Colorado Cuts Ties With Caleb Folan

There's been murmurs all week that Folan was looking for a a new club in Europe.  Today the Rapids made it official, releasing him from his contract.  Anyone who read this blog last year knows I was no fan of Folan, mainly due to the lack of effort he displayed on the field.  This move frees up around 200K of salary cap space, possibly to go after that rumored Argentine midfielder.  With Casey still recovering from injury I'm not sure who's going to start with Cummings up top but we'll see if there's another move coming.

Trialist Draymond Washington was also released.

The updated camp roster:

underline = unsigned trialist

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Joel Helmick (draftee)

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio

Issac Cowles - out injured

Hunter Freeman

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne
Luis Eduardo Zapata

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Tony Cascio

Jaime Castrillon
Steven Emory

Josh Janniere

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane
Aaron Pitchkolan

Jamie Smith

Wells Thompson

Kohei Yamada

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Sam Archer

Conor Casey

Omar Cummings

Macoumba Kandji

Folan (Finally) Signed

The Rapids have finally announced the long-rumored Caleb Folan signing. Folan arrived in Colorado yesterday and trained with the team today. He will be available for selection against Portland on Saturday. Contract terms were not announced but we'll get to see the salary once the MLS Player's Union releases the salary list later this month or early next month.

Folan will be the first option off the bench for Casey or Cummings once he gets up to speed. He'll likely start the U.S. Open Cup qualifier and may get starts in Champion's League play.

I'll try to post an updated roster later tonight.

News and Notes

Sorry for the false alarm on the game stream last night. Turns out it was only available in the Seattle area. The Rapids lost 3-1, but the Rapids didn't give up a goal until 3rd string keeper Steward Ceus was subbed in, and the last two came after Gary Smith made wholesale changes to the lineup.

Meanwhile there's news on a couple of players. First it looks like the Caleb Folan deal is all but official. Hull City has agreed to release him for free and Folan has agreed to a deal on both ends. It will probably still be a few days or so until an official announcement as all the paperwork gets processed (lengthy when its an international transfer).

Colorado is also looking at Martin John, a 22 year-old left back currently on loan from Cardiff City to Newport County in the Championship. John crew up in Canada and attended the University of Buffalo, but was born in London. His only professional experience is 7 games in his current loan spell with Newport, so this would be competition for Anthony Wallace. If the Rapids make a deal he wouldn't be able to move until the summer transfer window.

Folan Signing Imminent?

The BBC is reporting that the transfer of Caleb Folan from Hull City to the Rapids could be completed this weekend. Hull City has agreed to let him go on a free transfer and all that's left is to work out the details of the contract.

At the same time Nick Thomas has reported that the Rapids are working on a new contract with Omar Cummings. That's an indicator that he's likely not leaving this summer unless a big offer comes in.

Combining those two pieces of news i'm guessing Folan is not being offered a DP contract. Casey and Cummings are clearly the starters, and Smith was quoted last week that he doesn't expect to move to a 4-3-3 or to push Cummings back to midfield in order to start all 3 of them. So Folan would be a bench player and you don't sign a bench player to a DP contract.

At best he'll be offered league max of 335K a year, but that's even high for somebody likely to be a bench player. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Trialist Update

Some news today out of Rapids camp about a number of trialists. The big news is that Irish striker Caleb Folan will be trialling with the team on the Arizona trip. Folan is currently with Championship side Hull City, but with their current financial difficulties they are looking to off-load salary and would be willing to let Folan out of his contract. Folan has only played twice this season due to injury, after having missed significant time twice in the last 5 years due to torn hamstrings. Obviously the medical staff will have a large say in the decision to sign him or not. Folan has been capped 7 times by the Ireland National Team and if he can return to health is likely to feature in the teams Euro 2012 qualifiers.

Also accompanying the team to Arizona are Trinidadian Joevin Jones, who has been in Colorado since the beginning of camp. The article did not mention his teammate Shahdon Winchester and combined with bringing in a different striker on trial is probably a good indicator that Winchester didn't make the cut. The Rapids have looked to the Caribbean for another trialist though, defender Logan Emory. Emory is originally from Boise, ID and is currently playing for the Puerto Rico Islanders in USSF D-II. Jones and Emory will compete with Anthony Wallace for the left-back spot.

The final trialist joining the team in Arizona will be former Metro State midfielder Steven Emory, who was found during the open tryouts prior to the camp and is not, from anything I can find, related to Logan Emory.