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Several months of posturing have led to a compromise in the tug-of-war between the Montreal Impact and Houston Dynamo in the battle for Brian Ching.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the Impact are dealing Ching to the Dynamo for a conditional draft pick. Ching is also taking a paycut in the trade that should help the Dynamo create some space on its salary cap.
In the final analysis, the Dynamo have made out like bandits in the trade because the deal effectively means Houston could wind up freeing up cap space the size of a major allocation (from $100K to $200K) for a conditional draft pick.
It is difficult to call the trade a victory for the Impact considering the other players Montreal could have had in the expansion draft. That may be a bit of 20/20 hindsight though, as it is clear Montreal made the move with the hopes of prying more from Houston, like say Canadian defender Andre Hainault.
Now, the Dynamo get back the talismanic striker who will serve as club captain for what is expected to be his final season as a player.
Are you serious? The Dynamo got everything they wanted and Montreal looks stupid for it. Why you jelly?
Idiot, Ching said himself he would have left himself exposed because he supports the TEAM not his own self interest. AND he also knows that the TEAM is better off with a paycut, and considering he has an open job in FO basically for life, he agreed to that as well. This is an unselfish guy doing what he thinks is best for this organization. You would told Dom and Chris that? Well good for us that Brian Ching is 10 times the man you are.
that and take vacations while we work for slave wages …
Vancouver and TFC may be the best teams in he East this year…not a bad formula
Wow, it looks like Montreal gets the shaft here. A conditional draft pick? Ching is worth more than that.
Dynamo made fools of themselves. No one looks good after this.
As a neutral I have to disagree. Houston managed to save themselves some serious embarrassment, but still come off as jerks.
Way to treat your star well – leave him exposed, then let him languish on another team for months, then force him to take a massive pay cut before you will trade to get him back. If I were Brian, I would have told Dom and Chris to shove it up their you-know-what.
Houston fans still think they are better than others. That’s what you get when you are gifted a winning team from the start – no perspective.
I wouldn’t be shocked if this deal is similar to the one Greg Berhalter played under last year, where a portion of his salary was allocated as a player, and the rest was allocated as an assistant coach. Given that Houston and Ching have more-or-less insinuated that he will be retiring after 2012 and joining the club in another capacity, I could easily see the Union allowing him to restructure a player-coach deal where the compensation is split between separate budgets. Hence, the smaller cap figure for the Dynamo’s senior roster.
I’m not talking relatedness in terms of the professional conduct nor similarities of the players. I’m talking relatedness in terms of the “Can we please stop hearing about this all the time, just make a deal and make on” aspect.