Three European Signings With Rapids Ties

Over the last week there have been three singings (or almost signings in the first case) with ties to the Rapids.

The big news is that the deal with Stav Lemkin has apparently fallen through.  After the report by Tom Bogert, backed up by the Post and Burgundy Wave, that the two sides were in negotiations all signs were pointing to a done deal.  Then this weekend FC Twente of the Eredivisie was linked to him and he was reportedly flying to the Netherlands to sign a deal.  Today Bogert is reporting that the deal was agreed on but Twente came in late with an offer and Lemkin is choosing to accept it. 

Twente is a top 5-6 team in the Netherlands and played in the Champions League last season and other European competitions the prior two years.  They didn't qualify for Europe next year but Lemkin has to expect they will be back in Europe soon.  Its hard to pass that opportunity up.  We have to hope that Smith and Taylor have a backup plan for that reported $1.6M they were going to use on the transfer fee, especially if Maxso leaves.

In other news my English team, Blackburn Rovers, made their first ever signing (that I know of) of a former Rapid.  And of all people its Sidnei Tavares.  After his 5 appearances here on loan in the fall of 2023 we waived him but were still on the hook for paying him until the end of the loan in the summer of 2024.  He spent last season at Portuguese side Moreirense.  Reportedly Rovers are paying 2 million for him, in either Pounds or Euros, depending on the source.  I'll will mention if he turns out to be any good in Lancashire.

Two Rovers have then plays for the Rapids, Roy Wegerle and Jermaine Jones, plus there's been some Rapids coaches who have spent time in Blackburn but this is the first time an ex-Rapid has made it to Rovers.

The final signing is a happier one for everyone I think.  Yesterday non-league side Brackley Town who were just promoted from the National League North to the National League announced the signing of Jack Price.  Great to see the ex-captain and fan favorite back on the pitch.  He'll play my Wealdstone FC in the National League, its a long-shot but I may have to travel to London for work, maybe I can arrange it for when Brackely are playing Wealdstone.

You Get A New Contract! Any You Get A New Contract! And You Get A New Contract!

A busy day in Commerce City as Padraig Smith was handing out contracts like he was Oprah.  4 existing Rapids got contract extensions and we welcomed new signing Bryan Acosta.  Starting with the extensions:

• Defender Keegan Rosenberry got an extension through the 2024 season, with a team option for 2025
• Midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye got an extension through 2025 with an team option for 2026
• Defender Danny Wilson got an extension through 2023 with team options for 2024 and 2025
• Midfielder and team captain Jack Price got an extension through 2023 with team options for 2024 and 2025

Those last two were originally announced, erroneously, as extensions through 2024 with options for the next two seasons.

These are all great moves for the club, locking up the core of the team for the next 4 seasons.  And with the option years there's flexibility at the end as well.  There was some scuttlebutt that Jack Price might want to go home, but that seems to have been more wishful thinking from some MLSSoccer.com commentators than anything real.

The addition of Bryan Acosta today was probably the big news.  He's on a two-year deal with a team option for 2024.  When he was signed with Dallas he was signed as a DP, but that was due to his transfer fee, so with Colorado he won't fill one of those slots.  His contract last year was for $650K, and the Rapids could have selected him in the first round of the Re-Entry Draft, which would have brought him here on his Dallas contract's option number.  The fact that we didn't do that suggests to me that we only wanted to sign him at a lower number, so he won't be a max salary player this year, though I'm sure he'll be a high earner.

Bryan Acosta is a 28 year old Honduran midfielder.  He's more attack-minded than Kellyn was, and he's particularly skilled at distribution and playing the ball into dangerous spaces.  He does have a very bad habit of taking shots from 35 yards out that end up 35 feet over the goal though.  He also doesn't have the defensive skills of Kellyn, which has me concerned that our midfield will lack the ability to stop players playing through it, resulting in a lot of pressure on our back line.

Acosta is a fairly regular player for the Honduran National Team.  We'll likely see him miss time in late March for the final round of World Cup qualifiers, but barring a miracle turn-around Honduras is not going to qualify (they are in last place, 11 points out of the playoff spot with 6 games left) so that's all the time he should really miss.  While Honduras may play some friendlies over the rest of 2022 I can see the Rapids being somewhat resistant to letting him go outside of any required windows.  This is different from Kaye (or Kellyn) in that there are good chances their teams qualify for Qatar and they'll be needed for warm-ups over the year.

A very busy day of business from Colorado today, and one that largely set the midfield for the next couple of years.  In a Q&A this afternoon Smith talked about the team actively pursuing a #9 signing in this window, so I think that's the last major piece before the season starts.

New Staff, Player Rumors, and Superdraft Week

I know I've been quiet this past week but in terms of actual news, not rumors, not much has happened.

Starting with the notable news, both Edgar Castillo and Jack Price were officially announced on Tuesday and Friday respectfully.  Castillo is here on a one year loan with an option to buy.  Price's length of contract was not announced but multiple sources in the UK have reported its a 4 year deal.

That leaves us with 23 of 30 roster spots filled and all 7 international slots used.

Padraig Smith and Wayne Brant had their interim tags removed this week.  Smith is now the Gm and executive VP and will oversee all soccer-related activities while Brant is the senior Vp of business operations and will oversee all business and other non-soccer related activities.

There were two new Front Office additions this week.  Fran Taylor was named assistant GM, coming over from stat DNA and shows additional commitment to the stats/numbers based approach to the game that the Front Office has talked about since Smith arrived.  Chad Kolarcik joins the Rapids as the head of sports science & performance, coming over from the Sounders where he was the head strength & conditioning coach.  He'll be expected to revamp the conditioning aspects of the team with the newest findings.  There was a murmur of discontent from the Front Office last season about how the team's health and conditioning were handled and this seems to indicate that the new leadership has different ideas about how it should be handled.

We also had a couple of big player rumors this week, neither one appears to have panned out.  I had heard that Colorado had been perusing Mexican center back Oswaldo Alanis who's currently at Chivas but it appears he's going to wait for the summer window and try to move to Europe.  It sounds like he'd consider Colorado then if Europe doesn't work out.  It was also reported that the Rapids had taken the lead in acquiring Ola Kamara but yesterday the reports were that he's looking for something more coastal with more opportunity and the Rapids are moving on.  That's toom bad as Kamara is exactly the type of player we need.  The last rumor is that we're interested in New England's Lee Nguyen which has potential but it would be a move away from the 3-5-2 we have apparently been planning for this offseason as the planned formation doesn't really have a spot for a #10 like Nguyen.

Finally the combine has started in Orlando in preparation for the SuperDraft on Friday and Sunday.  Rounds 1 and 2 are Friday in Philly at the national coaches convention, 3 and 4 are by teleconference on Sunday.  Colorado traded their first round pick to Montreal two years ago for Eric Miller.  We hold two picks in the 2nd round, the 2nd pick from LA in the Jermaine Jones trade and our natural pick, the 4th of the round.  We have our natural (4th) picks in rounds 3 and 4 and we also have the 3rd pick in the 4th Round as part of the Marcelo Sarvas trade to DC.

While I wouldn't be shocked to see us move around in the draft I'm not expecting any major moves.  We don't hold any high enough picks to trade for quality players and I don't think the current leadership is interested enough in the draft to try to move up to make a major pick.  I expect we'll end up picking one player that will make the roster out of preseason and a young GK that will spend the season on loan somewhere.

So far the Front Office has talked the talk but not walked the walk this offseason as once again Rapids fans are wondering where the major attacking signings are.  Training camp opens a week from tomorrow, so about 190 hours from now.  The Front Office has talked multiple times about having all the key pieces in places by then so the team can hit the ground running.  There's a lot of work to be done in that time as this team needs a major DP/TAM striker signing, another center back, and probably a second starting-quality striker signing to push Badji and to allow for rotation.  Now's when the rubber meets the road.

New Players...Almost Official, A Callup, and a Negotiating Tactic?

Bunch of news today.  We'll begin with the big stuff.  At 4pm today fans were invited to RiNo for a chance to meet Jack Price and Edgar Castillo.  There has yet to be an official announcement of the details of their signings but clearly they've joined the team.  The Denver Post article confirms what most fans had inferred from Hudson's interviews, we'll be playing a 3-5-2/5-2-3 this season with 3 CBs and Hairston and Castillo as wingbacks.

It also talks about how Hudson sees Price anchoring the midfield in this formation.  I don't  know if this is just talking up the new signings or if the plan is really for Price to be a starter.  The midfield is a bit crowded at this point with Aigner, Azira, Blomberg, Boateng, Gashi, and Price for 3 spots so it will be interesting to see if anyone is heading out and who wins the starting spots.

With these moves we are at 23 of 30 roster spots filled and all 7 international spots filled.  In order to bring in any more international spots there will need to be some moves to free up an international slot.  The obvious choices are sending Wynne to Charlotte for the season and Badji getting a green card.  After that its either trading for a spot or moving somebody out.  Either way, the next couple of weeks could be interesting.

In other news today Marlon Hairston got a callup to the U.S. National Team camp in LA later this month.  Its his first ever invite to the Nats.  The roster for the Bosnia & Herzegovina friendly on the 28th will be taken from the camp.

Finally, following up on Saturday's rumor of Tommy Smith being linked to the Rapids, this appears to be a rumor started by Smith or his agent, if this BBC article is anything to go by.  His current manager says Ipswich Town has received no contact from the Rapids about Smith.  If nothing comes of this it won't be the first time that a European player has used the threat of moving to MLS as a negotiating tactic.

Player Rumors Are Swirling

We've had 2 new player rumors break today and confirmation of an existing one as well.

First we'll start with the two-fer from Steven Goff.  Wolves center mid Jack Price is discussing terms with the Rapids and Castillo is a done deal.  I've heard the same on both fronts.  Price is a 25 year old midfielder who's played his whole career with Wolves, coming through their academy (he has gone on loan to a couple of clubs).  He's under contract until the end of the Championship season with a team option for next year but there's new leadership at Wolves so they may not see a future for him there.  TransferMarkt.com estimate his value at about $875,000.

This would be a surprise add to me, as it feels like our midfield is a bit full already, especially with internationals.  Aigner, Azira, Blomberg, Boateng, and Gashi are already on the roster, adding Price would make 6 international midfielders for a 3-5-2.  It sounds like its going to happen though. so it will be interesting to see if that means we make another move with an existing player.  Certainly we'll likely need to find another international spot as we only have one open (which Price would take) and I expect another international signing at striker.

Castillo being added is expected at this point, though I still don't love that its on loan.

The other rumor today has us linked to Ipswich defender Tommy Smith.  This is the first I've heard of this rumor.  Smith is a New Zealand international and we do need a 3rd CB so it makes some sense that Hudson would be interested.  Still this kind of feels like somebody making a leap that since the former NZ coach needs a CB that we'd be interested in him.  Smith is 27 years old and has spent his whole career (minus a couple of loans) at Ipswich.  Transfermarkt values him at $2 million which seems a lot for the Rapids to spend on a defender.

I will say, I'm enjoying the Rapids being in the mix for some notable (if not "big") signings.  Its a nice change.