WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Sorry for the late start, it is a holiday here and I am starting to get settled in on the day. Anyways, as I’m sure most of you have read by now Chicago Fire defender Wilman Conde wants out of the Windy City to join up once again with his favorite Columbian coach Juan Carlos Osorio in New York.

 ”As you may recall, it was through Juan Carlos Osorio that I came to MLS, and  the Chicago Fire particularly,” Conde said. “That is why I want you to know that I wish to continue to work with him and rejoin him with his new team, the New York Red Bulls.

Thing is, are the Fire ready to just trade him to meet his demands? I think the honest answer here is no. They’ve had a couple months to do something with him knowing the fact that he would more than likely want to go where ever Osorio would go, that meaning he would want to be in New York.

The Fire are already expecting him to live up to his contract that he signed with the club last year:

“We are aware of Wilman’s interest to play in New York,” Fire GM John Guppy said. “However, Wilman is under contract with the Chicago Fire and we do expect him to perform all of his obligations in a professional manner. As always, the interests of the Chicago Fire are paramount in all player decisions.”

So if you are New York, do you trade for a guy that would more than likely boost your defense up or hope that the Fire come to you first with a deal on the table? A deal that probably won’t come from Chicago if you ask me.

I cannot see the Fire going in at this first mainly due to the fact that Conde was their best defender last season and the fact that they are already low in quality defenders themselves. New York does have a couple guys that I am sure they would be willing to trade that would be equal in price. Midfielder Dema Kovalenko and Seth Stammler and defenders Kevin Goldthwaite, Jeff Parke and Carlos Mendes could all be part of a trade.

What do Fire fans want? Probably nothing less than Juan Pablo Angel at this point but that won’t happen. Maybe a third team needs to stick their heads in this to help work out a deal here.

A deal would have to be rather large. The Fire paid a $300,000 transfer fee for Conde and the 10 regular season and playoff games he played last season aren’t even close to providing a complete return on that investment. New York would have to come up with a number of players and allocation to fit that price tag.

I think maybe Kovalenko or Stammler plus a draft pick and lots of allocation would be all New York is willing to do here.

What will most likely happen is Conde sits out and waits even though I don’t see him as the guy to do such a thing. He wants out but the question is how badly does he really want out? Bad enough to sit out? Or bad enough to wait until the start of the season and then tough it out with the Fire?

Plus what third team could help New York and Chicago out to make a deal happen? That’s more of a fun question to pose at this point but you never know with the Toronto’s out there in the MLS. Maybe a club like Houston who could send a defender to Chicago, land a striker that they need in return could help out here. Just food for thought.

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