You are correct, you never said it was a Kreis for Agoos deal. You did say that Payne and Rongen chose draft picks from San Jose over Kreis. That is about as close as you can get as saying we almost traded Agoos to Dallas for Kreis. Actually, don't think Payne and Rongen talked to anyone else in the league about getting Agoos. The circumstances as I understand them are this: (1) Payne indicated he went into the draft not intending to deal Agoos--the plan was to dump other players to get cap room; (2) Yallop initiated the talks and was persistent--he saw Agoos as critical to organizing his defense and saw Agoos as a central defender; (3) Agoos was pissed that an organization he admired so much (DCU) didn't tell him he'd been traded--he learned it either from the media (who got it from San Jose) or from Yallop; (4) Agoos originally told Yallop "no--I'm not coming" and resisted the vision of playing central defense and Yallop had him think it over and he switched his mind (or at least was open to going to SJ). I don't know for a fact that Agoos wasn't shopped around the league--it's certainly possible that he was. But Yallop was hired right before the draft (wasn't it the day before the draft?) and wasn't the first choice (Sampson and Clark both said "no" first). The Agoos deal was made quickly, spur-of the-moment, driven by Yallop (who had little time to put it together). I just don't think there was time to shop him around in this situation. Plus, my other point was that Kreis (as much as we'd like him now) probably wasn't a viable option back then. We needed cap room and picks. Kreis complicates our cap situation, not improves it. I think (but I do not know for sure) that Kreis would have made more than Agoos at that time. Maybe after all the deals (Llamosa, Presthus, etc.) were done, we have cap room for Kreis. But not prior to the draft--the Agoos deal was to clear cap space and rebuild. And the rumor you heard probably had a lot of truth to it. I believe that Kreis has been shopped around the league previously. And I believe that DCU (when they dumped Harkes and RDA for cap reasons) also shopped Agoos--to see which player they could get the most for and could afford to part with. But I don't believe that Agoos was offered to Dallas on that big draft-day bloodletting.
I kep seeing this thread being extended and I get more and more amazed. Folks, Joe here has made some very good points about why we shouldn't and won't trade for Wolff. In general those points revolve around how to rebuild the team, what is needed, and to what extent the team should create holes elsewhere in order to get a player such as Wolff. Part of the problem too is the salary cap- in order to get Wolff we'd have to know that we are getting rid of one of Moreno, Etcheverry, or Pope either directly in the trade for Wolff or indirectly via another trade or waiving the player (Etcheverry alone meets this criterion this year). As said above Chicago won't trade Wolff for another high salaried player. We can't get Wolff unless one of the big three leaves. Bottom line about Wolff is that Hudson has to think that Wolff would do better than Moreno. That's arguable. If Moreno gives maximum effort for the remainder of the season, satisfying Hudson, Moreno stays. If not than Ray looks elsewhere- but really my guess is that Hudson will look overseas first unless someone approaches him with something like that Preki and Henderson deal he got in Miami and Wolff for Convey is not the same type of deal.
Gotta jump in here. I don't agree. I believe that "Goose" was shopped around. The difference is that it was not over the span of weeks but hours. I believe that more than one offer was on the table. (SJ Deal and Dallas Deal). Llamosa and Presthus deals were made for cap space. Goose was moved to change the team dynamic. Remember "Goose" is an outspoken person. By that time the players had started to get tired of Rotgen's schtick. So I believe that it was both Yallop's pursuit and Rotgen's fear of a mutiny, which came anyways that motivated that deal. Also the belief that ATC could be that breakaway threat that would be the RDA type foil for Moreno.
Everything I've read from Payne and Yallop is that the Agoos deal was initiated by Yallop. That DCU did not intend to deal him until Yallop called with a good offer. Up until that point, DCU was going to dump 2 veterans (probably Llamosa and Williams), sell Olsen and hope that the returning vets (Etcheverry, RDA, Moreno) would up their games and their draft choices and Convey (and maybe one other youngster) would step up. My take is: once they got what they perceived as a good deal on Agoos (and he was having problems at left back--and no-one but Yallop, not Agoos, Rongen, Payne, or Arena--saw Agoos as a fulltime central defender), they made a decision of "heck, we've just traded our most consistent defender, the guy who plays every game, might as well build for the future--trade the guys we were intending to dump for even more cap room and draft choices!" Maybe Agoos got shopped. But remember, it would have been in a matter of hours--if that. So in the space of hours Dallas puts a tentative deal together and tells Kreis he's going to DC and Kreis tells his family? Wow--that's quite a sequence. Again, I"m pretty sure Agoos got shopped to some degree in earlier times (the decisions to deal RDA and Harkes). And maybe there was a different offer involving Kreis and United. But I don't see an Agoos to Dallas deal with Kreis fitting in with the sequence of events that Payne and Yallop and Agoos have already publicly confirmed.
No doubt it was within a hours time frame. That is why a Kreis deal would have been close but not done. Also we don't know how close Kreis and his managment stayed in contact. Also remember that with every teams decision maker in the same place at the same time a deal can happen very quickly. Look at what happens at the NFL, NHL and even NBA Drafts.
I will say this: If DC offered Justin Mapp, a defender, and a high draft pick for Josh? He'd be on a plane yesterday.
Except that I don't think it's that realistic to assume that all of that happened in an 2-3 hour's time. Remember, Yallop gets hired and the deal has to happen BEFORE the draft even starts. And the Dallas decision-makers aren't in Dallas. Hypothetically I could see it all happening. Realistically though I don't see it occuring (Agoos being shopped to Dallas). There is no indication Dallas wanted him (remember, JH6 said that it was a deal for Kreis, not necessarily a deal of Agoos for Kreis). Plus, Payne had said, Yallop had said that United did not go into the draft seeking to deal Agoos. Yallop made that deal happen. To use a comparision, that's like saying that United is not interested in trading Convey but someone contacts us with an incredible deal so we decide to turn them down and shop Convey elsewhere before coming back and saying "yes"? I agree that deals can happen quickly when all the MLS poo-bahs are all in one room. But that room ain't Dallas, Kreis isn't handy and remember, he has to also tell his family. This does not sound to me like something that happens in 2 hours. Yallop's description of the sequence on this always made it sound as if this was incredibly quick, he didn't have to outbid anyone else.