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Noon-time Musings

Good afternoon folks. Apologies for the lack of posts today but I was tending to other aspects of the site, as well as finishing off an ESPN.com piece on Amado Guevara that should run later today.

There was big response to yesterday’s post on the Fire-Red Bulls situation and I felt like I needed to make one thing clear. Yesterday’s post had ZERO to do with the current situations with Wilman Conde and Lider Marmol. I have no problem with anything the Fire is doing on either front there. Conde is their player and it is their right not to trade him. Also, with Marmol, it is their right to want to try and sign him. After having spoken with Fire officials about Marmol in the recent past I believe their interest in the player is genuine, even though Marmol’s interest in playing for the Fire is pretty non-existent.

If I were a betting man I would bet good money that Marmol doesn’t play in MLS in 2008. I’ll get into more detail on that situation next week.

Back to yesterday’s post.

The three items that people should have noted in the piece were the escape clause in Osorio’s Fire contract, the fact that the Fire courted Osorio behind the backs of Millonarios and the news that Guppy had been in touch with Osorio before he fired Dave Sarachan. I didn’t recall any of these items being written about before (though the previous two were widely-believed to have happened. I am here to confirm that they did.)

And no, the post wasn’t an attempt to stir up the hornet’s nest that is the Fire-Red Bulls rivalry, but rather to follow up on a situation that Fire owner Andrew Hauptman brought to light recently. Hopefully it will be the last we hear about this situation.

I will get back to cranking out the posts shortly so keep an eye out for Soccer on TV, some more Q&A, a You Write the Caption (assuming I can find a good photo) as well as some other tidbits before the day is through.

Comments

  1. Kosh – I should probably pick another handle. In any case, there is probably a story there, but I doubt we’ll ever get to the bottom of it. I may just have the mind of a conspiracy theorist, but I think there is something to De Grandpre leaving the organization so soon after the story emerged about this get out clause in Osorio’s contract.

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  2. Oh, I should also mention: I am a Red Bull fan, and I DO want to know why we paid for what we could have gotten for free.

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  3. I was going to say that most people probably know about the history between Ives and Guevara, but I guess not. Ives has disclosed it in the past, and I’m not really concerned about it affecting his work.

    But Ives, dude, I am concerned about these multi-page comments. They suck. It makes me not want to read all the comments on posts with a lot of them.

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  4. Hey Matt, I’m going to have to appologize for Chris Rolfe’s mixup there, you know considering the fact that Matt is so unique a name that only one person can have it. Now I have read Ives posts and enjoyed watching the venom that it sparks between Fire and NYRB fans. This is MLS, I love it!!

    As a DC fan, while I love the slugfest, I think both sides should shut it and save that venom for the matches. FUEL THAT RIVALRY BABY!! 🙂

    Seriously though, I have to agree with Matt on this one, Ives. Why on Earth did RBNY FO splash out that obscene compensation package for something they could have had for free? Yeah I hear the, compassion spin, but at the end of the day these are businessmen and better yeat competitors. When was the last time you saw a competitor splash out close to a mil because of compassion and the kindness of their heart? I dunno, Ives, I think you have a story there that you should dig into. But hey, if RBNY fans are too narrowminded to recognize that, and just want to slag off on the FIRE and their fans…then by all means, please continue. All I get to do is read and laugh.

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