point. Thanks, JoeW, I'd forgotten that... Perhaps this discussion is moot afterall. All the more reason that if it were to happen, it would happen after all other major deals go through.