Ok, what would you do in this situation? You are the GM of a professional soccer franchise. Thanks to a complicated and convoluted player acquisition policy, you have acquired the rights to a aging superstar. But this player doesn't want to play for your team and has stated on the record that he would only join the league if he could play in his home town. The league wants him back in the league, his home town club wants him on their roster, and you, well, you are in the driver's seat, with all the bargaining chips, looking down from the bird's eye view, master of you domain, etc., etc.
These were the circumstances that Reds GM Mo Johnston and coach John Carver found themselves in when Brian McBride decided he wanted to finish his career at home in Illinois with the Chicago Fire. TFC holds the designated player allocation and therefore have first dibs at McBride. So with all that bargaining power what did MoJo and the Reds do? Well, according to Ives Galarcep, the trade will look a little something like this:
The trade between Chicago and Toronto FC for the rights to Brian McBride does involve Chad Barrett. A source with knowledge of the deal confirmed to SBI that the package I discussed last night is, in fact, what Toronto will receive. TFC will acquire Barrett, a first-round pick and allocation money in exchange for the allocation spot Chicago will now use to acquire McBride.
Chad Barrett...Wait a minute, Chad Barrett? You could literally ask for anyone on that team sans Blanco and possibly anyone on another team (if the league is desperate enough to engineer it) -- and the Reds ask for Chad (bleeping) Barrett. He's not even the best of the midget twins in Chicago. Assuming that Paul Dickov is indeed waiting in the wings, here's a few deals that would have been better for Toronto than the one they settled on.
FIVE DEALS BETTER THAN BARRETT FOR MCBRIDE
1) Chicago get McBride; Toronto get Justin Mapp
There was plenty of talk that Mapp was off-limits in this deal, but that is plain baloney. TFC should have called Chicago's bluff and demanded the player. The league wanted this to get done, so they would have forced the Fire to deal him. Doesn't anybody remember what the league did to Dallas in order to get Landon Donovan back to L.A.?
2) Chicago get McBride; Toronto get Stephen King
Not only does he write scary bestsellers, he's a serviceable midfielder.
3) Chicago get McBride; Toronto get John Wolyniec; New York get Wilman Conde; Wolyniec moves closer to his dream of playing for every team in the league
A three-way trade with Los Angeles for Carlos Ruiz that would have sent Conde to Los Angeles was a possibility until Eduardo Dominguez made the move unnecessary for the Galaxy. This would be the second-best deal. Or Toronto could just take Conde.
4) Chicago get nothing; Toronto get nothing; McBride gets to focus on the Olympics.
This actually makes the most sense for all parties involved. McBride should give his recognizable face a break (pun intended) and then possibly play in 2009. Rest up for the Olympics.
5) Chicago get McBride; Toronto get a deep dish, Chicago style pizza...mmmmm.
Other trade talk:
0 comments:
Post a Comment