24 Jun, 2008
Third Club To Be Included In McBride Deal?
Posted by: WVHooligan In: Chicago Fire| Houston Dynamo| MLS| News and Rumors| Toronto FC
One thing we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks in the Brian McBride sweepstakes is that Toronto FC (the MLS holders to McBrides allocation rights) are not messing around in getting someone or something that they want in a trade deal for the American striker.
And why shouldn’t they budge? There’s no rule saying you have to be Mr. Nice Guy to make a deal in this league or to allow someone to return to the league and play where he wants to play.
Chicago wants McBride, McBride wants Chicago. Toronto wants Justin Mapp or Wilman Conde, Chicago wants a designated player slot.
Needless to say, neither side is seeing eye to eye on this deal. The longer it goes on the worse it could get for the Fire. Remember, Toronto could also end up with someone else if a player that the league deems allocation worthy comes along in the coming weeks and wants to sign with the league. Let’s hope that isn’t the case because that would throw a lot of things out the window. More or less you would see every club “pass” on McBride so Chicago could sign him. Even then they would still have to dump some salary and trade some parts away.
So for time sake and argument sake, we will go into another direction with this deal. A third trade partner in the deal. Ultimately I see another club joining in on this fun and helping both sides out in getting this deal finalized.
What club? Gareth Wheeler at the Toronto Sun believes it should be the Houston Dynamo. Why the two-time champs? Easy, they have a certain Canadian midfielder that the Reds would die to have. A certain Toronto native that would probably enjoy coming home to play for his local side.
Yes, I am talking about Dwayne De Rosario. Wheeler thinks Toronto needs Houston to enter the deal so they can get DeRo, Chicago can get McBride and Houston can get whatever. The article mentions that Houston has indeed fallen out of championship form this season and has started to look rather old. I agree partly to that but I can see where Wheeler is trying to figure out any way he can to get DeRo to Toronto.
Toronto would trade away a couple young players, Chicago would probably deal a young player as well to Houston, and I am assuming Houston sends a DP slot to the Windy City. Just assuming, Wheeler doesn’t exactly say one thing or another about that issue. Chicago needs it and wants it, so I am guessing Houston will be dealing it.
I like this deal for a couple of reasons. Sure it doesn’t exactly answer the striker issues for either Toronto or Houston but it puts some solid youth (potentially) in Houston’s favor for Dominic Kinnear to develop. It sends a local star home to Toronto, which will help their offense and make them more entertaining.
The thing I wonder is with Toronto; their midfield is already slightly loaded and I wonder exactly where DeRo would fit along side Amado Guevara, Rohan Ricketts, Laurent Robert and Maurice Edu. I doubt one of those four would be traded in any deal.
Still, whatever does happen, a third party entering into this McBride deal makes perfect sense. You have two clubs that are playing well with one another and aren’t seeing things on the same page. Bring in another trade partner and even things out. If Houston is that club like Wheeler thinks, this could be a blockbuster type of deal we could see in the coming weeks.
No real word, other than Wheeler’s speculation on if Houston is indeed looking to enter this deal. Or even if they’d be willing to part with their best player, which I highly doubt unless a great deal came along. I know Houston fans will scream a loud NO to this deal but could end up being what’s best for the club in the long run. Who knows.
Toronto still owns the cards here. Its just a matter of what they really want to do with them here is the question. Everyone right now is saying Chicago just needs to bite the bullet and get the deal done but I think they both need some help here to smooth things out.
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