Please be realistic with selections, but as we all know, there have been quite a few players leaving with none coming in. I was just wondering who you would sign? Here are my ideas: David Hayes He was the 2007 USL-1 Defender of the year and a finalist for the award this season, as well as making the USL-1 Best XI. He's 32, so he definitely isn't young, but he was the shining star on a turd of a defense in Atlanta. Given that the team is folding (at least for this season), we could get him on the cheap/free. Lee Nguyen He's out of favor with Randers after being shipped off from PSV. He could easily be a Robbie Rogers type of player that comes into the league and shakes things up with his European experience. He'd probably require a decent transfer fee, I'd imagine somewhere around $400-$500k, but I think we've got the allocations for it. He's provide the AM slot we're looking for as well as not counting against the international slots. Jonathan Steele 22 years old, midfielder, 2008 USL-1 MVP, Northern Ireland U-19 international, he could easily be a quality player with the Revs for quite some time. I don't imagine he'd come for nothing, but he could be a great signing. Eddie Gaven It seems like Columbus just really don't want him. He's only 22, though it feels like he's been in the league forever, and at 6'0" could be a decent-sized option up top, though I'd suspect he's spend most of his time in midfield. Regardless, he provides the versatility needed on an MLS roster. So, who would you sign?
Why does it seem like Columbus doesn't really want him? Because they left his huge contract unprotected?
They shopped him out to other clubs during the 2008 draft and left him unprotected in this (and I believe last) year's draft.
Interesting and thoughtful - repped. I wish I had some more names to throw in. He did well enough during the season, and particularly in the play-offs. You have to wonder what Crew's salary cap situation is like, though.
I'd take Nguyen not for huge money. Maybe a $150k/yr. and I'd take a gamble on Gavin (with several safeguards in place on $ and length). If he couldn't REALLY compete for a starting spot, then I don't want him (as a supersub). I don't think any of these guys are a great answer to our problems though and i don't love any of them. I'll be curious to see if any other NT pool type players overseas come back (winter waivers/transfers).
another young YA that might be worth pursuing is Preston Zimmerman. He didn't really catch on at Hamburg and is now playing in Austria. He also may not be 'cheap' enough, but it might be worth asking. According to Wikipedia, Preston just signed a two year deal with Kapfenberger SV in August so he will either require a transfer fee or this move will have to wait a couple of years. He is getting playing time there so he may not want to leave, either.
i'd pass on Nguyen. The few games I have seen him play, I was not impressed at all. The fact that he has bounced around so much in such an early age should say something
I don't care who we sign BUT we better sign several players that can start AND contribute. No more projects, diamonds in the rough, or players everybody has passed on that SN see's something in. We need several proven players that can spark this team back to life.
That's pretty unrealistic - there are no sure things. Look at DC, who everyone thinks is a model in terms of player acquisition. They missed a lot more than they hit last year - and still exposed just about everyone they added last offseason. If you base your judgment on the way the season ended, that might be true, but this was an excellent team in the first half before injuries and fatigue took their toll. We've lost Khano, Cristman and, supposedly, Parkhurst, but we also already have their replacements on the roster. The younger players should continue to improve, not only by being a year older, but because they got significant experience last season. I don't disagree that we need new players to mix in, but I don't think the situation is as dire as many people seem to think.
*shrug* We've got 14 players on our Senior Roster. At least one of those (Larentowicz) still needs to be signed. Of the remaining 13 players: Only three are defenders One of the three defenders, and arguably the most important defender at this point (Badilla) was pretty awful last year Only three are forwards one of the three forwards (Twellman) has scored at least five goals in his professional career There are rumors that Twellman may want out Only one is a goalkeeper The coaching staff clearly lost confidence late in the year in at least two other Senior Roster Players in Phelan and Thompson Albright, Heaps, Joseph, Ralston, and Reis will all be on the wrong side of 30 by Opening Day next year I just see a lot of questions going forward. Will Castro turn into a difference maker? Personally, I doubt it. How much improvement can we reasonably expect from Nyassi, Mansally, and Dube? Will Igwe and Valentino be ready to step up? Who's going to score goals if Twellman gets hurt? I could go on, but I think you get the point. We're not a team that needs minor tweaks. We need signifcant changes and improvements. And if that means rolling the dice with players who may or may not perform up to expectations as DCU did, then so be it. As things stand now, this team's prospects for the next two or three years aren't very good. Let's shake things up.
The situation is not dramatic if all we wanted was to have a playoff-quality team. But even at the season's zenith we were getting worked by teams like Chicago & Columbus. We also didn't fare well against Red Bull & RSL early on. Let's not kid ourselves--even without the injuries & fatigue (*forseeable issues*, I'd argue)--the Revs weren't a championship calibre team in 2008. Never were. If the organization kids itself into thinking that it was, it's going to be diminishing returns from here on out. I honestly wouldn't mind the Revs taking a run at Kovalenko...especially if Red might take off. He's a fighter, has underrated skill on the ball, and can play in the middle or on the wing. And he hates to lose, which is something we could've used against Joe Public. The Galaxy are supposedly after him now, but for the right price I think he'd be a valuable piece. I'm surprised Chicago isn't after him, as he would be an upgrade over Pause & give them everything that Pause can't (some offensive spark, as well as some bite in the center of the pitch). What's Dax McCarty's status at FCD?
This is a good point. As much as everyone likes to say our front office sucks because they don't do anything, sometimes it's the moves you don't make that are the good ones. Having said that, there's a difference between standing (virtually) pat on a team that almost won it all, and doing little or nothing when key players leave. I can (almost) give them a pass on doing little to upgrade the team after last season. You could make the argument that the guys we brought in should have been equal to or close to equal to the players we lost, and we did make the finals. But this approach over the last 3 years has resulted in the slow but steady diminution of the team in relation to the competition, to the point that we would have had to make improvements even if we didn't lose players. We are now losing two more guys that played a lot of minutes for us. We need to do more then replace them - we need to make upgrades as well. That means 3 starting quality players need to be added during the off-season, at least one of them has to be exceptional. We weren't an excellent team in the first half. We were a good team that got lucky and pulled out a lot of close wins. Sometimes a team's record is not a good indicator of their quality. A better indicator of a teams quality is goal differential, preferably adjusted for competition. Look at Sagarin's predictor rating for a good objective measure of the quality of our side: the Revs were 1st in the league in '05, 3rd in '06, 4th in '07 and 10th this year. I think it is, and I don't think I'm prone to some of "the sky is falling" mentality that we get a lot of around here. I'm not saying we have to blow things up and try again, I'm just saying that some significant new talent needs to be added or this team is in trouble. The fact that they made the playoffs had more to do with early-season luck then anything else, and now they've lost two starters, one of whom was one of the best in the league at his position. Lee