- MLS HQ look like idiots for imposing a deadline and then caving. Sure, an "extended loan" isn't a "transfer," but he's going to be missing half the season. Pathetic.
- Bruce is screwed. He can't fill the missing cap space because Becks is coming back to gobble it all up.
- The dude hacked it out with a bunch of scrubs in LA for a year and a half, and suddenly found his muse again when surrounded by his peers. It happens. He'll buy himself out of LA at the end of the season and we'll be done with it. He isn't, and never was, going to be the messiah of American soccer. Did we ever need one?
- For the crowd who think this means we'll never land another marquee player in MLS, pass me some of what you're smoking/drinking/injecting/licking.
- If LA/MLS are really getting the money that's being talked about, and Becks still has to buy himself out of his contract, that's a business win. I think the novelty sold the shirts it was going to sell, and the crowds were getting jaded. Also, it's not a bad economic time to be moving out from under a massive contract.
- I think we're pretty much all in agreement that Becks won't be here come 2010, right?
Uh . . . not the shower part. I meant, "who else is ready to move on"? Come along, kiddies, First Kick 2009 is just a few weeks away. Let's get ready to enjoy a solid season of soccer with all of its requisite ups, downs, and loop-the-loops, not the least of which will be "The Return of Beckham!" to inject fresh life in the dog days of summer. Let's not sulk along like the hordes of teenage girls sobbing in their Beckham 23 gear, rendered shriek-less by the sheer inhumanity of it all. We're fans of the game and the league, right? Will those disappear because Beckham does?
Nope. Now, where's that bridge?
I just can't believe DC United cut Mamadou "Futty" Danso loose today.
ReplyDelete:(
The Beckham thing is a conundrum. He is a good player who did not make his team better. In that regard, I don't think Arena was planning to build his team around him and therefore won't be as stressed as Lalas would have been to integrate him mid-season. What he'll get is a good right foot who can feed his forwards and take free kicks. Klein will fill in on the right and Lewis will take the free kicks until then.
ReplyDeleteWhat Beckham will find when he returns is a better keeper fortified by a better back line with guys than can get up the wing. There will be a psycho in the middle of the field who will destabilize opposing teams with his tackles, fould and passes (Dema) and some decent forwards up front with Buddle, Gordon and Kirovski. He'll add to the team but will also have to fit in. It will be a nice way to finish out his stay.
Hey, Agent 009, shouldn't you nix the "Danso" to get "DC United cuts 'Futty' loose"?
ReplyDeleteEverybody cut,
Everybody cut!
Save your tomatoes, please!
@Anonymous. I don't know about "a nice way to finish out his stay." Arena is screwed. He's got some veterans in there, but his roster will be paper-thin because of the money tied up in Beckham. If he looses a couple of those guys to injury (likely given their age and respective histories), it's going to be a long, long year.
Also, I wonder if we'll see the same ecstatic smile on Becks' face when he's dishing to Kirovski, Buddle, and Dema rather than Kaka, Pato, and Pirlo?
You're right about the conundrum on the field, though I think the off-the-field stuff is (as it was always going to be with Beckham) the more important consideration.