Anyone have a "read" on whether Mastro plans on staying in MLS or go to Europe? Is there still any interest abroad?
I don't see why his interest would have changed and I would imagine after his recent performances with the National team Euro teams will have more interest in him. With the Jan. 1 transfer window opening back up he might be going over the pond.
so we have Revs-Llamosa, Joe-Max and Brillant MET-one of our forwards, Ricardo Clark, and Joselito Vaca LA-Victorine, Vagenas and Moreno CHI-Dipsy Selolwane, Sumed Ibrahim, and Chris Armas (though Sumed isn't under contract) CHI-Razov, Buete, Pause CLB-Cunningham, Elliott and Paule (or Denton) even RSL: Brian Kamler, Chris Brown, and Erick Scott DC-Stokes & 2 guys leaving glad to see everyone in the east getting into the act. I didn't notice any "sincere" offers from fans of Dallas, SJ, and KC. I haven't met a Chivas USA fan here so we'll excuse their abscence from this discussion.
Chivas offers all of their recently drafted non-Hispanics for Pablo. Ezra Hendrickson, Craig Ziadie and Jamil Walker. Enjoy!!
It may just be me, but I dislike this idea as I expect that another team is trying to unload three mediocre/injured/moody/europebound players on the Rapids for a solid US Nats star player with lots of upside in a real system. Imagine if I put together a deal to unload Powell, Digi, and Henderson for, say, Twellman??? Hmmmm. Who wins that one in a forward-thin league??? We can replace Powell & Digi this afternoon. Henderson may be harder. But we cannot find a scorer (and see the Allocation/Discovery thread if ya don't think we've tried). Doug Moe said that whoever gets the 'best' player wins the trade. I agree. We cannot elevate our team with players that are available any year, we elevate our team by getting high level performers, and accumulating them. RLH
Great post. Every offer I've seen so far is simply teams trying to unload the players they don't know what to do with. You gotta do better if you want Pablo.
i am taking all this for just speculation and conversation on these boards.i can't believe that another team would just want another team's best player and think they could get him. I just think NE is just going around shopping to all teams. With losing a coach and having new people at the helm, I don't think colorado is going to part with pablo for any three players period. they have enough money now to go get three players to play with pablo.
No they just traded him to the Stormin' Mormons for an additional TI slot. All they need is one more TI and they no longer would have to put an American out on the field.
Actually under the new rules announced at MLS Cup, you can. They're called developmental slots or something like that, but they fill the same niche as the TI slots did. Right now Chivas has 3 SI slots, 6 TI slots (Expanstion teams have 5 TI slots compated to 3 for everyone else), and 3 players with dual citizenship or Mexicans with green cards (Perez, Gomez, and McDLT). So they could field 11 players who are eligible for the Mexican National Team and still have one on the bench if they wanted.
So this is how Chivas will get around the rules? How can you trade a "slot"? If MLS rules state that each team has 3 TI's or 5 for expansion, that sounds like a limit.
You can trade a "slot" when you cater to the new owners of Chivas that's how. Man, it's MLS ... they can do anything they want except for give us something in wrapping paper!
40 slots league wide (3 for the 10 existing teams = 30, plus 5 for each of the 2 expansion teams = 10 ) that are currently delegated in sets of 3 or 5. A team can choose to trade on of their slots to another team. Their limit would then be 2 (or 4) and the new team could have 4 (or 6). So RSL will be limited to 4 this season, while Chivas can have 6 now. Also there are 4 SI's this season, I forgot about that change. So Chivas can have 10 players fielded that are not American/green card holders (as long as one can play GK) + McDLT who has dual citizenship for a starting 11 made up of all Mexican citizens.
4 SIs. I was hoping for changes from the squad but this is not one of them, especially if it means the squad doesn't change.
There's absolutely NO WAY... repeat... NO WAY, that Chivas will field a side of completely Hispanic players... they're going to want to have just one American player... That is, when they lose, which they will (a lot) they will have a person to blame it on, fittingly, and most naturally, other than themselves... Johnny Walker would be perfect for this.
Except they didn't get him while they could have, easily. Maybe Meola will end up out there. KC is trying to move him.
Some people won't believe it, but www.rapidsfan.com is reporting that all suiors for Pablo were told to go bite themselves. Sounds like LA, NY & SJ wanted his services.
Actually no, that's not what Rapidsfan what reported. We stated that the initial offer involving 3 players in exchange for Pablo was refused by the Rapids... but that offers from other teams were still on the table. And if anyone doubts the validity of Rapidsfan's reports of trade talks involving Pablo -- I believe a number of people called it "hearsay" or simply "BS" -- just see Galarcep's latest article on ESPN:
Sorry if I boiled the news on Rapidsfan.com down too much, didn't mean to miss represent your news. I'd love seeing Pope with the Rapids. He's criticized for being too quiet, but Nat and Cannon have shown they have the voice to tell the defense what's up. Pablo for Pope? Maybe a fair trade, however I'd rather have both if possible. I agree with Greenie in another post about Pablo being best suited for midfield. If we lose Pablo in exchange for Pope we lose a lot in midfield while solidfying defense.
Not only is he too quiet but he's too old too. He is on the downslope of his career while Pablo is, I feel, just getting started. In my opinion, Pablo and Cannon are the only two players we should keep and that we should offer up everyone else and start from scratch.
While I'm not crazy about the idea of Pablo-for-Pope, I'm certainly not going to write off Eddie, not at all. He's still one of the 3 best center backs in MLS, and anyone who suggests he's getting too old might do well to consider Robin Fraser's performance in 2005.
I don't understand the trade. The ONLY way it makes sense to me ... is if Pablo INSISTS he plays in the midfield (where I don't think he belongs) or he's a prick in the locker room (which I've never heard before). The other way it could make sense, is if Pablo's intent is Europe and there have been clubs in discussion with MLS. But I do like Pope.