This just in from the Post.............. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7500-2002Dec18.html Latest from Goff. This is getting interesting!
Man, I will be soooo bummed to see His Holiness go, especially to the MetroShite. On the other hand, something has to give, and Etch's renegotiated salary didn't help, cap-wise. <sigh> I sure hope that our fearless coach knows what the hell he is doing.
Sounds like all systems go. We get the #5 pick, and we take Alecko with the first pick. It is what we expected.
What intrigues me is this, "a major player allocation." Draft picks for college players don't really get me too jazzed, but I guess a couple of them might be gems. Hopefully Ray can find us a quality, goal-generating player who can rattle the net. Stewart would be a nice allocation if we can pull it. Seeing Petke wearing our uniform is a bit revolting though.
They are trading their best player (Pope) to make room for a mediocre / old player (Etch). This is foolish. What is even more amazing is that they can still get out of it (Etch's contact has not been signed), but they choose not to. What a bunch of fools. Why not Moreno, Williams and the rights to Etch for Petke and a draft pick? NY keeps their allocation, we keep Pope.
Because the NY deal depends on Pope. No Pope, no deal. Plus, Ray wants the allocation, if all the scouting trips are going to mean anything. (BTW - I love Eddie, but he wasn't our best player last season)
The Post article said NY was in discussion for just Moreno at first. Other sources have said there were a few teams interesting in Moreno. We might not get both the allocation and Petke out of it, but we'd definately get at least the draft pick for Moreno. We don't absolutely need the allocation. We have one of our own. In fact, after using our own allocation, we might have cap trouble trying to use NY's because we are keeping Etch at max salary.
I feel the same way, additionally there was no let down when Pope was gone. IMHO it actually gelled thus making (i hate to say it) his holiness easier to let go.
This is true - our defense wasn't the problem during that horrid run of form the boys had - it was the inability to score. (I never want to hear the phrase 4-5-1 used again by United's coaching staff) Kinda weird how the defense didn't drop off at all - this would fall under the "Ewing Theory" column, I guess.
Also from and offensive output, i believe the defense scored more with Pope out (Nellie for 4 i think). Shortly after Nellie moved into the middle for Pope I was telling my wife that Pope was now expendable. Granted that Nellie isn't as good as Pope yet. Nellie is still younger and less experianced then Pope is now. When Nellie is Pope's age I can see him actually being better than Pope due to his organizational skills in the back. Having said that it is going to be a sad day to see Pope leave. I am just glad I was able to get him to sign his jersey that I picked up at the meet the team day this year.
Because Etch doesn't have any trade value. Nobody wants him. Look, everyone here just needs to get over the idea that we can dump our crap (Moreno, and Etch) and get quality in return. To get something of value, we have to give up something of value. Etch sucks, everyone knows it and nobody wants him. That's why we can't trade him. Why we re-sign him is a different question.
Sadly, I have to agree here. Although I would add that Etch was hurt for a good chunk of last season and went down for surgery as soon as the season ended. I am going to hope that he can still bring something to the table when completely healthy. That, and that Bobby learns everything from him that he possibly can while he's still here.
I am betting that is the reason why we are bringing Etch back. Give Bobito one more year to grow and learn from Etch. This last season he really started to turn it on for a multiple of reasons. After one more year with Etch Bobito should be good to go to run the middle.
So can someone please clarify whats happening here? The deal isn't 100% percent complete yet, it all depends on Etch making a decision tonight on whether or not he wants to stay right?
Moreno has trade value. I know a lot of people have soured on him recently, but there are MLS teams interested. He was one of the best players in MLS and if he gets healthy he could be again. Teams want him. He has value. Etch and Williams have little value, but they can be cut whenever a team doesn't want them anymore. Therefore, they do not have negative value. A package of Moreno, Etch, and Williams must be worth more than Moreno alone.
If Etch signs Pope, Jamie, and Richie go to the scum. We get Petke, an Allocation, and the #5 draft pick. I see it as Pope for an Allocation Jamie for a draft pick Richie for Petke
Give me a break man. Things are just a BIT more complicated than "Etch sucks, nobody wants him, Etch is crap".....right??? Thoughtless..........
As I said before, we already have one allocation. In addition, a max-salary defender like Pope make more sense than max-salary old man like Etcheverry.
To answer mnarce's question, if Marco heads off to coach the Bolivian NT (Not a question of if, but when at this point), that would free up Cap Space, which if seems like would be used to retain Eddie. This in turn would put the kibosh on the deal, as Bradley reportedly won't do the deal without Eddie thrown in.