Friday, August 15, 2008

Transfer Window Closed

For weeks now New England fans have questioned the teams depth, and wondered if any help would be coming via the summer transfer window. In the midst of the most challenging part of the schedule, it appeared pretty glaringly this week that the Revs needed some help heading dow the stretch. With a bad loss at home to Chicago, and an even more embarrassing exit from the Open Cup, the Revs showed a chink in their armor for the first time all season. Just a week after winning Superliga, fans were left wondering what the future held.

Early in the week we had reported that the Revs were in pursuit of Costa Rican defender Gabriel Badilla. Multiple reports out of Costa Rica, and even quotes from Badilla, had him coming to the Revs soon. However, today the transfer window shut, and no official news on the signing was announced. We will withhold judgment on this development until things are made more clear. However, it is still a bit disconcerting that no official word has been made.

There was also a rumor this week that we did not see very viable, so we did not report it. Benny Feilhaber was supposedly being pursued by the Revs, and he was interested in MLS. However, he has since signed with Danish club Aarhus.

Corey Gibbs was also rumored to perk the Revs interest. The 28 year old US international had decided to come back to MLS after numerous injuries had hampered his European career. Again, the player singed elsewhere. Colorado announced his signing a few days ago.

We also heard another long shot rumor of Eddie Lewis being signed by the Revs, but again it was only a baseless rumor.

The Revs did make one move however. Today the Revs traded the number one allocation position to Toronto for allocation cash. Toronto quickly used the position to snap up US U-20 player Johann Smith, who had been playing for Bolton in England. It is possible that this move was made because the club realized that it could not find any suitable upgrades with the allocation position. Being a couple hundred thousand dollars under the salary cap means that it is unlikely that they made the move just to afford Badilla under the cap. It is doubtful that he would earn more than the team had under the cap.

Again it seems that Nicol, Burns and Tornberg have made a move for the future. They have still not shown the willingness to panic, and make a signing for the sake of making a signing. It is quite possible that they are only waiting for the right situations to come along, before they use their allocations, be it cash or position. It is also possible that they made a run at Benny Feilhaber, and once they found out he could not be signed, they realized that their allocation position was not as valuable as cash.

While the Revs seemingly have not made any moves (aside from the potential signing of Badilla), does the team have enough for the rest of the season? If Badilla is truly coming in, then I think it addresses a serious need along the backline. Still, this is the deepest team in MLS, and the best team in MLS. It isn't time to panic...yet

Glory Glory Revolution!

No comments: