Defender and Young DP, Not One and the Same

Recently in an interview with Thad from The Back Post, Robb Heineman said that the team was zeroing in on their first offseason signing of the season and according to Robb it wouldn't be surprising what area that was on the field. The assumption at the time was that KC was close to getting a defender, as that was an area that many people, including Heineman said that the Wizards needed to improve in. In fact in the same interview Heineman said the team needed to reduce the number of gift goals they give up. Last season each of KC's center backs seemed to have a high profile error that caused at least one goal. Most had more than one.

Then earlier this week, Andy over at The Daily Wiz posted his very well researched idea on who it was the Wizards were signing. That name is French defender, Aurelien Collin, who is currently playing in the Portuguese first division with Vitoria Setubal. Collin fits in with some of the comments that have been made about the signing, including being French and is currently playing in a location where Peter Vermes and the coaching staff traveled, which fits in with Heineman's comments from the interview with Thad. Collin certainly seems to be a very likely potential target, especially since he's been up on the transfer market recently as well.

Finally there is the comment by Heineman on Bigsoccer where he mentioned that the team is after a young designated player based on the players skill not their name. This comment along with the above has led some people to believe that these rumors are about one and the same player. Personally this doesn't make sense. If Collin is in fact the signing, he doesn't seem like a designated player based on skill alone. He hasn't exactly lite up the field anywhere he's played, according to his wikipedia page, he has played a grand total of 38 league games since he turned pro. Not exactly the amount of time you'd expect from a DP. The other thing is the order of the process, it's unlikely that in his interview with Thad, Heineman would have said that they were close to signing a player, then go on to Bigsoccer and say the team was pursing a young DP. That time line does not make sense. He's certainly possible, but based on what I've found out about Collin it seems unlikely that he's going to be the young designated player the team is pursing.