Heard through the grapevine that Matt Besler has a trial offer with Queens Park Rangers in the EPL. Hope @sportingkc can keep him...but...
— Nate Bukaty (@nate_bukaty) December 3, 2012
Heard Birmigham City and a club out of Belgium have made trial offers to Besler as well, but I have to think QPR is the attractive chance.
— Nate Bukaty (@nate_bukaty) December 3, 2012
One team in the EPL, one in the Championship, and a team in Belgium have apparently offered trials to the MLS Defender of the Year. Queens Park Rangers while currently an EPL team are sitting at the foot of the table on 6 points, without a win and currently 7 points clear of safety. They recently hired Harry Redknapp to replace Mark Hughes. Birmingham City, the Championship level side is also struggling, but are better off than QPR. Birmingham is 19th of 24 teams in the English second division, on 24 points, sitting 9 points clear of the relegation zone. The Blues are also the home to US international Jonathan Spector. Both English teams would be quite hard for Besler to get signed by. The reason for that is the work permit process in England. Since Besler has no caps for the US team and has only been in one camp, Besler doesn't qualify for a work permit immediately and would instead need to go through the appeals process, similar to what Geoff Cameron went through to earn his work permit to go to Stoke. Going to Belgium would probably be easier to get into for Besler as getting a work permit there is not as hard as in England.
Of course the other option is that Besler re-signs with Sporting. And that's the word tonight from Greg Seltzer on his No Short Corners blog. Stating that despite interest in England and Belgium he's close to returning. This was one thing that absolutely had to get done for KC this offseason and the sooner the better. With Roger Espinoza already set to leave, the loss of Besler as well would have been a crippling blow for KC heading into the 2013 season. Fans have already been a little restless today with the Michael Harrington trade and Korede Aiyegbusi being released meant 6 players had left KC already this season, all defensively, and that's not counting Espinoza. But getting Besler re-signed would at least be a good positive step in the right direction for some of these fans (who I think are over reacting quite a bit) who are worried.
Thats exactly what I tweeted to you on Twitter. Most of these over reactive fans are jump on fans. They are used to the other teams in KC trading and getting nothing for there talent or trading perfectly good talent that blossoms. If there is one thing that Peter Vermes can do and that is develope talent. Why did they get allocation money for Harrington and drop J.Cesar. Well that was to they can sign Besler to a long term contract. I do think it sucks to lose are "utility player", Michael Harrington, but $125,000 riding the bench is not of any use.
ReplyDeleteHilarious.
ReplyDeleteI'd be worried if Vermes had kept Cesar, Harrington, Aiyegbusi, etc... and signed Espinoza to a DP deal.
I don't see Besler leaving KC for these teams. He's too close to breaking into the USMNT to go into a sketchy situation.
It's pathetic to be worried before the team even has the chance to bring in foreign players.
I'll be worried if Vermes doesn't pick up a proven goal scorer by next year.
It could be worrying the club is losing quite a few players already (though the likes of Aiyegbusi never played much first team football) and the team didn't have a great deal of depth last year. Keep in mind they'll be playing Champions League, so there will be a lot of congestion.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely need a another quality striker. At least someone to pick up the slack when Sapong isn't finishing or with Bunbury hurt or what have you.
In regards to Besler, it would be stupid of him to sign with a relegation struggling team in Jan. It's a no win situation. Ream did that with Bolton last season and was very poor for the most part as Bolton got relegated. But more money is more money.
From what I know of Belgium, professional athletes, like here in England, are taxed quite high. Much higher than in the US. So, that could be one reason he doesn't go there. The other being he is comfortable in KC.
It has been an interesting off-season already.
In all fairness, I'm not so sure I would blanket label that many fans as overreacting.
ReplyDeleteI expected Espinoza to head to Wigan or somewhere in Europe if a proper offer was available. I'm also not surprised with the players we've let go (either to free up money in areas we have depth or where players are making a lot and riding the bench). However, we don't tend to be very brash and ballsy when it comes to player transfers.
I think Espinoza leaving for free (though, we retain first right if he comes back, right?) and a preceived lack of aggression to bolster our offense or add defensive depth in the past just leaves people nervous. That's just an opinion based off of the responses I've seen from others, so I could be off.
To be fair, I like the fact that we aren't trigger happy about trying to sign someone a relatively big name. It seems a few bigger names came to the league this year, but didn't really make the impact they were expected to.
Seriously though, am I wrong in thinking it was an odd case that Espinoza left for free essentially?