Colorado made two roster moves today, one officially and one reportedly. The bigger of the two (and the official one) is bringing winger Sam Nicholson back for a second stint in Commerce City. Nicholson originally joined the Rapids in a trade from Minnesota in 2018 in exchange for Eric Miller. He stayed with the club up until the COVID shutdown in 2020. I had heard rumors Sam didn't want to leave Colorado but had to for personal reasons, and the club wanted to bring him back after his contract with Bristol Rovers was up. Those rumors turned out to be correct today.
We signed him for 2.5 years (through 2024) with a club option for 2025. He was a regular starter for Fraser in 2019 and the first couple of games of 2020 before the COVID shutdown, so he should have no problem fitting back into the style of the club. At 27 now the added experience should help push the likes of Lewis and Barrios to step their game up or see their minutes lost to Sam. Nicholson isn't the difference between winning MLs Cup and falling short, but he's a solid signing that should help the team.
The other reported move today (by Yahoo Sports) is that the Rapids have extended Lucas Esteves' loan from Palmeiras for another $200K, with the same clause to buy him for $1M. And that $1M is only for 50% of his rights, it sounds like Palmeiras wants to keep 50% of any sell-on, so they are essentially valuing him at $2M. This is the right move as Esteves has shown glimpses of being a strong left back (or maybe left winger) in MLS, but not enough to justify dropping $1M on him.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment