New DP
The league will sign a designated player soon, a reliable league source said. Don't know the team, but I do know it won't be the Red Bulls, the source said.
That catches the attention, to be sure, but it's hard to figure out who could be coming at this point who would be exciting enough to register on the "tickle meter" outside soccer circles. Obviously, there are the Cuauhtemoc Blanco rumors swirling around the Chicago Fire, something noted here, there and, at length, everywhere. That last one is actually a bonafide article by Glenn Davis (who I'm actually starting to like, for what it's worth) exploring the upside of a Blanco signing; for all the words in the piece, he could have wrapped his argument in one sentence (NOTE: My words, not his):
"MLS should take a chance on Blanco because he's an asshole - and an asshole from Mexico to boot - and his asshole-ism could get some people to games."
To be honest, that's not a bad argument to make. And Davis acknowledged, correctly in my view, that Blanco could be a risky signing - which brings us to Soccer America's valuable musing on the state of the designated-player rule. If you haven't read the Soccer America piece, I'll only say it's worth your time...even if they poop on Robbie Fowler (thought-crime! OK, the thing with Le Saux wasn't good, but, I'm sorry, the "snorting" goal celebration was fabu.) But the key take-away comes here:
" Players interested only in fat paychecks won't help MLS. They don't need to be choir boys, but they can't be problem children, which is what most of the rumored DPs to date have been."
That's a pretty nice counter-point to Davis' argument (OK, so my re-phrasing exaggerates Davis' position). There are other players mentioned in there (not just Fowler), but since the thrust here is Blanco, I'll close with my main thought on him: given his age and his probable reaction to many fouls against his body he's likely to suffer, his post-game banter had better be friggin' stellar, 'cause I don't think he's going to bring enough on the field to pay off on DP dollars. I'd wager a lot of money I don't have that any hype that came from his signing would fizzle by early June.
Oddly, though, I'd be OK with Patrik Berger. I can only justify that through a connection to Liverpool...and Berger drove me insane when he played for the Reds.
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