I guess we ought to give this a go and see if it’s worthwhile. A few days ago I posted a thread to gauge if folks were interested in an off-season rumors thread. My sense was that, on the one hand, the tolerance of mere rumor on the DC United board is really fairly low. Indeed, the spreading of mere rumor often meets with ridicule. On the other hand, I suspect there’s a contingent on this board that has an interest in rumors and gossip. Perhaps it’s just entertaining to read the buzz. Maybe they take it seriously. Who knows? A rumor thread seemed like a good, easily ignorable, compromise. Such a thread would have less restrictive standards than those generally agreed upon on this board. As such, it would enable posters who wanted to post something unsourced or badly sourced the opportunity to do that while, at the same time, not infringing upon the usual news standards in other threads. There was some debate but the consensus seemed to be that it was worth giving it a shot. For added ignoring ease I'll even make it a sticky. (Who reads those things anyway!) So here goes … Some Guidelines … (to be updated if need be) Not every rumor needs its own thread. (A few probably do.) Those that really don’t need their own thread should go here. Use your judgment to figure out which is which. If in doubt consult a mod. Generally if it's an article from the Post, the Times or one of the other reputable soccer news websites then it's hard news – not rumor – and should have its own thread. This thread is basically just a blog for rumor and gossip with a bit of light banter added in. If you’re interested in a rumor and want to have an in-depth discussion about it then, by all means, start a new thread. Hopefully, if this threads works out it’ll help to generate some interesting off-season discussions in other threads. Attention Steven Goff, John Haydon, Ken Wright and all you other DC United reporters: Two words - sock puppet. If there’s any chance a rumor is embarrassing to the team, a player, the coach or anyone else please run it by a moderator before posting. We’ve had some problems along these lines in the past and we’d like to avoid them in the future. On that note … Keep things focused on the team situation. We don’t need to delve into personal lives unless there’s a clear and direct team implication. Again, consult a mod if there’s any question. Near beer ain't really beer. Near news ain't really news. Anonymous posts: PM me if you want to post something but don’t want your name or username attached to it. Let’s keep things in proportion. Don’t take what you read here too seriously. Once it appears in the established press, that’s when to take it seriously. Everything on this thread should be presumed false until proven true.
ok here is some blind speculation. rumor has it that the fatman is out in LA replaced by Klingsman. that would add a new "a-list" candidate to the potential coaching pool. any chance the possiblity of sigi being on the market might make united think about it? the guy is one year removed from a cup.
I doubt that Sigi would come to DC. But if Klinsmann takes over in LA I imagine there'll be some significant roster changes. They might be looking to make some trades. ... and one moderatorly thing ... I'm splitting out the utter nonsense and moving it to the community thread. Let's not totally kill this thread before it's even got a chance.
Anybody know what's up with Colosimo or Caricci (sp)? Oh, and by the way we should go after Bolanos from the Fire, he's healthy and not starting, or for that matter playing a lot. He'll take shots from anywhere and with accuracy too.
Also of note is that the League is likely to name expansion as of next Sunday should they agree to let either Chivas or Rochester into the league. Should that occur, there will be an expansion draft and we will have to decide who to put up and who to protect. Next week will be huge in determining our offseason decisions.
I actually hope they let Chivas pick a good number of their players through means outside an expansion draft. I say this for two reasons. 1) It's less disruptive to all th other rosters and 2) I'm interested to see who they'd recruit in the US. And Rochester, if it comes into MLS, I hope they let them keep the bulk of their A-League roster. But you're right, lot's will happen next week.
(TCompton passed on an item from a Soccer America e-mail that DC would get an allocation if Marco and Stoich retire or leave MLS) Isn't MLS Confidential usually pretty reliable? I think the items in it were written by Ridge Mahoney, who is widely believed to have been "rmed" the poster who used to accurately post (on Soccer America's site) the starting line-ups for the USMNT well before anyone else would get them. Is he really any more inaccurate than any other media sources?
I've always assumed that we would get an allocation for Etch's retirement and possibly for Stoich's, but would we get two if they both retired in the offeseason?
so is adu coming to united... realistic move? or is it just wishful thinking... i havent read anythind about it.. id think that the washington post would have had somehting on it. we shall see
The pressure is clearly on Marco to leave now. All this would have been much easier had Convey gone to England. Then we'd have an allocation in hand. But since we don't have one in hand to give to the Burn MLS will have to conjure one up - one way or another. Contrary to some, I actually think MLS makes an effort to give the appearance of legitimacy to their various player moves. Marco leaving would give them just the excuse they need for the allocation. I don't see how else they'd do it. That sure makes it look like Marco's gone.
Freddy is ours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From what I'm reading, it's a "done deal"....Freddy has a contract w/DCU for 2 years....maybe he can show some of our players how to shoot.........what a concept... ps: I think we traded Ali Curtis to the Burn for Cerritos and the first SuperDraft pick... from RavennaW, DCU fan, 4life
Re: Freddy is ours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, yes and no. The pressure is on him to retire gracefully or have the rather less appealing prospect of not being resigned (effectively cutting him loose). With the way MLS has scripted the Adu to DC transaction, Etch can't possibly be back. That is, unless the league just doesn't give a rat's ass how it looks to the outside world and just hands him to us with no compensation for Dallas. That would be pretty underhanded. I know the people in Dallas are demanding the allocation, Convey, Reyes, Nelsen, Petke, and Thierry Henry for the pick, but the way it's set up is fair: Etch retires, we get an allocation as set by MLS precedent, we trade that to Dallas for the #1 draft pick. Nope: 1. Adu's deal is 4 years with a 2 year option. 2. The trade was Curtis and our 2004 #1 pick to Dallas for Cerritos and cap relief. So, as of this moment, Dallas has the #1 and #4 picks in the first round.
One more thing: Whatever happened to Romanus Orjinte? You all rememer, the Nigerian defensive midfielder that was linked to us at least 3 separate times throughout the year. Anyone in the know hear more about him?
that was floated around earlier in the season as well. i think it makes some sense--graduating p-40 rates, etc, make it pretty inevitable.