No Eddie Johnson In Commerce City

Yesterday Montreal used its #1 spot in the allocation order to take Eddie Johnson with the idea of trading him.  Colorado was the expected destination but at the last minute Seattle swooped in, trading Mike Fucito and Lamar Neagle for him.

At that price I'm fine with not getting Eddie Johnson.  This would be the rough equivalent of the Rapids trading Qunicy Amarikwa and Sanna Nyassi for him (if Nyassi hadn't gone to Montreal in the expansion draft).  That price is too high for a guy with as many question marks as Johnson has right now.  not to mention that playing Johnson would force somebody like Mullan or Castrillon off the field or move Pablo to the back line and put Wynne or Moor on the bench.

Also last night Wells Thompson tweeted that some guys that had been training with the team for a while had been cut yesterday.  He also tweeted that it wasn't anyone who was with the team last year.  The timing makes sense as the team probably announced the roster for the Hawaii trip since they leave tomorrow.  Given the clues of being new this year but training with the team for a while its probably some combination of Joel Helmick, Luis Zapata, Issac Cowles, Aaron Pitchkolan, and Jefferson Angulo since all the other trialists just joined the team this week.

Late Night Updates

Two pieces of info that have come up since my post earlier this evening.

• Tim Hinchey responded to a question on Facebook about the details of Rivero's loan to say that its a two year loan with an option to buy.  So my scenario wasn't 100% correct but I wasn't that far off.  Rivero will be owned by the Rapids should he work out.
• Steven Goff reported that Eddie Johnson's contract is for more than 100K with a team held option for 150K in 2013.  At that level I wouldn't want to see the Rapids give up much to move up and get him.

Rivero Finally Signed To A Loan Deal

Well it took a while and I think the deal changed (possibly more than once) but Martin Rivero, a 22 year old Argentine midfielder, has finally been signed by the Rapids.  As usual terms of the deal were not announced but it is a loan, not a signing.  He's expected to travel with the team to Hawai'i on Sunday.

Putting together what's been discovered this week along with some information I got from somebody int he Rapids FO I have some guesses as to what happened and what will happen.  None of this is verified, this is all conjecture by me.  Originally this deal seemed like an out-and-out signing but now its a loan.  Reportedly Rivero had 4 months left on his contract with Rosario Central but he was out of contract because Rosario Central wasn't current on his salary so he was considered to be a free transfer.  Almost all loans into MLS include a option to buy and the coaching staff expects Rivero to be around for multiple seasons.  Earlier this week there was a tweet about Penerol in Uruguay being involved in buying the player and Rosario Central had made good on Rivero's contract.  Also I found out today there was a third party in Uruguay that owned part of Rivero's rights.

(If you're unfamiliar with the procedure of third-party ownership its a process that's common in some areas of the world like South America.  Teams that don't have a lot of funds will find a separate investor to help them buy a player with the understanding that they get an appropriate part of any transfer fee that team gets for that player in the future.  Sometimes these third-party investors aren't quite the silent partner they're intended to be.)

What I think happened is that Rivero decided his team wasn't paying him so he was free to sign with the Rapids and did.  When Rosario Central realized they were going to lose a young player for nothing they quickly paid him and then used their weight and the weight of the third-party owner (which I'm guessing is Penerol in Uruguay) to tell the Rapids Rivero was no longer available.  Colorado had the FIFA regulations on their side but knew that a protracted fight and getting FIFA involved wasn't going to help the team or the player.  So the compromise is that the Rapids will take him "on loan" for the remaining 4 months of his contract and Rosario Central will get some face-saving amount of cash from the loan deal or the option to buy.  Then when his contract expires in May he can sign with the Rapids.  We won't know for sure, if ever, until there's an announcement about the change in his status but this scenario seems to fit all the rumors and such that were floating around this week.

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On a completely unrelated subject, Eddie Johnson was signed by the league today and will go through the allocation process tomorrow.  I was told by somebody int he Front Office that the Rapids, 14th in allocation order, will probably contact Montreal, who's first, about trading for that top spot so they can claim him.  He was supposedly signed for a modest fee with a number of performance clauses and an option for a big raise next season.  We'll have to see what, if anything, the Rapids give up to move up and take him and how much the "modest salary" is but I'm really not liking the idea of Colorado signing Johnson for anything more than 100K and a draft pick.

Here's the updated camp roster.  Today I'm adding an * next to signed players that require one of our 7 international spots or trialists I think would require one.  As you can see we now have 5 international players under contract.

underline = unsigned trialist

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Joel Helmick (draftee)

Alanso 'Popeye' Jimenez*
Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio
George Breslen-Hall*

Hunter Freeman

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne
Luis Eduardo Zapata*

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Tony Cascio

Jaime Castrillon*
Issac Cowles
Steven Emory
Masaki Hemmi*

Josh Janniere*

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane
Aaron Pitchkolan
Martin Rivero*
Andres 'Michi' Sarmiento*

Jamie Smith*

Wells Thompson

Kohei Yamada*

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Jefferson Angulo*

Conor Casey
Sterling Copland

Omar Cummings
Daniel Frias*

Eddie Johnson Not Likely

Essentially at the same time of my last post Steven Goff tweeted that it appears unlikely that the Rapids will be signing Eddie Johnson.  Good.

Rumors And Trialists, Part 2

While there's still no news out of Commerce City, there's a couple of rumors going around Twitter:

• A journalist with unknown accuracy tweeted that he talked to Rosario Central's manager and confirmed that Martin Rivero is being transferred to Penarol in Uruguay.
• Steven Goff, a journalist with a track record of pretty good accuracy, tweeted that he's hearing the Rapids are in talks with former U.S. National Team striker Eddie Johnson.

Both of these tweets are BAD NEWS.  First the Rivero situation.  If its accurate then the Rapids have completely fumbled this signing and have massive egg on their face.  I'll save a full critique until we get official word one way or the other but the silence from the team at this point is doing more harm than good.

On Eddie Johnson run far, far away.  There's nothing but disaster in this idea.  Last summer he agreed to a contract with MLS, supposedly to join the Sounders for $200K a year, only to walk away at the last minute.  Then he signed a contract with Puebla in Mexico in December only to be cut after two weeks for being out of shape and lacking sharpness.  Unless Colorado can get Eddie Johnson to come in on trial like the rest of the trialists or he'll agree to a contract under Cummings $90K there's no way we should sign a guy who's likely to be worse than Caleb Folan.

What actual news we do have out of the Rapids is that there are a ton of trialists cycling in and out of camp.  Added since they returned from California are:

• Midfielder Aaron Pitchkolan (rejoining after missing CA trip)
• Midfielder Issac Cowles  (rejoining after missing CA trip)
• Forward Sterling Copland (played in a few reserve games with the team last year)
• Midfielder Masaki Hemmi (Japanese player currently at School Of Mines, also trained last year)
• Forward Daniel Frias (Indios de Cuidad Juarez - Mexico)
• Goalkeeper Alanso 'Popeye' Jimenez  (Indios de Cuidad Juarez - Mexico)
• Midfielder Andres 'Michi' Sarmiento (Atletico Bucaramanga - Colombia)
• Defender George Breslen-Hall (Arsenal Youth - England)

Also Academy players Dillon Serna and Shane O'Neill along with trialists Luis Zapato and Jefferson Angulo are still working with the team.  Forward trialist Sam Archer has been released.

The updated camp roster:

underline = unsigned trialist

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Joel Helmick (draftee)

Alanso 'Popeye' Jimenez
Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio
George Breslen-Hall

Hunter Freeman

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne
Luis Eduardo Zapata

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Tony Cascio

Jaime Castrillon
Issac Cowles
Steven Emory
Masaki Hemmi

Josh Janniere

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane
Aaron Pitchkolan
Andres 'Michi' Sarmiento

Jamie Smith

Wells Thompson

Kohei Yamada

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Jefferson Angulo

Conor Casey
Sterling Copland

Omar Cummings
Daniel Frias