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Morning Ticker: Parkhurst heads to Denmark, Real Madrid dumps Schuster for Ramos and Man City targets Villa

Parkhurst (FCNordsjaelland)  

By GIANFRANCO PANIZO

You can add another name to the growing list of players to leave the New England Revolution for Europe. Former MLS defender of the year Michael Parkhurst has officially signed with FC Nordsjaelland of the Danish Superliga, with the deal being made official on Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"I just felt like with me being the age I am, and being out of contract, that if I ever wanted to try and make it in Europe, this was the time," Parkhurst told the Boston Globe. "Now that I'm still young and have the opportunity to do it, I felt like it was something I needed to do to further my career."

Nordsjaelland, which has allowed a league tying third-worst 27 goals, is signing the 2007 MLS Defender of the Year in hopes that he'll help shore up their shaky defense. Nordsjaelland currently sits in eighth in the 12-team table.

Here are some other stories to get your day started:

Real Madrid replaces Schuster with Ramos

Injuries and poor results proved to much for Bernd Schuster to overcome and to much for Real Madrid to ignore, so Schuster has been fired as Real Madrid manager and replaced by Juande Ramos.

The move comes after Schuster helped lead Real Madrid to the La Liga title last season, but after the club got off to a woeful start to the new campaign. Real Madrid heads into this weekend's 'Clasico' showdown with Barcelona trailing the league leaders by nine points.

Ramos takes over after having been fired by Tottenham earlier this season after a woeful start to the EPL season. He has a track record of success in Spain, having helped guide Sevilla to a pair of UEFA Cup titles.

Tottenham out of relegation zone

Tottenham climbed out of the relegation zone and into 15th place in the EPL with a 2-0 blanking of West Ham on Monday.

The Spurs opened up the scoring in the 68th minute when defender Ledley King got on the end of an Aaron Lennon cross.

Lennon received the ball on the right flank and crossed it in between a pair of defenders before it found the leaping defender. King headered the ball low into the ground and then watched as it took a high bounce into the back of the net past a diving Robert Green. King had not scored since 2005.

Jamie O'Hara would add an amazing left-footed insurance goal in the 89th minute to secure the Spurs' victory.

Man City targets Villa

Add David Villa to list of high-priced targets Manchester City will go after during this winter's transfer window.

Reports have surfaced claiming that The Blues' delegates have met with Villa's agent and have discussed a potential move worth £60 million. Villa has followed up an impressive showing at Euro 2008 by scoring 12 goals this season for Valencia.

A move for Villa sounds more realistic than the rumored bids for Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kaka that Manchester City is reported to be plotting, especially considering the major financial troubles Valencia is experiencing.

What do you think of Parkhurst landing in Denmark? Think Nordsjaelland is a good fit? Is Juande Ramos a smart hire by Real Madrid? Was Schuster a scapegoat, or really the one to blame for Real Madrid's struggles? How do you feel about Villa possibly joining Manchester City?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. …Oops, I forgot about Adin Brown and Clint Dempsey. I also didn’t know about Andy Dorman and Joe-Max Moore. Wow, that’s pretty cool. Well, I’m sorry to see Parkhurst go, but good for him.

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  2. “…growing list of players to leave the New England Revolution for Europe.” Who else left the Revs for Europe? Okay, Pat Noonan, but he came back to MLS this year. I’ve heard Taylor Twellman wants to return to Europe, but that hasn’t happened yet, right? Otherwise, the only departures this year were within MLS — Adam Cristman to Kansas City and Khano Smith to Seattle.

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  3. I understand that there have been Danish players who’ve developed there, what I am trying to say is that I personally can’t find one American who has went there and come out better. If Parkhurst plays and starts I will think of it of course as a success, however we will have to see if this happens

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  4. what Parkhusrt said “I just felt like with me being the age I am, and being out of contract, that if I ever wanted to try and make it in Europe, this was the time,” Parkhurst told the Boston Globe. “Now that I’m still young and have the opportunity to do it, I felt like it was something I needed to do to further my career.”

    What he meant by that : “Im young right now so I want money,something the mls doesnt have,so Im going to play in a league just as good as the mls where I make tripple the money,and further my career by becoming wealthier.”

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  5. Metrostar:

    I don’t think its fair, when you look at where many of the former and current top players on the Denmark national squad play, to suggest the Danish league doesn’t develop players–Laudrups, Thomas Helveg, Peter Schmeichel etc. Docsoccer and Michael have it right in that our players have the opportunity to better develop in the Danish league (for now). If Parkhurst does well, he will given an opportunity in a bigger league.

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  6. The issue that always seems glossed over in these cases, to me, is that MLS doesn’t recognize that it will never be able to win over the millions of North American soccer fans who refuse to follow MLS due to the quality, unless it starts attracting and retaining players.

    I know Garber (or Gazidis, not sure which) has suggested those people will never migrate to MLS because they’re tied permanently to their foreign teams; but Toronto has proven that utterly wrong. It was the step up in quality from USL to MLS in the first place that brought a lot of hardcore fans into BMO when they would never have even considered supporting the Lynx.

    With MLS being seen by these “euro snobs” as a second- or third-tier league (which it is), the same leap in faith has to occur for it to draw those hardcore supporters in. That won’t happen if the best players keep leaving, period, end of story.

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  7. I certainly do not believe that the Scottish league is top 5, nor do I think france is a top 5 league. However, would you rather have these players, that everyone feels will be an key part to our 2010 chances, sitting on the bench of the top 5 leagues, and even the next best five, or have them playing in leagues such as the danish/swedish/belguim? I certainly do not think Parkhurst will get to the next level for the USMNT by playing in the MLS. He can craft his trade in europe, playing against caliber that is, in my opinion, better then the product that is on an MLS pitch. There are number of people on this site that think Gooch is a world class defender, and he is tolling around in the belgium League. I think most of these players need to take baby steps to reach the levels that some of you want them to be at. The English Premier league does not call until the Danish league calls first.

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  8. why why why would Parkhurst go there (except for money) I honestly think MLS is better than the “danish superliga” lol why are all our Americans going there? Can they not get deals with teams from respectable leagues/soccer countries? I have nothing against Denmark or their league, but as we have seen numerous times, their league doesnt develop our players at all!

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  9. Nice, garg0yle. I too realized that on games played, you could say Califf is 3rd. I know DeMerit was banged up in October when we had a couple of games, so I wonder if he would have gotten a call then over Califf.

    Crap, it just seems like yesterday that we looked deep at CB. I’m eagerly awaiting Spector’s return… if he can get a game at West Ham, and I’d like to see Orozco again, and I’d definitely like to take back what I said about not being worried about missing out on Soumare.

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  10. illa-

    First off, Wynne is no CB. Second, if you define depth chart position based on actual usage for Nats by Bob Bradley instead of “looks good to me,” then it would be difficult to dispute that Califf is currently our #3 (or 4 at worst) CB. Here are Bob’s Nat caps for CBs. I’ve listed caps in 2008, total caps under BB, and WCQ caps under BB:

    Onyewu: 10, 21, 5
    Bocanegra: 9, 20, 5
    DeMerit: 3, 9, 1
    Califf: 3, 8, 2
    (Spector): 1, 9, 0 (injured. plus, plays all over backline)
    Conrad: 1, 7, 0
    Parkhurst: 2, 4, 1
    Goodson: 2, 2, 1
    Orozco: 1, 1, 1 (CB/LB)
    Robinson: 1, 1, 0

    Personally, I think Conrad, Marshall, and Parkhurst are all superior to Califf, but that’s not the point. BB likes Califf, and his decisions indicate that Califf is the #3 CB behind Gooch and Boca, with DeMerit as #4. Both may be overtaken if BB starts showing love to Marshall et al, or if Spector or Gibbs regain top form, or if Subotic commits, but until then the spot is Danny’s.

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  11. I guarantee you that Parkhurst is not paying the average tax rate of Danish citizens…a lot of European nations have exemptions that allow foreign nationals playing in their domestic professional sports leagues tax exempt status (ex: American basketball players in Euro leagues rarely pay taxes, as well as receive other benefits like free upscale housing and cars).

    I also have to agree that many of you are selling the Danish league short, though the team he plays for isn’t one of the league’s stronger teams (they did participate in this years UEFA Cup-through the fair play exemption, but were thrashed by Olympiakos). I do agree that the MLS needs to raise its wages, if its ever going to be a global player, it has to be able to outbid the Danish, Swedish, Austrian leagues…

    Hopefully he can turn a strong season in Denmark into a move to Germany or France…

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  12. Califf? Our no3? We have Spector who as LB but is always injured so Pearce has that. We also have DeMerit. And we have Parkhurst, Marshall and young Wynne.

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