The Transfers That Never Were

On an epic European deadline day which exposed Robinho as a snake, Man City’s owners as one heck of a group of opportunists, and Dimitar Berbatov as some of the most coveted property this side of The Villages (after all, it is “Florida’s friendliest hometown”), things remained very quiet for Americans looking for moves to foreign lands.

Sure Michael Bradley made his long awaited move to a German club that no one can pronounce the name of, but that doesn’t make this transfer window a successful one for the Yanks.

The big one was Oguchi Onyewu’s quiet stay with Belgian club Standard Liege. I count this as the second consecutive year where a Gooch transfer to greener pastures should have been in the cards, only to fall apart presumably to low ball offers compared to Liege’s value of the big man. That loan spell at Newcastle a little ways back didn’t exactly help his chances for a transfer that year, but interest was still present. Rumors swirled the last few weeks around every club from Lazio to Fulham being in it for the Gooch man, only to reveal that when the clock struck midnight euro time, Belgium was still his home.

Count me as disappointed. While Gooch is having a Borat load of great success with Liege (League winner’s last year), he needs to move to a league where week in and week out he will face the top shelf of attacking quality. It is simply the only way he will gain that consistency to be a rock in the backline and not a slight liability on certain days.

Another man to hang around despite some late charging interest from foreign lands was my favorite surf broski Sacha Kljestan. Despite rumors swirling about a late move to AS Monaco or FC Twente, Kljestean remains with Chivas USA, presumably ichatting Benny Feilhaber from a surf shack within walking distance of the brocean in between training sessions at the Home Depot Center.

Once again, count me as a little bummed. I had a feeling this interest in Sacha was coming a little too late, but I do believe that he is reaching that point of transition in his career where he is going to need to make the jump soon, hopefully in January.

One of the quieter rumors swirling was that of a Heath Pearce transfer to an unspecified Bundesliga club. If you have any skill in following along with context and content, you will probably figure out Heathe didn’t make his move either.

5 months and counting ’till January…