Kassel before, Ruthven today and a bunch of others and they are saying they will sign young locals players, we only have 24 players signed, that mean is six spots open waiting for players and they send Tyler away.... and for what, to sign a players that is 100 miles ph down hill....
First LeToux has become an essential player that we shouldn't have traded and now Ruthven is a local player. Ruthven isn't a local player. He's from Alpharetta, GA and played college ball at U of San Francisco and U of South Carolina. He was brought to the Red Bulls as one of Mike Petke's finds. Hence his connection to this area is solely as a function of his relationship to the club for which he has always been a fringe player. Petke thinks highly of him and has stated that he would have liked to keep him but couldn't. It's better not to string him along if he still has a chance to latch on with a club this season.
It's a big country Metz, London is almost as close as San Diego. The Tri-State Area is probably the most expansive a definition of local that is worth considering. I might even drill down to the soccer leagues that truly are NY/NJ leagues, like the Cosmopolitan, LI and North Jersey. Then a kid would grow up steeped in New York's soccer culture and embody that upbringing as a player for the Red Bulls. If it's a generic American player that interests you, there are other clubs in MLS, like Sporting KC that embody the suburban/youth/college soccer mentality far better than the Red Bulls. But I don't find that type of soccer very interesting. Indeed Sporting KC has gotten more interesting lately precisely because they are less reliant on that type of player, long on effort and short on skill or tactical acumen. You can't win in MLS with generic American players any more than you can win the EPL with generic English ones. You have to find exceptional talents from all over the map. LA didn't just have Beckham, Keane and Juninho. They also had Donovan, Gonzalez and super sub Mike Magee. Exceptional players in their own right. Ruthven and frankly Kassel, may ultimately prove to be useful players, but it is hard to envision them as anything more than depth/squad players, nice to have, but a dime a dozen and easily replaceable. More to the point, Petke stated clearly that he wanted to keep Ruthven but the numbers didn't work and he was told, "no." That sounds like all you can ask of a club. That Ruthven isn't a local player just strips away most of the sentiment. As you can see, there aren't a lot of folks running in here to say what a shame it is that we couldn't keep a guy who was likely to only play a handful of minutes this season.
I know people really liked him, but Ruthven wasn't that impressive to me last year. He was okay. Kassel I would have like do keep. Local guy with a good rep from the academy and a good college pedigree.
Of course, the team will never have stability if we don't have a core of players that can last four or five years together, two or three foreigner will not make a difference, Henry are not, Cahill are not and Juninho will not either, why, because we have not a core of players where they can come and help to they mission, the DP for now are only a pass by players and not until we can bring 26/28 years old DPs players to stay four or five years with the team will be when we can build a core of players around them, but for now with this ancient reliquias, hell. ...that can't be..... And they are doing more damage than good.... Because for they fault players like Lindpere, Agudelo, Kassel, Hertzog and a dozen more have to depart and we have to spoil the DPs that are doing nothing of nothing....
Lade, Barklage and Dax all got extensions this offseason. We also signed 2 local academy players, signed Christianson from the draft and traded for Alexandre from Portland. I'd say this team has plenty of local flavor.