Respected United Fans: First, thanks for Ali. Second, I have a hypothetical question. If Adu comes out this year, and we all know he will be in DC, how could you get him? Say United has no allocations, but the Burn will have one. What would you be willing to give the Burn for him? Other Burn fans are suggesting Convey and DCU's first round pick in 2005, and maybe a couple of other draft picks. A high price, but this is for Freddy Adu. I think that the MLS will figure out some sort of allocation for DCU, come hell or high water. But we would be interested in your opinions. Seriously, how much is Freedy Adu worth?
We don't have to give up anything. He will become ours via a weighted lottery. Anyway, I'm sure it will be written into his contract that he will only play for United, so he may not even be part of the draft.
He's worth the allocation we get when Etchevery retires. In all honesty, do you think that Adu would go to the Burn? Adu would have firstsay (well, his mom would) in where he winds up. The league would try to accomadate him in any way possible. If the Burn were to get him through allocation, he would get traded to United, most likely for a defender (Prideaux or Ivanov), a midfielder (Alegria, Stokes, or Q2), and/or a forward (possibly Q1 or Barclay). In any case, those odds are slim and nil. I may be a Burn fan (after United, of course), but they have no hope in getting Adu.
IF Adu signs on to MLS, he will be in DC. His mother has made it known that she has no desire to relocate anywhere else. United will have to give up nothing for this to happen. It'll be a "weighted" lottery. Dallas got a good guy in Ali Curtis. No way Adu goes there or anywhere else.
They put 1000 balls with DC on it, and one for each of the other teams, in a big barrel. Should by some slim chance one of the other teams win they claim a technical difficulty and do it again.
That's about it. Keep in mind, the kid is only 14 years old. I don't care how gifted he is, he'll have much larger men knocking heads with him for the ball. He still has a ways to go to compete with the big boys. Just my opinion.
Look, we all know how this is going to work, he'll go into a weighted lottery, the Metros will win, and we'll have to trade Nelsen/Petke/Reyes to get his rights back ... and of course we'll have to throw in a first and second round draft pick as well. But rest assured, this process will not result in enrichment of the Burn ... this is, after all, MLS (Metros Leniency and Supplementation). -Digital
Maybe MLS will officially get rid of Single Entity structure, and the first signing will be Freddy Adu to DC United.
If he does end up here, I hope it's not through Metro-style foolishness. We should have to use something significant to get the kid if that's the way it plays out. I don't care if NJ has benefitted ten times, having DC get Adu that way would suck, IMHO.
I'll just be happy if we can get him to MLS for 2-3 years and I'm not too worried who gets him though LA would be the most logical choice, of course.
Scipio, I think there are a couple of things to consider given the wishful thinking of some Dallas fans. 1. DCU isn't pushing hard for Adu. Don't get me wrong, Hudson has praised him, I think all of us would love to have him. Maybe he's so good that he'd start as a 14 year-old in MLS. But right now, even with the dealing of Curtis, the team has too many young forwards, most of them withdrawn forwards (ala Adu). Doesn't mean we wouldn't take him. It does mean that the team has a number of priorities and getting a withdrawn forward (who may not start his first year, may not even be allowed to play with the team until he graduates from Bradenton in June) is probably not the first priority. A target man and a holding/D-mid have to be the top two priorities. 2. DCU will probably get an allocation for Etcheverry's retirement (at least Dallas got one for Kubik's retirement, Colorado got one for Valderamma's retirement). DCU could use the allocation on Adu. And no, it isn't about priority based upon record. After all, Dallas and DCU both had options with Stewart (ie: he wasn't compelled to go to either b/c of record). 3. Adu is holding ALL the cards i nthis one. Imagine the following: for some reason MLS signs him and puts him in the superdraft. Adu doesn't like who drafts him. He stays in Bradenton, practicing with the U-17 and finishing his HS diploma (which he has declared is currently the plan). That gets him to at least June 2004. Then he begins practicing with the Olympic side. And he's not exactly starving--he's got the million dollar deal from Nike. And at some point the MLS team would have to decide whether or not to keep himi on the cap and roster. Point is: Adu will go where-ever his Mom decides he's going. Right now, the rumor is DCU. But it could just as easily be somewhere else. There are a gazillion scenarios about how Adu gets assigned to an MLS team (including: he signs with ManU and they loan him out to an MLS side). Almost none of those scenarios involve him going in the Superdraft. I personally think he'll either sign a contract in the next month (which means he wouldn't go superdraft) or he'll likely wait until May/June 2004 and graduation. In any case, Dallas' only claim here is the first pick in the superdraft--and he's not likely to be in that talent dispersal mechanism.
Most importantly. DC & MLS need Adu to put fannies in the stands. I'm not talking about sellouts. The spectacle would enough to bring people to games all over MLS. I for one would travel the 200 miles to see him play.
First, Adu won't be in the Superdraft. He won't sign with the league until after he graduates (in June). If no one chose him through allocation, then he would go into a lottery, definitely not before. Secondly, Adu will be a hot commodity. Think about when Donovan first came to the league, Everyone wanted to watch him play. I think Adu will be an even bigger success based on the news coverage he's gotten over the last few months (and the ones he will get when he signs for the league). DC would be stupid not to sign him (and it will be up to DC). I don't believe Hudson would pass up the chance to have this kind of player. Third, he may prove to be the forward we've been looking for. None of our forwards have produced on a consistent level this year. Next year, Stoichkov will retire and we will probably trade away a few forwards (I would not be upset to see either Q1 or Q2 traded for a more established player). Barclay is already on thin ice and his injury does not bode well for him. Having Adu would definitely strengthen our team, even if he's coming off the bench. Fourth, he can play at this level. He showed that when he lead the U-17s to victories over Chicago. At 6-0, he has the size to play against the big boys. It may take him a few games, but there's no reason to believe that his prior successes were a fluke. He will succeed on any team he plays for.
Is this really different from the Official Freddy Adu to DC United thread? It has just as little proof to go on, and a lot of the stuff in here is repeated.
To use a Howie Long analogy, when a big truck hits a little truck......The big truck almost always wins. The kid still needs to grow into his skill. Now I'll leave this thread alone.