A man that knows his soccer. Will there be an opening for a GM in 2005 with our Quakes? Besides peace on earth, its my only other Christmas wish. Go Quakes.
What does anyone know about Adam Skumawitz? I found this bit on Yanks Abroad: All I've found so far is that he was born on July 2nd, 1979, so he's 25 now. He's supposed to be fast and good on the ball. Plays attacking midfielder. Hmmm. Just what we need. But of course, I've no way of knowing if he's any good or not. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Sorry, Aalesund (D2) in Norway. The same club that just signed Adin Brown. In fact, this blurb from Yanks abroad is at the bottom of the Brown to Norway article. <wipes egg from face> GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Are you just being a smart ass? Or do you acutally know anything about this guy? It's not that I'm particularly excited to sign him, but he is an attacking midfielder, he is available, and he's a USian so no hit to the international limit. I'm just thinking. Oh, and form the Norwegian 2nd Division, he's probably not too expensive. Of course, he not might be very good either. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Apparently there are still negotiations going on behind closed doors with FC Dallas as regards Richard Mulrooney. http://www.3rddegree.net/thirdindex.cfm?page=article&show=510 I had hoped that such talks had died down and disappeared entirely.
Or have they? Not sure whether they have or not... This editorial note on 3rd Degree raises more questions than it provides answers: Ed Note: We believe the first trade GE mentioned to be for Richard Mulrooney, but as of yet we can find no one to go on the record about it. So who knows what's really happening there? Is there any chance of keeping Mulrooney, or is he as good as gone (knowing that the club would like to honor his request for a move, as it seems to have sprung from family/compassionate grounds)? I was thinking that there might be one possible solution towards keeping him-- offering him the captain's armband. Given his length of service to the club and seeing what kind of player he's developed into, this would be both a sign of respect and a just reward for all of that. As well as a recognition of what he means to the club's future in the post-Donovan/Agoos/Ekelund/Corrales years. Would this be a possibility, to coerce Mulrooney into staying, or am I way off base in my late, late night haze over here?
BT, I don't think the Captain's armband would be enough. It's a sign of respect and value, but in this capitalist economy, money would be more to the point. As gAlexi said, Richard is under contract. He's not going anywhere unless we let him. ********** Dallass is going to have to offer us a lot to get him. Still, I half expect to see Mulrooney wearing F&CK's new uniforms this coming season. I see that RSL have just acquired two veterans from Chicago. Selowane and Whitfield to RSL While I find this trade interesting in and of itself (I'm shocked that the Fire would trade Whitfield for a draft choice!), I am much more disturbed that the Quakes have not made any noise about acquiring new players. We need to fill twelve to fourteen spots. That means we need to get in gear! I want to hear that we are looking at players in CONCACAF and Euro. I want to hear that we're going to sign some hot shot from somewhere because we are woefully thin at far too many positions!! GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Rumor is, the Fire will be using an allocation to acquire John Thorrington. This pisses me off. He is exactly the type of "seasoned" player we should be looking for. We're not going to be able to "draft" a competitive team out of college. Maybe one or two guys could start, but that's a real stretch. We need to add some players with experience.
Yes Jeff! Exactly, some players with experience. That's what caught my eye about that guy leaving the Norwegian club. He's got to be better than anyone we could draft out of college. I want to hear within the next few business days that the Quakes are signing someone to get excited about. Let's go find some players in other leagues that we can get!!! GO QUAKES!! - Mark
It'd be nice to hear some frank, detailed discussion of personnel options for the Quakes like Dallas GM Greg Elliott is providing in the aforementioned 3rd Degree interview. Starting contract discussions for a discovery player in Ecuador, an allocation on the table for a potential trade (hopefully not for Richard), another allocation they may sit on, some analysis of the draft, etc. It's not that I don't think the Quakes have similar things going on, it's just that we haven't heard anything other than vague references to the Wadester (something along the lines of "yeah, he's a good player, we'd love to have him back"), Clint Mathis as a potential allocation, and something like "we want to have players who want to play in San Jose and are an asset to the team". Of course, maybe it's best if they play their cards close to the vest. It doesn't really help your cause to advertise your plan. It only helps fans who are anxious about the makeup of next year's team. Oh, wait that is a cause. They need to sell tickets too. But hopefully some things will start happening soon enough that there will be some excitement generated around the 2005 club.
It's difficult to attract new players, especially veterans, if the future of said club is in doubt in any way. Whether it be contraction or moving. Jeff, I gotta disagree. Thorrington might've been a good pickup 2/3 years ago, but at this point now I don't believe he's worth an allocation. Maybe a minor one. Although I've never seen him play, his star has seemed to dim quite a bit. Broke out big at first, but injuries have slowed him down. Last I heard Grimsby Town of the second division released him. Also, it appears that he's pretty close to signing with the Fire. Here's something from today/yesterday: http://www.yanks-abroad.com/content.php?mode=news&id=000424 Another article, from last August: http://www.yanks-abroad.com/content.php?mode=news&id=000111
That's exactly what I was going to say. What player in their right mind is going to be busting their chops to play for the Earthquakes with the spectre of moving or folding hanging over their heads yet again? I hate to say this, but I'm afraid we're in for another lame duck season, full of inconsistent play and daily rumors. And I'm usually optimistic.
Look, Thorrington was in LIMBO in Southern California. He came back to the USA because Sigi Schmid wanted him for the Galaxy. Sigi tried to "back door" him into MLS last year and the front office refused to allow it. So Thorrington was told "just wait until the offseason and we'll pick you up". Well, Sigi got canned and Steve Sampson decided that HE was going to find HIS own players, not pick up someone that Schmid liked. That left Thorrington with NO prospects. You think he'd balk at coming up here for a tryout???? He played with Donovan at Leverkusen's reserves. All the Quake's had to do was ask Landon to call him and tell him about our team. I bet JT would have been eager to come up here and show what he can do now. Instead, we just sit on our hands until draft day and hope some kind of miracle player falls in our lap. Of all the guys that we could have inticed to come up here, Thorrington should have been one of the easiest (somewhat close to family, recommendation from former teammate Donovan, chance to stick it to the Galaxy for ignoring him, ect....). If Joe Enochs were to move back home, would we AT LEAST call and ask if he'd like a tryout? I really doubt it. We seem to think we can add a few Cal, Stanford and Santa Clara college kids and win next season. That's not going to work.
Enochs is 33 I believe, and will probably retire in Germany, considering his family is from there. For what the roster is made up of, it depends entirely on what Kinnear and Co decide will be the short and long term plans. Agoos, Ekelund, Donovan in addition to the possibilities of DeRosario and Mulrooney departing. They will definitely be competitive, but will they focus on rebuilding? Anyways, the recent stars of past and present have come mostly from Jesuit schools, in addition to Cal/Stanford. Santa Clara - Cronin, Cochrane, Walker, Cannon Creighton - Mullan, Mulrooney Gonzaga - Ching Portland - Brown Stanford - Levesque, Dunivant Cal - Roner Anyways, a collegiate player can contribute immediately, but they need to be something special, such as Dempsey, Ralph or Marshall. Good scouting. Good scouting. Let's relax.
Enochs told a reporter a few years back that he'd like to come back to Northern Cal when he's done in Germany. He even mentioned trying to play a while in the USA (Quakes or someone else like RSL?). Maybe his plans have changed, but that's what he said. On the subject of college players, do you think we have a chance to find SIX players of Todd Dunivant's caliber in this year's draft? How many roster spots do we have open? Thorrington might not be able to cut it at the MLS level. How do we know unless we try him out next to guys like Mullan and Russell? Do you think that Peter Wilt and Dave Sarachan are more stupid then Lalas and Kinnear? If the Fire are willing to offer an allocation, why shouldn't we?
I agree. We need to at least try. And I'm hoping that there is some wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes that we're unaware of. Although, I highly doubt it, as these rumors have ways of leaking out and we only have rumors of players leaving.
After reading the Yanks Abroad thread about Thorrington possibly signing with the Gals last spring/summer, I agree that this seems like a player the Quakes should seriously consider pursuing. I've never seen him play, but he sounds like my kind of player - good speed and ball skills. And I believe the Quakes are in real need of more team speed at the moment. Seems like he just needs a place to sort of restart his career. He'd be relatively close to home (No. Cal to So. Cal), and I don't think relocation threats would affect him much. If he can establish himself as a solid MLS player this year, he would likely be able to play in MLS for several years, no matter what team. Sounds like it might be too late though. I wonder if Dom and Alexi are thinking that they'd pass on him because they have Mullan on the right wing and greater needs elsewhere. Jeff, where would you see him playing if the Quakes did somehow wind up with him?
What?! Players we've lost this off-season are: Landon Donovan, Ronnie Ekelund, Jeff Agoos, Ramiro Corrales, Chris Brown, and Jamil Walker. That's four starters. We may also lose Mulrooney and or DeRosario. That would put us down six starters. The rosters are supposed to be expanded for 2005. So we've got something like twelve open roster spots. We're more or less in the same boat as RSL and the Chupacabras are in better shape given their pipeline to experienced players. So what makes you think we're going to be competitive?! Our coaches are suspect, our GM is an idiot, and we've lost a good bunch of starters. Even assuming that we wanted to lose Corrales, Ekelund, and Agoos, who are we going to replace them with? Who is going to replace Donovan? Do you think there are better players than Walker and Brown in the draft? We need to draft at least ten to twelve college players. We need to sign or try out at least four or five A-League guys. And we need to sign at least three players from elsewhere. With luck, we'll be able to scrape tweleve MLS caliber players out of that, then we'll only need to mold them into a coherent team. Fully half of our guys in 2005 will be new to the squad. This sucks. We're in trouble and I don't see or hear our coaches or front office doing anything about it. Perhaps they are. I certainly hope that they are. But I see or hear squat! GO QUAKES!! - Mark