Seeing as the MLS is in the off-season, would it be worth trying to bring in Robbie Keane or Clint Dempsey on loan?
Get Robbie Keane in, even for a month he could win us the two games against Villa and QPR next month, and 6 points from them two games are definitely needed!
Most of these lads playing in America are on hyper inflated wages aren't they? Even by Premier League standards. I think that makes these deals difficult. Always thought Robbie Keane was a cracking striker though.
Robbie Keane $4,500,000 is $86,538.46 per week, which then equates to £57,070.05 per week, which is reasonable, surely? Ben Arfa was on 60k a week ffs.
That is less than I expected, but I don't think it can be classed as 'value'. Let's just chuck £60k at every **** shall we?
I think you may of misinterpreted my post, what I meant was if we threw £60k a week at Ben Arfa, then surely we can afford to pay like 70% of Keane's wage for just 5/6 weeks until the MLS season starts in March? He is a proven goal scorer and could score 3/4 goals for us in his time here, he scored 3 goals in 5 games for Aston Villa a few seasons back, why can't he do the same for us?
If he's playing and training then surely missing the camps is not an issue. It's worth a try imo, even if it doesn't come to fruition.
He isn't an option as he has said before he is done with off season loans. We could try someone else, Dempsey I guess but the reality is that the MLS pays these guys to be at training camps so they start the season in tune with their teammates. MLS clubs are not in debt, they do not need to loan people out so there is no benefit to them leaving which is why almost no one has been sent out on loans. Most MLS clubs have partnerships with USL clubs and they are used as minor league clubs so most MLS players are right now playing/training with another club normally located right next to their normal club so there is no reason to send anyone to England as they are already in preparations for the new season. If we want to loan players and have a place to send players on loan then we should sign a partnership with an MLS club. They would be willing to do that and then these types of ideas would be easy to accomplish in the future.
I like your idea about joining up with an MLS club big time. I hear what you're saying, but if it costs very little to make an enquiry, we are better off asking the question than not surely? If you don't ask, you don't get
The partnership thing is done a lot here and it really is something we should do. If we had a partnership with Seattle for instance we could have signed Yedlin instead of Spurs and possibly had Dempsey on loan. If seattle wasnt willing bc they wanted to hold off for another PL club there would still be plent of clubs that would take us up on it. I know the MLS club down the road would do it in a heartbeat as partnerships with foreign clubs is part of their plan going into the future that they talk about all the time.
Its definitely true. There would have to be quid pro quo on it though as they are going to want players as well. Its the MLS so we would probably have to send over younger players once in a while(Townsend, Rossi, Clark etc) or people we no longer want (Sagbo) or players who we are trying to sell. I dont think it would be to hard to convince people to go out on loan or be sold to San Jose for instance (see image below) considering its just down the street from some of the best surfing in the US, not to mention wine country and San Francisco. please log in to view this image
We have surfing too, kid i worked with used to go surfing at Easington 20 miles or so from Hull. Always had a picture of him in my mind, wet suit on, knee deep in mud, freezing cold, waiting all day for the big wave that never came.
So long as we dont partner with Real Salt Lake. Can you imagine how many of our players would go out into the salt flats for a photo op and never come back? please log in to view this image
