Tim Ream's time in MLS has come to a close.
After spending the first two years of his professional career with the New York Red Bulls, Ream is set to sign with Bolton Wanderers after being granted a work permit on Monday, BBC reported on Monday. Sources confirmed to SBI that Ream did win his appeal and has been granted the work permit.
Ream will join Bolton on a transfer worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million, which would become the highest amound ever paid for an MLS defender (Former Chicago Fire defender Bakary Soumare was sold to French club Boulogne for $2 million).
Bolton bought Ream to help cover for the sale of standout defender Gary Cahill to Chelsea. The relegation-threatened club has turned to MLS for reinforcements, and are considering a transfer move for Philadelphia striker Sebastien LeToux.
Ream will become the second U.S. men's national team player on Bolton's roster, with injured midfielder Stuart Holden being the other.
A finalist for MLS Rookie of the Year in 2010, Ream worked his way onto the U.S. national team radar with his strong first season with the Red Bulls, but 2011 saw him struggle at times, both for the national team and the Red Bulls.
Once Ream's transfer is complete, the Red Bulls will be able to finalize the acquisition of Wilman Conde. The Red Bulls traded for his rights from the Chicago Fire for a partial allocation.
What do you think of Ream's impending move to Bolton? How do you see him faring in the EPL?
Share your thoughts below.
Comparing MLS to those leagues in terms of the level of competition that a given player will face is always difficult especially when they never play each other in meaningful games.
One thing to compare is squad depth. Take LA. Can Beckham, Keane and Donovan play for most EPL teams and be important contributors? Obviously, they can.
How about Adam Cristman, Chad Barrett, Michael Stephens, Juninho, AJ, Gonzo, Franklin, Todd Dunivant? I don’t know about that.
Is there anyone on Everton or Fulham who could start for LA? How about Bolton, Blacknburn or Wigan?
The biggest difference between EPL And Championship teams and MLS is the British have a lot more players who could do well for an MLS team than vice versa. At least in terms of skill and talent.
Ream is going to face a lot more competition just to get on the field for Bolton than he did in NY where he was basically an automatic starter.
That alone will make him a better player.
What an opportunity. Best of Luck
Ok. I thought I had read an interview with Stuart in which he said that he liked that he could regularly see some of his extended family, and that they could make it to games at the Reebok.
But then again, it isn’t such a big country….
Poor guy has had a rough spell of luck with that incident outside the bar, then Nigel de Jong and Jonny Evans.
Sure, of course. In addition there are certainly bottom of the table championship teams that would lose a majority of games to the LA Galaxy (though not the Whitecaps, I’d guess…). I just think the average is higher than in the MLS. And it seems you agree.
😉
More like 35.
20 min on the PATH from WTC, then a 10 or 15 minute walk.
And don’t say “10 minutes by car” either. NYers don’t drive cars.
ummmm Agudelo? maybe if he actually starts playing.
Bunbury. not anytime soon.
not hard to be impressed with cameron playing against a team with little to no intent on pushing forward.
have to see cameron play a real team first.
No doubt he will have to learn to be well-positioned to make up for his lack of amazing speed. He does have the skill required, the open question is, will he be able to develop his tactical defensive sense quickly enough to survive in the EPL where he will face talented forwards in every game. If he fails at that he will not be a starter for more than a few games.
In 2011, Ream made $55,125.00 base salary, and $62,625.00 in total compensation.
http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/September%201,%202011%20Salary%20Information%20-%20By%20Club.pdf
Bleed goals into the opponents’ nets, you mean.
I see your point. He doesn’t come accross as a guy who can get his head turned. But only time will tell.
I understand the concept of metropolitan areas very well. I was referencing GS Casual’s comment about RBA being closer to it’s home city. I was being sarcastic about the fact that RBA is in it’s correct home, in new jersey not new york. and nor was I referencing new york state. yes, the ny cosmos played in nj as well and made the old giants stadium the place to be. Name calling is not necessary.
Ream will make 60x hie mls salary….. Thank you Tim for the last 2years ….good luck in Bolton
Polish Pete
ESC
and Fulham paid 3 mil or more for EJ. Did you tell all the many doubters then that BS walks
Note quite cahill went for so little as he would be free in the summer. Last summer he valued at £15m, but noone would take him because his contract was coming to an end.
Exactly. However from what everyone is saying ream potentially wont go straight into our team, and will a bench warmer for the rest of this season until he can get upto speed with our league. An example of this is marcos alonso who we bought from real madrid, at the beginning of last season for £2m and didnt play an epl game until this season. He hss been injured for most of this season though which hasnt helped and is on trial in spain for a car accident that killed someone later this year.
There are a couple of players at man city who are on £250,000 a week / $400,000 a week. But they are owned by the abu dabi royal family so they can afford it. They have spent £330m on players transfers in last 2 years.
No, you could be thinking of canadian england international owen hargreaves.
Not sure I agree. Every time I’ve seen him he’s looked confused and lost. I dont see the attraction to be honest
+1
You are going to be booing quite a bit
You mean Ricardo “give the ball away in the middle of the park, and put it in the back of the net” Clark?
Because you have more soccer acumen than seasoned EPL scouts. Oh, of course!
More to the point, Ream will make more than his NYRB yearly salary in two weeks at Bolton.
The EPL and the Championship are multi level leagues. Some EPL sides when relegated bounce right back. Other sink like a stone.
Still, it’s probably safe to say that, at any given time any of the top six or so Championship clubs would probably do quite well against any of the bottom six or so clubs in the EPL.
Should Bolton get relegated, assuming he is a regular and is doing well,Ream will be kept because he is comparatively inexpensive.
The overall level of the competition he will face will still be higher than what he would get in MLS.
Owen Coyle will still be the manager, if he wants to stay. Bolton’s management has already made that clear. Coyle is extremely well regarded and popular. Everyone knows this squad is a shell of last year’s squad.
All Ream has to do is play well.
Did somebody say Wolfman Conde? OWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OW-OW-OWWWOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Ream may improve right away.
Surround him with better players and sometimes that immediately makes a player look better.
Ream will also have the benefit of a manager who very publicly believes in him ( he put his money where his mouth is) and supports him. I get the impression that this was not always the case in NY.
And Coyle will stay there, if he wants to, even if they are relegated, he is that highly regarded.
As long as Ream stays on Coyle’s good side he has a chance to develop his game.
Amazing move for Ream and USMNT. If he can learn to maintain his focus for 90 minutes and clean up his mental lapses, he could see regular time in the Premiership as a 24 year old. If he can stick with Bolton and Bolton can stick in the EPL, we might have a tested, stud, technically skilled CB just coming into his prime. With Cameron’s encouraging performance, Whitbread coming into form, maybe there is finally some light at the end of the CB tunnel.
Don’t believe the negativity, he’s a good player, and a smart centerback. He’s plenty physical, and technically sound. People forget that he has only 2 years of pro experience.
Certainly he had to win his starting spot and keep it. No rookie automatically gets a starting spot, especially in defense. He was just better than every other option available for this team, and solid enough that no other options were necessary to seek out.
I’m happy to see him sold only because I think Wilman Conde is an adequate replacement and the price for Ream was good.
Do us proud, Timmy.
Having watched a bit of Bolton, he can’t be any worse than Zak Knight.
He on that Chris Brown swag. I get what you get in ten years in two days.
Bolton must wanna bleed goals cause that’s what theyre going to get if they play Ream
Your screen name is so gangsta!!!! 😀
I’m never wrong either, and I second this notion
Wow.
I had thought that the salaries of soccer players in top leagues was a good deal lower than that of athletes in the big 3 American sports leagues (MLB, NFL & NBA) But if a player untested at the highest level, joining a team that may soon find itself in a relegation battle can fetch $1,820,000/year I would have to say I was mistaken. Good for Tim.
Del Piero is the better fit
It looks like Del Piero is the most likey candidate. An older, but better version of DeRo.
No idea why my reply to another comment ended up here….. GRRR!
Was very impressed with Cameron the other night as well. I don’t see a discernable difference between his distribution skills and Ream’s and Cameron is clearly the better defender of the two. Makes me think if Cameron continues to play like this, he will be moving to Europe toot sweet.
+1
I know Stuart was born in Aberdeen and raised from age 10 in Texas. But, doesn’t his family have deep roots in (or around) Bolton?
So Ream will be a success if he is 1/3 as good?
I believe he made well under 100,000/year last year. (The telegraph reported $55,125), But I, and they could be wrong. Pretty typical for the MLS> $35,000 a week is a HUGE raise. Who wouldn’t take it. He’ll earn in 11 days what he earned all last year.
Hopefully he can replace Cahill. Bolton got 7 million pounds from Chelsea for Cahill.
I would argue the the Championship is a 1/2 step ahead of the MLS quality wise, not 2 steps ahead like the Premier league, but still a league in which teams can offer better salaries. I’m sure the possibility of relegation was on Ream’s mind when he made his decision. Anyway, they’d likely be back up in after season even if they did get relegated. A year in the Championship wouldn’t be so bad for Ream.
I think his game is better suited in Spain.
Deal hasn’t been officially finalized yet I think. If I’m not mistaken, he’s been granted a work permit and now it’s just a matter of paperwork with NY. Bolton probably won’t announce it until everything is completely done.
Get over yourself Eric. This discussion is about Tim and his future not myself (not that he’ll read this anyway) I was saying that Ream must improve his defensive skills to succeed in the EPL because the media will be quick to eat him alive, especially being an American, so he “better” be ready. My judgements came from the games that I’ve seen him in. Often times Ream is caught out of position and for all that superb passing out of the back he is also very prone to makeing awry passes to the opposing team. Again, I’m just saying that Ream must step it up in the Premier League and work out the “noticeable” kinks in his game, or be exposed badly by much quicker and physical forwards in the English Premier League Eric.
I am really happy for Tim Ream. Sure, he has made a couple of mistakes but has most everyone else at some point. I have seen him play in many games and by far he has performed extremely well in the vast majority of them. But there are people here who think they are better judges of soccer talent than Jurgen Klinsmann, Bob Bradley and Owen Coyle. Well, I am sure Ream will have the last laugh in the end when he proves them wrong. And, he will be making more money that any of them to boot.