Top Stories

Report: Arsenal to scout Ream tonight

MLSBB10151182

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By all accounts, New York Red Bulls and U.S. international centerback Tim Ream has struggled in his second season as a professional, but that doesn't necessarily mean that major clubs overseas haven't taken note of his potential.

According to reputable UK outlet The Independent, Arsenal has sent scouts to watch Ream in action during Wednesday night's MLS playoff match against FC Dallas. The Independent also states that the Red Bulls rejected Arsenal's bid of approximately $4 million for Ream this summer and he could be a candidate for a winter move to the Premier League.

Ream, 24, had a standout season as a rookie for the Red Bulls in 2010, earning high praise and eventual call-ups to the U.S. national team. His trademark attributes — composure on the ball, pinpoint passing — make him an attractive prospect, but he has been guilty of defensive lapses at times this season. He'll get a chance to prove his worth — both to the Red Bulls and the scouts in attendance — during Wednesday's one-off elimination game against FCD.

What do you make of this development? Could you see Ream suiting up for Arsenal and playing in the Premier League? Think this will affect his performance tonight?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. That outrage is the beauty of this type of blog…it gives the readers a forum to voice their opinion. Spot on or way the F-k off-base, it is still an opinion. Yes there are some folks that probably love the sport yet don’t really grasp the global game or they just talk out of their a**. In addition, there may be quite a few folks here that are of a much younger age.

    At the end of the day, I find it very interesting that you let SBI-posters get under your skin when they don’t conform to your line of reasoning and you get bent over their limited knowledge or ignorance. Don’t ever change. You keep me coming back.

    Reply
  2. No one said Rafa is a slouch but it is possible he and Ream don’t work well together.

    Besides you’ve given your scouting report on him and now it’s time for Arsenal’s scouts to give their reports on him.

    I guess we’ll see soon enough. It’s just interesting that everyone is so outraged by Arsenal’s alleged interest.

    It’s as if they are insulted that Wenger and his staff dosn’t seem to listen to SBI posters.

    Go figure

    Reply
  3. That is certainly one excuse…sorry…I meant reason as to why Ream is incapable of focusing on set pieces as well as making the most simple pass to a teamate just outside of his box. GW, I’ve seen a lot of Reams performances with the Redbull in addition to all of his performances with the National team. I can honestly say that this year, Reams’ abilities have been right on par with respect to the type of talent you will find at centerback in MLS. He has some deficiences he needs to work out. Set piece defending, 1v1 marking and most importantly (yet so fundamentally basic) passing it to your own teamate. When you comopare what Clint was doing in his time with the league, you could see that his thought process was much more advanced than those who were around him. With resepct to Ream, you can see that his problems are not so much relative to the talent around him however, they originate from fundamental mistakes that are made when defending and passing out of the back.

    I am certain that if you surround Ream with quality (by the way, Rafa is no slouch) he will improve on his own difficiences. However, I don’t think Reams problems have to do with the players he currently has surrounding him.

    Reply
  4. Folks are getting their panties in a bunch over Ream being scouted by Arsenal…Quite frankly, we all know Ream (currently) is in no shape or form to perform for a big club like that

    However, we are missing the real story here people. Arsenal have been competing in Champions League and playing big games and competing with the best biggest clubs year in and year out every weak and they are looking for players of that calibur…in MLS…

    No offense to anyone domestically however, Seriously? The Gooners are embarassing.

    What does a 3-pin plug and the Gunners have in common?

    THEY ARE BOTH UESELESS IN EUROPE!

    Reply
  5. Wow Mike, your arguments are impressive. So there’s an unfounded rumor that Wenger is interested and Ream was on Klinsy’s squad so that MUST mean he’s such a great player… Because we all know any player called up for the USMNT is a great player, like Bornstein or Robbie Rodgers or Rico Clark or Eddie Johnson or Edgar Castillo to name a few players that played on the US team but in fact, kind of suck…
    Perhaps you haven’t watched Ream play in recent times, but his tendency to make blunders costing goals at the MLS level combined with the fact each time he’s played on the national team he’s looked really out of his depth (see Gold Cup and Ecuador game) is in my eyes proof enough that he isn’t ready for anything bigger than MLS.
    If you look at ex-MLS defenders that actually have had success in Europe, like Boca and at a lesser level Parkhurst (who by the way is vastly superior to Ream at the moment), these guys were beasts in MLS and OK players in Europe but nothing spectacular.
    So to think a guy like Ream who at this point hasn’t shown he’s good enough to be a top tier MLS defender would be ready for a top EPL team like Arsenal because he can supposedly “pass from the back” (that really cracks me up considering all his “passes from the back” that led to opposing goals) is kind of odd.

    Reply
  6. BTW – Ream is not a good passer, the guy sucks in all aspects of his game. He wouldnt even make the Arsenal reserves i doubt this is true.

    Reply
  7. My guess is scouts look at Ream and try to picture him playing for Arsenal in a year or two or even now.

    Right now their main man at CB is Mertesacker a 6’6″ giant (who JK knows very well). He doesn’t need a bruiser like Gooch or John next to him. He needs someone with Ream’s skill set.

    And as I said elsewhere, it’s possible that playing with higher quality players overall will help Ream raise his game to the level where most people know Ream can get to even if he hasn’t shown it this year. I guess we’ll see.

    Reply
  8. “He seems to me like a midfielder being asked to play at center back.”

    So?

    Rafa Marquez “was a midfielder being asked to play at center back.”

    Reply
  9. Klinsman has already figured it out.

    Ream is competing with Boca not Gooch.

    John and Gonzalez are competing with Gooch.

    Gooch is way better right now than either Gonzalez or John.

    Gonzo is too clumsy and is inferior to the present Gooch is every category except maybe health.

    John has been in a slump since the Blackburn deal fell through.

    Cameron is a tweener and is in competition with Orozco Fiscal. He is a great athlete but does he have a ” soccer brain”? He did not impress Bradley and it seems like he isn’t impressing JK so you have to wonder.

    If those three don’t improve I can see them never pulling on a USMNT, or any national team, shirt.

    If the Greeks wanted John they would have capped him this September in those Euro games thus tieing him to Greece forever. They did not and that tells you something.

    I see no reason why Mexico should cap Gonzo.

    Reply
  10. I haven’t seen a lot of Ream’s performances with NYRB this year but it occurs to me that at Arsenal he is likely to have a higher quality of player around him in general and in the defense in particular.

    Sometimes players perform better when others around them are more capable of taking advantage of whatever it is Ream does well.

    An example in reverse would be Deuce. For a long time I felt that many of his USMNT teamates were too unskilled to be able to take advantage of what he had to offer. Duece looked like a giveaway machine when the actual problem was people were not making intelligent runs. Anyway that problem seems to be better now.

    Anyway, I hope he transfers, He’s not getting any younger and he has much to learn; better there than here.

    Reply
  11. Red Bull isn’t concerned about losing money as the team is a decent marketing vehicle for their energy drink, on which they make truck loads of money. The money they lose on soccer is looked at as media spend to support the beverage. Luckily putting a good product on the field with good talent happens to jive with their objectives of selling tickets and jerseys, so it’s mutually beneficial.

    As for the hate for Ream, I don’t get it. I watch him play every game and he has not had a great year, but he is no where near as bad as most posters here make him out to be. He has gotten beat for a couple goals with the Nats over the past 12 months(Paraguy & Ecudor come to mind), and he’s made 2 HORRENDOUS blunders for Red Bull that cost them points. With that said, I think having him play next to Marquez was not a good thing, and he’s played better with Keel and Mendez as his partner.

    Having said all that, Arsenal would be dumb not to take a look at Shea and possibly Agudelo while at the game. I know the posters here love George John, but I don’t see him enough to know if he’s ready to make the jump other than the close call he had with Blackburn which certainly speaks well of him…

    Reply
  12. Why would they care to cover up their interest?

    Is their scout going to wear a motorcycle helmet with a smoked visor so the others can’t follow his eyes?

    Reply
  13. “The idea of Ream playing for a top club is sensational, but then again, so was Gooch’s signing by Milan.”

    The difference is Gooch was never healthy enough to fight for his place.

    If Ream goes to Arsenal he will have to fight to get playing time but at least he will be,hopefully, healthy. Gooch never really had his health for the majority of his time at Milan.

    Also there are people who would argue with your characterization of Arsenal as a “top club”.

    They have won nothing for some time now.

    Reply
  14. Arsenal have been scouting Ream for a few years now. This is not new.

    They probably have a more complete, objective picture of him than many of the people commenting on this site.

    Should they buy him it will be because they think he has what it takes. Of course, that does not guarantee he will be a success, only that he has a chance to succeed.

    US fans are interesting because it seems they just look to tear players down at the first sign of weakness.

    If Arsenal sign him and he fails so what? At least he had a shot the big time which is more than about 99.9 percent of the posters here can say.

    Reply
  15. The maximum allocation from selling a player in $650,000.

    Teams get to keep 75% of the transfer fee if they sell a homegrown player. For a drafted player, it’s less and it goes up during each of the first 4 years. Since this is only year two, I believe the Red Bulls would only keep half the transfer fee (the rest goes to the league).

    So…$2 million plus a couple hundred thousand in allocation. Meh. Unless the Red Bulls have a CB target they could use that money on, I don’t see it being worth it for them.

    Reply
  16. Ild think only Ream and Shea have realistic shots at europe in the next 9 months. Of course dual citizenship makes it easier for John to go (not so sure about the others).

    Reply
  17. Ream has gotten a lot of hate from the Ives commenters. In reality, he is still a young player who has a decent amount of skill. As the article mentioned, he has made some defensive lapses (many would say bone-headed plays), but that can change with maturity. I worry more that he is not as quick as a defender ought to be, but he is not the slowest set of feet in MLS either.

    If you recall, Tim Howard lost his spot at Man. U. due to similar lapses (again many would say one-headed plays). He turned out to be pretty good (I think he gets more credit and less blame than he deserves, but still, it is pretty hard to make the case that there are a lot of better keepers out there.)

    I could easily see Ream ending up on a similar route as Howard, almost making it at one of the big clubs and then settling in as a stellar player for a mid-table team.

    Reply
  18. All of these traits you listed are beyond the “what have you done for me lately” mentality of most of the people who comment on this board. Don’t waste your breath. Just let them hate and mock, apparently it makes them feel better about themselves.

    Reply
  19. this comment was posted in another MLS-centric site that i visit. i will leave it here. i think it sums up where a lot of the commenters here are missing:

    Scouts, good ones that is, are rarely interested in the kinds of things that most fans would say are ‘good’ or ‘poor’.

    You might assume, for example, that a baseball scout would be interested in a high-school player who goes 4-5 with a HR and two doubles.

    But as likely as not, the scout will see right away that that player will likely never be able to hit at the big-league level, let alone AA.

    The scout instead will be much more interested in, e.g., the shortstop who goes 1-5 but with solid mechanics, and who shows great reflexes and lateral movement on the field.

    In other words, Ream has had a rough year, and has made more than his share of bonehead plays.

    But he’s also made more than his share of inspired plays.

    It doesn’t surprise me that he’s getting scouted. A lot of the boneheadedness can be coached away and grown out of with experience.

    But he’s got vision, creativity, touch, and other characteristics that are very difficult to coach.

    Reply
  20. Interesting. A club that is listed as losing money the past four seasons straight isn’t concerned about money? I can see that lasting about another season or two.

    Just for the record, Seattle isn’t worried about losing money either… for the right reasons. They have talent, win a lot, and fill their stadium. Oh yes, they also make very good business decisions. Decisions that translate to the field.

    Reply
  21. I’d say Shea to Germany or England. Most of the interest from him (at least from tabliods/rumors) is from Bayern Munich, Man United, Chelsea.

    Reply
  22. Instead of being happy an excellent club in terms of developing talent is possibly interested in picking up Ream, who although shaky and low confidence this year still has a lot of upside, you’re all busy mocking him and laughing.

    Smh as USMNT fans you should be happy someone who actually knows how to help develop talent is interested in him.

    Reply
  23. Just shows that all the Ream heaters know nothing about the game or evaluating talent. Again, indisputable facts: (a) Tim Ream has started every game and played the entire 90 where he was not on international assignment in the last two years for Red Bulls (b) Tim Ream has been called up for national team camps consistently by not one, but two coaches and (c) Tim Ream is drawing legitimate interest from quality clubs. And he’s accomplished (b) and (c) while having a tough year.

    It must be killing all you aspiring GMs out there. The talent is there. None of you know what you’re talking about.

    Reply
  24. y’all have it right. Ream is way overrated. So many better young american central defenders, i.e., Cameron, John, Gonzalez. How long until Klinsman figures this out?

    Reply
  25. So im going out and just speculate where our young american prospects will be going sinc
    Ream to England
    Omar G to Italy
    Shea to Italy
    Agudelo to Spain
    Bunburry to Spain
    John to England

    Reply
  26. His problem is that he doesn’t play like a defender. When he gets beat it is because he gets lost watching the game and can’t be aggressive like a defender should.

    He seems to me like a midfielder being asked to play at center back.

    Reply
  27. That is simply not true. Since he’s an American playing on a smallish contract, Arsenal can sign him to a cheaper deal. When he’s loaned out to another team, that team will liekly pay his entire wage bill and possibly a loan fee as well. So in reality, it’s a small outlay of cash initially and not as much afterword.

    Reply
  28. In this sense, the gripe is really with Coack Klinsmann and his staff, not with Ream. But still, Coach’s have favorite players they are more comfortable with. If you’re on the outside looking in, bury the guys higher on the depth chart with performance, period. Take it as fuel to burn in your focus and will power on what you can control, take it as a catalyst, then perform and earn

    Reply

Leave a Comment