And here's how they'll look... or the players they'll trade away to get to Opening Day 2008.
Ryan Cochrane - Houston
Clarence Goodson - FC Dallas
Ned Grabavoy - Columbus
James Riley - New England
Joseph Vide - New York
Ivan Guerrero - Chicago
Brian Carroll - D.C. United
Jason Hernandez - Chivas USA
Gavin Glinton - Los Angeles
Chris Pozniak - Toronto FC
Some pretty serviceable players, if they stick around.
So pretty sure Frank will keep the back 4, Grabavoy, Guerrero, and Glinton but the rest just seem like trade bait. Frank will find the talent or actually will have to cause the Quakes don't have a GK or a really good forward yet. Going to be an interesting offseason for this team but they should come out ahead of what Toronto did this year. This team right now could probably beat RSL and the Quakes don't have goalkeeper!!!
ReplyDeleteWell, if you were going to take Goodson, I might have taken Wells instead of Cochrane.
ReplyDeleteI knew Glinton was going to be taken. I don't understand why he was unprotected and Buddle was. Buddle has no upside and hasn't since 2003 or 04.
Lots of defenders taken plus a winger and a striker and Grabavoy. He's going to have to trade a defender for a GK, unless they are going to "discover" one or they've found an affordable one someplace else already.
I didn't expect Glinton to go. I was thinking Harmse. I thought Jason Hernandez was a good choice from Chivas USA, though.
ReplyDeleteIf it was me, I would have taken Harmse, but when Glinton went on the list, I knew it would be him. I don't know why, especially since I'm usually wrong about this kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was looking at the rest of strikers available and figuring that Yallop would be looking for bargains. Glinton's a really cheap striker who is fab off the bench. D-mids, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen in MLS and Harmse isn't better than Carroll and is more expensive than Vide, and if you are going to take Pozniak as well, Harmse just doesn't make sense.
Bad for the Galaxy, though. Now we're left with 3 non-productive strikers and LD. I would have ditched Buddle, Pavon, and Gordon and tried to find 3 others who could play, with Glinton coming off the bench. Now I don't want any of them except LD on the field at all. Oh yeah, Clint Mathis. Whoopee. Be still my beating heart.
This next season is already starting to feel like a trainwreck and Gullit isn't even on the job yet. Man is he going to be in for a surprise.
I wonder if it had been Buddle on the list instead of Glinton would Yallop have taken him? Possibly since he traded for him but I don't think that's a certainty.
ReplyDeleteL.B., my guess is that Lalas made that trade as opposed to Yallop. Remember, Lalas traded for other players who were considered on the scrap heap (Quaranta, Martino, Wolyniec), and Lalas has a tendency to give up too much in a trade (Klein for Sturgis and Findley).
ReplyDeleteGetting Buddle from Toronto cost the Gals one Tyrone Marshall, who might have been getting long in tooth and fingernail but was still better than any other central defender they had last season (and that includes the over-rated and quasi-useless Xavier).
Buddle has been a disappointment for about three years, now. The last thing an expansion team needs is a talented player who has not or cannot live up to expectations. Creates clubhouse tension on a team that can least afford it, doncha know?
Besides, after the past two years, Yallop probably has had his fill of such players.