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If this winter seemed like an especially busy period for American players in Europe, it's because we saw more movement in this transfer window than in any window in recent memory.
By the close of the transfer period in England on Tuesday, a total of eight Americans had made moves in the month of January. Most of them were loans, but all of them were taking players to vastly different destinations than they were coming from.
In my latest Fox Soccer piece, I gave a rundown of all eight transfers and loans involving Americans in Europe. Give the story a read and feel free to take part in an informal poll. We ask two questions.
Which of the eight transfers/loans do you think will be the most successful?
Which of the eight transfers/loans do you see being the most disastrous?
Tell us your choice for each question after the jump:
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Who did you vote for? Which of the transfers or loans are you most excited for? Which are you most worried about?
Share your thoughts below.
I think Adu is in a situation where if he plays, scores goals and learns how to help his team, it will still be not much of a success, it is the SECOND division in Turkey where, after the first 4 teams in the first division the quality falls way off.
Anything less than an absolute stellar performance is a disaster! And there will be many physical Turkish defenders taking turns stopping him.
i didnt forget, much to my own chagrin. i like Findley too, its just that hes not international quality. its ok to be good enough to play in europe but not good enough for international duty. its still 20x’s better than i ever was.
And I think Eddie Johnson is on his way back to MLS this summer. I can’t see him lighting it up in da North End.
Wow. No faith in Freddy Adu. I think he will do better than most think, considering he will be playing for an obscure club in asia minor.
MB is our 5th best middie – Donovan, Dempsey, Jones, Holden are all clearly a step in class up from him.
Still #5 at age 23 is pretty good, and it’s not his fault dad thinks son is number 1.
He’s the youngest of the 5 so he still has room to improve, hopefully Villa works out well for MB and USMNT.
Please don’t put C Ronaldo’s name in same sentence as Jozy’s – kid is under enough pressure already.
But since you did, on work rate it’s C by a mile.
Jozy at Hull was an out of shape schlub. Back to Villareal he realized he couldn’t carry on like that or it would end his playing career prematurely.
Still Jozy is far from the fittest player on the field, which has cost him and USMNT goals. Being young does not excuse being out of shape; just the opposite.
Hopefully the Turkish diet and pressure agrees with him.
You forgot – Findley is starting World Cup material according to BB.
Not that he had a lot of better options, but still, picking the worst of 3 poor options, sigh.
I like the kid and it’s not his fault, but he was obviously in way over his head there. Hope he heals faster than expected and does well at his true level with Nottingham.
Nice one dude….
Pancholama dude you are the MAN!! I was just about to make a comment and read your post and damn…it’s easy how people forget just because they are disappointed or things are not going right, how they can forget the way Adu electrified the field in the presence of Altidore, holden, bradley(all on one team), now, all of a sudden, he was never that good or he’s too small or never did anything in MLS, hahahaha wow…..and can’t figure out that he is going through problems because Benefica is asking too much for loans or his contract.
We are all disappointed but it’s nice to see some Adu fans still out there still keeping it real…..
I think I finally came up with a good assessment of Freddy adu. He reminds me of those And 1 mixtape basketball players; you see him on YouTube, etc doing amazing individual skills with the ball, but when he’s placed in a professional setting and having to play organized, structured football within the framework of his coaches playing style, he is pretty much worthless. Very sad
Rico sucks at defense? What does he do as a soccer player then?
The only people who overrate him are Bob Bradley and Nottingham Forest.
I know the actual shot wasn’t that great, but I love watching that replay over and over, just because of the way he straight tosses Capdevila like a child.
Too dark to be Rico. Definitely Beasley.
Marked. Do you like fried food? I know a great fried crow recipe. I’ll show it to you later.
Wicks sucks d!#@$!
Had to go with Gooch for most successful loan, mostly because I feel if he stayed on the bench with Milan his chances of remaining the undisputed number one center back for the USA would diminish. Slowly, but surely. A move to a team where he will play regularly and has a history with the management should lead to success.
From a national team standpoint, I had to go with Buddle for most disastrous loan. The MLS may not be a top league, but it can’t be worse than the German third division where Buddle may soon find himself. Buddle had a little momentum with the USA coming off a great season with the Galaxy, but I think it’s safe to say he’ll be off BB’s radar from here on out.
I mentioned Holden. As for Rico, he was riding the bench until recently and now he’s injured again, so we shall see. Onyewu is the most obvious case where an injury sunk him. There’s also Charlie Davies and Kenny Cooper.
I picked Onyewu having the best loan. Everyone else seems to have had some playing time so I’m going with the Gooch. Jones & Bradley shouldn’t have any issues breaking in the lineups.
I hope everything goes well for Adu. If you guys are in any Portugal soccer forums, scroll to the Benfica sections. There you will find large amount of post about Adu. The Benfica fans argue why players like Nico Gaitan keeps getting breaks, yet Adu gets no love from the coaches. Believe or not my friends, the Benfica fans still scream for this American kid. They know talent when they see it. He did well in Aris, so I know talent is not the issue. for those that keep arguing over Adu’s defensive work,.. PlEaSe stop that nonsense. The last time I checked, Torres,Finley,Sasha,Buddle,Jozy,Rico, all suck in regards to “D” duties. And some of these players are defensive minded guys.
For the gentlemen that said he would take Dos santos over Adu, I say, BWAUUU! What has that bench warmer done in Europe lately? He will right the bench over at Racing like he has done ever since leaving Barca. I will say that Mexicans do a great job in taking care of their bench warmers, unlike us.lol Vela+Dos=Wack!:)
Nicely Put
It is incredible how poorly regarded Michael Bradley is by some people. From what I can tell, Bradley has played more games in top European leagues by the age of 23 than any American ever. He has scored more goals in Europe than any American player his age. His father did not score 18 goals in one year for him.
Equally ridiculous to the claims of paternalism are the stupid comments made about his class. I don’t care into what family he was born, the man works as hard on the pitch as any American I have seen play. It is funny that he is compared to Dempsey in this regard as the “working class” Dempsey is the one who is more likely to drift out of a game.
Bradley’s attitude and work ethic remind me most of America’s most successful Premier League player, Brian McBride. I see no reason why Bradley should not at least match his level of success.
Bradley has said me admires Roy Keane and models his game after him. Mr. Keane himself has said he was never the most athletic or technically gifted player, but this never stopped him from being perhaps the most influential player on the best team in the world at one point.
I think Bradley has the perfect outlook and abilities for success in England.
I wish Freddy Adu and Eddie Johnson would wake up already and realize that they are ment to be in the MLS. Hey look at what Donovan has done in his career. the guy bombed in Germany twice, but yet dominated with the MLS and the US. Then goes to England when he was a better player and he dominated with Everton. I really think thats what Adu needs to do, Johnson, I just dont know if he has what it takes to play in the top leagues in Europe.
i voted for freddy in the second poll feeling bad because i thought i was being to hard but when i saw the poll percentage lets just say i didn’t feel so bad anymore
i think EJ just because he is on a team that is at the bottom of the table in the championship which shows its not the greatest team for a striker looking to score goals. may not get the best service. jozy’s team is top of the table and should be able to find PT and eventually goals against lesser opponents. hopefully same with freddy, Rizepor is in top three in second division. it does help when you play and play with a better team than the rest. it findley did play i think he’d do well with forest who are 4th in the table so they can obviously play.
Villa might not be stacked in the midfield in terms of quality but they have around 12 midfielders now, which includes Bradley and among them the team has some solid, though not spectacular, midfielders like Reo-Coker, Pires, Makoun, and Petrov. It could go either way for Bradley, though I suspect if he has a couple of bad games he might find himself in Houllier’s doghouse.
People think he’s a world class player? I don’t think so. But I take your point – there are probably people who still cling to the idea that he could come good and be a special player. It’s just not going to happen. His performance in the U-20 world cup (2007, I think?) a few years ago was so electrifying, a lot of us (myself included) have never quite let go. But Jozy and Michael Bradley, also on that team, have far surpassed him and I just don’t see him recovering. I’m not even sure MLS teams would want him now.
I think a lot of the “work ethic” complaints about Jozy stem from the way he moves about the pitch. He’s tall and slender and never looks to be moving too fast. He has that tall athlete glide like Cam Newton or Terrelle Pryor.
Also, he doesn’t chase down every play like a Wayne Rooney.
I know we’d like to see Jozy hustle a bit more, but its just not his style. C Ronaldo caught a lot of flack for the same thing, but he seems to do pretty well in spite of the criticism.
He is however an absolute pest for defenders and is a very physical guy to mark. (ask Capdevilla)
Lets be honest here. Freddy is a victim of his own hype. Look at the stats.
He never dominated in MLS. He was talented, but had many flaws. He never put up the phenom type numbers we saw from Dempsey or Jozy. Freddy had 13 goals in nearly 100 games in MLS.
He can’t defend and he is small and slow.
He shows poor tactical ability and disappears in matches.
I can’t understand why still, after all he has been through, people still think he is a world class player. I just don’t see it.
Jermaine Jones doesn’t count – yet. Let him play for the USMNT a few times in meaningful games and avoid conflict with the staff and players, then he’ll be in.
So, after JJ, the best move is Gooch back to his old boss in Twente. No way to tell how the other moves may pan out.
Sadly, Adu’s fate is a near given.
I also picked Robbie Findlay for the same reason. It just goes to show how much people are fed up with Freddie Adu believers that they could be blinded to the fact that a player who was bordrline to begin with and will be out for 2/3’s of the rest of the season simply has to be a slam dunk for “disaster”.
I’m still not sure how Findley is overrated…
thats silly. Holden broke his leg after one game and is now a penciled in starter ever game. Rico Clark pulled a hammy i believe, and as very limited last year but is now playing good minutes playing out of position.