Jozy Loaned, Sacha Going Home

Two different fates for a couple of up and coming, ok the hell with it, a couple of US National Team stars ended this week of European club football. One good and one… ehh.

Let’s start with the good. Jozy Altidore.

After much speculation since pretty much the day he signed with Villarreal, Jozy has finally been loaned out to second division leaders Xerez. Jozy has been beginning to see his playing appearances wane as the season has moved on towards crunch time, and now he will be provided with more opportunities for a club in its very own serious crunch time, fighting for promotion to the primera division. While he is dropping down a division, and remains a supremely talented young player, I do have some worry that because he is coming into a first place team midway through the season, they may not want to reshuffle the striker lineup to accommodate his playing time needs. But, as it seems like Villarreal was scouting out some loan move for quite an amount of time (turning down Everton, original Recretivo talk, etc.), they probably have some agreement in there to get Jozy his minutes and keep him progressing. He’ll be back at the Submarine next year.

Now the ehh.

After what was, by all accounts, a tremendously successful trial for Gordan Strachan’s Celtic FC, the club has turned down the chance to sign Sacha Kljestan at the 3.5 million dollar price set by Major League Soccer. Putting on a hat trick show for the Nats last last week at the Home Depot Center against Sweden, Sacha will now find himself playing his club ball there once again for Chivas USA. While I am disappointed this move didn’t go down for Sacha’s chance to move to a big club, including the chance of a sick “Kljestan” Hooped kit on the market, he will go back to the steady environment he knows and probably produce even better in the coming months while continuing to earn his now regular call-ups. He should be able to put himself even more in the shop window if he continues his performances on the international stage, and probably fashion a move to a better fitting club then Celtic who ply their trade in the anti-footy league that is the SPL. Remember, other clubs such as Feyernood were reported to have interest, so he should have a multitude of options come Summer time. A few more months of MLS shouldn’t kill him.

[Sources: Goal.com , SBI]