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Mid-Day Ticker: A look at Subotic’s departure, Arsenal rejects Cesc bid and more

Neven Subotic (Reuters) 

Good afternoon folks. As we all count down the days until the World Cup, there continues to be World Cup and club soccer news to discuss.

Before we touch on some of today's news items, check out my latest Fox Soccer piece, which discusses former U.S. youth national team player and Serbian national team defender Neven Subotic.

Now, onto some of today's news:

ARSENAL REJECTS BARCA BID FOR CESC

The battle for Cesc Fabregas is in full swing and isn't likely to end any time soon.

Arsenal rejected Barcelona's initial £29 million offer for Cesc Fabregas, but it's highly unlikely that it will be Barcelona's last attempt to land the Spanish playmaker.

Barcelona has already added Spanish striker David Villa, but with Real Madrid ready to re-load under new manager Jose Mourinho, the Spanish champions will be looking to sign Fabregas to keep pace.

CAPELLO STAYING WITH ENGLAND

Fabio Capello will be staying with England after the World Cup, removing an escape clause from his contract that would have allowed him to leave the England manager post after this summer's tournament. The news came amid heavy speculation that Inter Milan was trying to sign Capello. Inter Milan is now believed to be targeting Fulham manager Roy Hodgson.

QUICK KICKS

Chilean striker Humberto Suazo looks likely to miss Chile's World Cup opener vs. Honduras after suffering a hamstring injury.

West Ham United is expected to complete the hiring of Avram Grant as manager on Thursday.

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What do you think of the Subotic story? Have you moved on, or do you still hold some anger about his decision to play for Serbia? Think Arsenal can hold on to Fabregas? Hoping Grant keeps Spector at West Ham?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I think it’s different when the country you grew up in doesn’t really want you…Jones is in his late 20s and is still eligible to switch? I’d say that shows what Germany thinks and have no problem. Rossi was born here and only moved to further his career. He is American and is a traitor and I’m happy he didn’t make their team. If we didn’t want him and Italy did I’d be fine, but that wasn’t the case.

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  2. Wonder if anybody on here bashing subotic and rossi were the same folk calling for jones to be a lock for us once he was healthy…

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  3. I am tired of all these stories about players who are not playing for the US. Hey if you don’t want to play with the US national team, well good luck to you and move on your way.

    We should stop begging people or feel like we have to beg them to represent us. Let’s worry about the players that want to play for the US and are honored to play for the US. It is not a right to play for the USMNT but an honor and a priveledge. If Coach Rongen fell he wasn’t fit, well that was his judgement. If Subotic fell that he was slighted so be it. I mean coaches can’t go into whether they have to pick this player or that player thinking that a player may switch countries because he wasn’t picked. They have to pick the players that they feel will mesh well and compete well. So sorry you don’t want to play for the US, good luck to you and move on. No hard feelings, but i am also not going to cry for you, there are other players who want to gladly play for the US and represent the USMNT.

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  4. There is absolutely no bad blood with Subotic. It would be nice to have him but he is no Rossi. Regardless, a quotable quote from South Park..

    “If you don’t like it then you can just gettttt outtt.”

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  5. instead of having a stud like Subotic adding talent to our backline, we have Clarence Goodson who got toasted by a Mexico B team in Gold Cup final. sigh

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  6. Great article Ives.

    Subotic: Came to the states at the age of 11 and took advantage of the opportunities that were given to him by the U.S of A. Fine, you wanted to play for a country that showed no love to you and your family, I respect that. But I still consider you a BUM!:) I’m glad this clown doesn’t play for us, I would hate for someone to play for us and not really feel the colors… Subotic? hhmm.. more like Gaybotic.lol

    Rossi: A straight up American kid. Who is he kidding. He has more in common with Jozy than any of his Italian teamates. This clown walks around with a big mac in his hands a Yankee cap over his head and a pair of headphones over his ears listening to Jay-z. GTFOutaHEREEE! Rossi, more like Possi!

    I’m glad we still have ADDDUUUU though!!:)

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  7. Agree w/ green. Subotic, like Rossi, is irrelevant to US Soccer. Let’s talk about the guys who are on the team and in the pool.

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  8. Blokhin – What a bunch of judgmental hate-filled nonsense. Seriously – how dare you judge someone else for trying to take there family from a war-torn country rife with ethnic cleansing. “Purported refugees”?Disgusting. What is shameful is not spending “coin” on people like Subotic’s family. It’s spending it on people such as yourself bringing to the US their hate-filled attitudes.

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  9. Chris

    What on Earth is this coment about”:

    “I didn’t hear anyone complaining when David Regis was lining up for the US at the World cup a few years’ back…”

    Every single time Regis stepped on the field, whether throught some sort of political agenda or otherwise, people threw absolute fits.

    And back up the “caprpet bagger” nonsense or don’t bring it up. Regis got citizenship because he had an American wife – nothing scandalous or inappropriate here. He was clearly going to get US citizenship at some point, and would have even if he wasn’t even a soccer player.

    There is no less controversial way to get citizenship than through (legitimate) marriage. Even the far right, anti-immigrant crowd does not usually have a problem with this, though some US soccer fans do when you bring up Regis. His dedication to the US team through WC 2002, his well-publicized comments after 9/11, which where more heartfelt and sincere than any comments I read from any other US national teamers, all make unsupported “carpet bagger” comments like yours ring awfully hollow. But go ahead and hate away…

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  10. Rongen is the problem. He’s single-handedly pissed off enough people that they are unwilling to support him. And that’s wrong. He’s not the US. He’s just a tempermental coach that has been fired time and time again and has won, nothing.

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  11. Correct, Rongen emphatically claimed he wasn’t good enough for his team, then put down the German team. The injury story is a CYA history rewrite by USSF.

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  12. If he was Bundesliga quality as a teenager I think he would have been noticed sooner or later (i.e.–playing college soccer). I am sure the US youth program sped along his development and definitely raised his profile, but I don’t know if we can assume that a guy with his talent would be at McDonald’s if not for one chance encounter.

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  13. Some people are giving Rongen way too much wiggle room. Subotic is gone, with his real plans and character faults, but Rongen is still here. Rongen’s biggest downside, he rated Neven very poorly. Rongen’s personal policy on dual nationals is also a problem. He has set conditions for these players that are more severe than FIFA. Forget Subotic. Rongen is in position to chase away more dual nationals, today.

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  14. Wikipedia is easier to cite in a minute rather than calling up academic articles/books.

    The Serbs weren’t under assault, but would you want to raise your children in a city where ethnic cleansing was going on?

    If Subotic had just been a very good soccer player instead of a world-class player and ended up returning to work as a engineer/doctor/businessman in Germany, Serbia, or Bosnia after his formative years in the U.S. would you hold such a grudge and call into question whether he and his family were “refugees”

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  15. I don’t see how anyone can have beef with Subotic. He qualified for at least 3 countries and looked poised to play for us but Rongen blew him off. What else was he going to do. Sit around and wait until someone realized Rongen was wrong and came calling?

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  16. people jump on rossi for choosing Italy beacause he was born here. Then these people do the same with Subotic even though he was born in Serbia and he felt wronged by the US U-20 youth coach who stopped calling him up. Stupid much? One did not want to play with an underachieving (at the time) and chose the easy way out, the other tried hard but was told he wasn’t good enough. I didn’t see him playing for the Serbian youth teams. It’s not his fault that someone else recognized his talent…and that he had a Serbian passport.

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  17. Martin,

    I believe Im correct in saying that Subotic’s family moved to the USA for opportunity, and the chance to make it.. This is a country of immigrants, the least he could do is play soccer for the country that gave him and his family a chance…

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  18. or if he stayed in serbia or germany he would be just as likely to latch on with a professional outfit there, and we wouldnt be talking about him.

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  19. This guy I don’t care about, he never cared about the USA. He came to this country to rip the benefits and freedom. This is the guy we should be keeping out of our country not the hard working people from other countries that want to make this their home once they settle here, this guy is an opportunist and a schmock (spell check needed). Rossi is just a traitor.He was born here, he should have represented a country hungry for talent like his (Rossi). This guy never arrived, he was just a punk.

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