Rapids Want To Make Name Signing Next Week

There was an interesting article on the Denver Post's Rapids blog today.  Apparently the Rapids are still looking to make a big signing up front and have set a deadline of Feb. 1st (a week from Sunday) to do it.  Quoting from the article:

Colorado is itching to pull the trigger on the largest contract in club history for a big-time scorer, and ownership has approved the money to land him. But the clock is ticking. The Rapids have a self-imposed deadline of Feb. 1.

"We're looking at established names that have star power. We're also looking at goal scorers in Europe that maybe don't have the same name recognition but will also be a major investment to help," Hinchey said. "To be fair, I'd probably rather get the goal-scorer that's going to help us win and go get trophies."

The examples given by Kiszla in the article include Fulham's Hugo Rodallega (who's name has been floating around this offseason) and Guadalajara's Marco Fabian.  The article then goes on to say they're aiming higher than those names though.  It also mentions that the "swung and missed" on Cubo Torres, who ended up in Houston.  i find this interesting because it was wildly reported at the time Torres signed with Houston that he was made available to the whole league and only Houston was willing to meet his demands.  For example, from ESPN:

Torres, 21, starred for Chivas USA last season while on loan from the now-defunct MLS team's Mexican parent club, Chivas Guadalajara. After that loan expired this month, MLS signed Torres to a permanent deal and offered his contract to all 20 clubs.

The Dynamo were the only team to accept the terms of the Torres' contract, which includes a six-month loan back to Chivas Guadalajara for the upcoming Liga MX Clausura season.

So maybe we didn't take a real swing at him and didn't want to take his contract on, or maybe MLS really wanted him to be in Houston (4th largest Hispanic market with only the Galaxy, NYCFC, and RBNY being in larger markets) over Denver (17th largest Hispanic market), or maybe its a combination of the two.  Whatever it was I have a hard time believing we ever had a real shot at Cubo Torres.  The Rapids have a long history of dropping names that they "almost" signed in an offseason (the most infamous was the multiple offseasons we "almost" signed Jared Borghetti) and this feels like another edition of that story.

I'm hoping the Rapids have an actual target they're in final negotiations with and they've managed to keep it tightly under wraps, because the only real rumors we've heard so far this offseason are the two Argentinian players and they don't meet the standards of "big-time scorer".  By self-imposing a deadline and announcing it they've set themselves up to disappoint the fan base (again).  I would think they wouldn't let this information out unless they were very sure they've got a deal done, but we've seen stranger things.  Remember all the hassle when we thought we had both Martin Rivero and Gabriel Torres signed, only to not have the deals done?