What position is required to be strengthened?  Who is available for transfer?

 

I think we need a creative midfielder - Can't think of any players that are available though.  I would have also liked the strikeforce added to - bit disappointed that we never went for John Sutton.  I have heard a rumour that we were interested in Scott Murray from Bristol City but he got injured.  Also heard a hilarious rumour from celtic fans that we were going to take Balde on a years loan!!!!

OK so why did Toronto FC hold Benfica to a scoreless draw? and the Beckhamless (also pretty useless) LA Galaxy lose only 1-0 to the Huns.  I fully expect the Tims to get humped by the MLS All-Stars on July 19th

One-off matches, mate! A semi-okay Aberdeen side held a very poor Hertha Berlin for about 176 minutes. Doesn't mean we would've been able to hold our own in the Bundesliga!

Reekie, you know I'm playing devil's advocate here.  How does one compare then?

 

The problem here is that the Scottish game has over 100 years of history and the MLS has 11 (including the year we're in).

 

I will say this and I doubt anyone can argue against it.  The game has come miles on this side of the Atlantic since the MLS began and it will continue to improve as it goes.  The level of play in the league can only partially be compared. Even the Everton guys who played at Anderson's Testimonial game were saying the scottish game is different than their style that they are used to.  We can definitely agree that the game played in La Liga is different from the SPL.  The Brazilians? Football on another planet... I can go on.  I believe the MLS has a different style again.  Perhaps a little more rough around the edges as the talent pool is improving but I would stick Toronto FC, FC Dallas, and Houston Dynamo out against the Falkirks, ICTs, and Dundee Utds. any week and expect to see a match. 

 

The only way to prove it? Try it. Test the theory.  OK Open Invite to SPL clubs for their Preseason Tours.

 

I just think football "State Side" will never become as big a game as it should be for a nation with that kind of population.

 

I can fully understand your excitement at the way the game is heading over in the US and Canada. I have the same sort of experience down-under where I regularly watch cracking games from Australia. New Zealand is shit at football (finally, he says, a sport that NZ is shit at!!) but the Aussie game has come on leaps and bounds. The Australian game has only really been around in international terms for a couple of decades, and with a population of 21million, they're only now starting to show their worth.

 

But the US game has been around for a lot longer than that. With a population in-excess of 302million (!!) surely they should be producing a dozen teams that can be world champions!!! Instead, the US seems to be stuck in their ways of playing games that no other nation plays (baseball, gridiron and basketball, for example). If they ploughed as much effort into the world's top sport as they do their own sports, they might actually be a force to be reckoned with ... and not the 29th place that they currently occupy (might've changed by the time you read this cos those rankings change more often that I have hot dinners).

 

Don't get me wrong, I think the US MLS league is great. It's got a lot of innovative ideas that the rest of the world could well do with adopting, such as wage-capping, winning-draws, etc. But for a league that is supposedly almost perfect in its structure and organisation, it still produces poorer quality teams than a corrupt, biased and financially crippled league like the SPL.

Worse than the US, Canada has had an issue with the game that no where else has had to deal with.  If it isn't Ice Hockey, the media won't cover it.

 

Were it not fot the fact that Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (owners of the National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs) were the owners of Toronto FC, I doubt the media would be as hyped as it is.

You are also forgetting the home advantage that the MLS sides tend to have when they come up against European teams. There is far more in it for an MLS player than for a Scottish player (ie- moves to Europe, raising the profile of the league). Hence the reason that the LA Galaxy players say things like...

 

"It was good experience for me. They're one of the most storied clubs in the world. They brought their first team in the first half, so it was good to play against those guys"

 

...when they play against the Hun. I expect Celtic to get beaten in the All Star Game as well, but I don't really expect them to try that hard. The MLS players are in the middle of the season, Celtic haven't started pre-season yet. The only reason they are there is the 6 figure sum they will get for it. Rangers waltzed over to LA and won 1-0 with a side that included Gow, Lowing, Perry and McMillan- none of which I expect to be regulars next season. And that was only 3 days after being humbled in the SPL, 9 time zones ahead, by our good selves.

 

The MLS might have the potential to be a really great league, and I agree that it does have some innovative ideas, but it is still a hugely inferior league. There are some of the rules that even hinder the development of the game, for example the 'pool' for transfers out of the MLS- ie, you buy from the league, rather from the club franchise. This has meant that half decent younger players are priced out of moves to Europe where they could get experience and improve. They then do strange things like send their youth team to the Copa America- the one place that the national team could improve outside of the World Cup- because they wanted their best squad available for the Gold Cup (against Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, El Salvador, Canada and Mexico).

 

There is certainly entertainment in the MLS, but there is entertainment watching a Fraserburgh vs Locos game. Some might even argue there is less entertainment the higher the standard.

OK - getting back onto the main topic of the thread, is there anywhere that has a list of who is available on Free transfers?

 

http://www.footballtransfers.co.uk/transfers/released.php

All these guys on frees , we could at least afford wages with Anderson's £££

 

Free Transfers Available:

 

Richard Wright GK

Vladan Zivkovic MD

Jody Morris MD

Quinton Fortune MD

Gary Holt MD

Trevor Sinclair MD

Malcolm Christie AT

Neil Alexander GK

 

They have all been released and if still free surely any of them would be good addition to our squad?

Free Transfers Available:

 

Richard Wright GK

Vladan Zivkovic MD

Jody Morris MD

Quinton Fortune MD

Gary Holt MD

Trevor Sinclair MD

Malcolm Christie AT

Neil Alexander GK

 

They have all been released and if still free surely any of them would be good addition to our squad?

 

Richard Wright has gone to West Ham. Malcolm Christie and Trevor Sinclair are about to sign for Stoke. The only one I would be really bothered about would be Neil Alexander.

Free Transfers Available:

Gary Holt MD

... good addition to our squad

 

 

Agree 100% with the red card there! Holt was a middle-of-the-road SPL player when he was at his peak. And that was about five or six years ago. Too old and slow for us now (says me who's a fan of a club who are currently singing the praises of Craig Brewster!)

The standard of fitba in the US isnae bad, but the players there have one fairly big advantage over Scottish players.

 

They're athletes who take the sport seriously.

 

So while the likes of your semi-pro Aberdeens and Dundee Uniteds are starting to flag in the second half, your typical MLS side will keep the pace up.

 

Speaking of MLS, I was watching some MLS game last week, and there's a black kid, 20 years old, fast as a fuckin' rocket and nae feart to take folk on and put in a cross.  Aberdeen could do a lot worse than have him running up and doon the wing for 90 minutes.

 

The hell's his name again?

 

It's got an O in it.

 

 

Can't place the O guy but watching todays Toronto FC game, Marvell Wynne is touted as possibly the fastest guy in the league.

The standard of fitba in the US isnae bad, but the players there have one fairly big advantage over Scottish players.

 

They're athletes who take the sport seriously.

 

So while the likes of your semi-pro Aberdeens and Dundee Uniteds are starting to flag in the second half, your typical MLS side will keep the pace up.

 

Speaking of MLS, I was watching some MLS game last week, and there's a black kid, 20 years old, fast as a fuckin' rocket and nae feart to take folk on and put in a cross.  Aberdeen could do a lot worse than have him running up and doon the wing for 90 minutes.

 

The hell's his name again?

 

It's got an O in it.

 

 

 

OJ Simpson?

Ronald O

 

Robin (h) O

 

O Sammy Binlidin

 

 

Nah, definitely Ronnie O' Sullivan

Potential transfers in on Frees

Filan GK, Dudek GK

Did Crainey get snapped up?

Dado Prso, Paul Peschisolido, Robbie Fowler?

Dudek is signing for Real, think all the others are out of our range in terms of wages.