Chris Bergin reports that BL and St. Whatsis have agreed on a "player recall" and subsequently have "cancelled" his contract, thus making him a free agent. Reportedly on his way now. Further, since no other teams have expressed an interest in him, it will not be necessary to employ an allocation. Done deal. http://www.ussocceruk.com/modules.p...e=article&sid=186&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Good stuff, thanks for the update, this seems like it is all but a done deal......should help us solidify the back... -PB20
I agree completely; I think it's a no-lose proposition. If it works out, wonderful. If it doesn't, exactly what did it cost? (aside from salary, which reportedly is well under the max) Frankie wants a place to try and revive his career. We're giving it to him. And as for the "no one wants him" comment, I think he is going where MLS wants him to go; this league is not, as some of you are tired of hearing me say, a completely competitive environment. A lot of the things like this happen because everybody agrees to it. In any case, nobody said "nobody else wants him" - the deal is that nobody else is going to try and claim him. BIG difference.
Good for Frankie and good, I hope, for the Crew, too. Another reason to make the 3 hr. trek to Columbus.
What is the going rate for a major contributor to a world cup quarterfinalist? Even if you figure based on the US team only, it's probably more than the sub-maximum salary the Crew are paying for him. I think it's a no-brainer if you need help on the defensive flanks and you have the cap space. Those two qualifiers probably explain the lack of competition from the other 9 teams, I would think. The league is still working out salary cap and talent discbursement problems from the 12 team era, so acquisition hasn't been paramount for the past couple of years. Besides, I don't think he ever found the right situation in Europe. Pele he is not, but he could have been a productive player over there on the right team. You probably won't even lose him for national team commitments too much because Bruce is trying to blood the youngsters right now. And he always plays hard. Then again, this isn't officially official just yet, is it?
According to MLS Confidential the salary is about $200K. That seems high to me, but who knows? It could be performance based or whatever.
bill, i am sure you have gone over this a thousand times so why don't you pm me a brief synopsis on why this league is not a competitive environment. thanks mel
I agree. Its a win-win. Does anyone honestly think that he's not going to give 100% in one of the few countries that actually know who he is and have seen him play with our national team. Provided he gets some time off to surf every year, I think this will work out very well. West on one side running up and down and Frankie on the other. I see that as a solid outside staff. I don't think other teams passed as much as they couldn't take him due to salary cap issues. I hope he gets to columbus soon as I am constantly disappointed in ugly early season Crew games where the team has yet to gel. Gel early, win often. Maybe I'll buy the shootout this year. BWG Richmond, VA
I really think that if Heydude is going to play the midfield that we are going to see the end of West as a starter. If heydude plays mid you are going to see a Frankie and Frank combo. Get the marketing guys working now.
Frankie probably wanted to go somewhere where he could surf. Instead, he gets stuck in a land locked area where he'll have to resort to cow tipping for fun.
Do you suppose he'll slop hogs as well? Cow tipping for Columbus is a lot safer than other teams secondary hobbies/jobs. Let's look it over: Metroscums: Slinging crack rock DCU: governmental BJs for green cards Dallas: Defending the border Colorado: skiing w/ Sonny Bono San Jose: well, they all left, didn't they? Galaxy: Suckin on smog New England: Shoveling driveways Chicago: commuting thru Gary, IN KC: is there anything in KC? meat packing perhaps?
This can't be bad. The only thing I don't like about playing for the Crew is that he commits to the tackle to early and never seems patient enough to contain. But, this is good for us.
We already had, arguably, the best team speed in the league. FH (yes, the new moniker suggestion) can only add to that speed. Now, if we can only fuse his head to his body for WHOLE games. I wonder if the REVs will let us use some of that duct tape they used in the playoffs (kept players/defenders from wandering away out of boredom).