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John returning to FC Dallas

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

George John's loan spell to West Ham will not be turning into a full transfer after all.

FC Dallas announced that the star centerback will be returning to the club following the conclusion of his loan to the League Championship side. 

While John has impressed in reserve fixtures by all accounts, he had yet to crack a matchday roster for the first team, raising some eyebrows about his future there. He departed for London after withdrawing from the U.S. national team's January camp — which was his first call-up by Jurgen Klinsmann — in hopes of securing a full transfer after a potential summer move to Blackburn fell through.

Assuming that he remains with FC Dallas, his return is a huge coup for a team that spent a good portion of the offseason finding reinforcements in preparation for his departure. The club drafted Matt Hedges out of North Carolina and signed Colombian Under-23 centerback Hernan Pertuz to pair with Ugo Ihemelu in the center of the FCD defense. Now it would appear that a potential weak spot has been restored to a position of strength for the 2010 MLS finalists.

What do you think of this development?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. So who are all the prominent pundits and managers who have been asked who’s the better player?

    I know Ives used to rate John lower than any of the other good CB’s in the league just two years ago and Ream the highest as such Ives should have an interesting take on how they rank today. Why not ask him next Q&A and stop with the theoreticals

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  2. exactly and they played a LOT of games.
    John played the most of any field player….yes even more than Shea with his USMNT games who we all excused for “having tired legs” at the end of last year…

    see where im going..?

    Its very easy to blame FCD drop in form on John and his Blackburn transfer.

    So easy in fact a few lazy bloggers did exactly that and a lot of lemmings ate it up, that doesnt make it true.

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  3. FC Dallas fans and pundits and coach Hyndman will also tell you that John is the most consistent player on the team…
    something the Castrol also attests to. (probably the only thing it attests to actually)

    So if John is a good player when he’s out of form what does that make him when he’s in form?

    What is there to hate about John and his game? Is it because some people think (myself included) that he’s a better player than Ream (or insert other American CB)?

    Find a better reason cornball

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  4. Well on paper Villa looks strong than Norwich, but that isn’t really helping them much right now is it? West Ham had Robbie Keane too last season and his missing a sitter basically cost West Ham the season.

    Yes, right now West Ham has a lot of filler, but aside from Carlton Cole there are a number of hungry youngsters with a lot of talent. Just because you haven’t heard of Sam Baldock or Nicky Maynard, or even James Tomkins, doesn’t mean they don’t have what it takes for the Prem.

    You look at any top England player, and their history, and see how many played at West Ham at one point of their career. Look at them and see how many went through West Ham’s Academy.

    West Ham isn’t some Championship also ran. It’s basically been a feeder club for the Top 4 and the English National team. The relegation was essential a reboot to cut much of the fat holding West Ham down.

    I’ll say without hesitation, that teams like West Ham, Leeds, Cardiff and Southampton are better than your Boltons, Wolves, Wigans, West Broms, and even your Stokes.

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  5. Neither norwich nor swansea jettisoned their squad to compete this year. And they are both comfortably midtable.

    The team that did replace its entire lineup is the one battling relegation.

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  6. Another Castrol guy. Look, this is football. Stats are virtually meaningless. Rating guys by Castrol stats over your own eyes and the opinions of prominent pundits and managers is silly.

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  7. The Villains are in 14th place and they have 4 or 5 players better than anyone on the Hammers. They pretty much have Carlton Cole and that’s it. The Championship level is nowhere near the EPL. It’s just not. If the Hammers win promotion, they will get a large bump in money and use it to get rid of half of their crappy players and buy some good ones like every Championship team does. I was trying to be nice by calling it hyperbole, but thinking that a 2nd place Championship team is better than mid-table EPL sides is nuts.

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  8. Castrol stats are nice to have, especially to make you take a second look at things, but they are generally extremely flawed. Eyeballs are better and most Dallas fans and pundits will tell you that his form dipped in the second half.

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  9. So despite John being at top of his craft in MLS for the past 2 years he needs to work his butt off for another 2-3 years to get good enough for a chance to make it while Ream can loose focus and play poorly for 1 of his 2 years playing pro and still be the darling of TomG and more importantly ACTUAL managers around the world.

    Lesson learned. life isn’t fair! 😛

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  10. I wouldn’t consider it hyperbole at all. West Ham have been doing extemely well this year and trouncing much of the opposition by 3+ goals. Just because you don’t know most of the names doesn’t mean they aren’t good. I’d say the current West Ham roster is better than last seasons roster.
    HOWEVER despite the recent form of the central defenders, there was concern that if Reid or Tomkins were injured, West Ham would not have anyone to back them up. Reid has basically been a starter by default due to the lack of depth. He barely had a game last season. Faye plays more a midfield role than CB. 17-year old Daniel Potts had his starts because there was no one left due to injuries!
    Had Reid not scored a goal at around the same time John joined the team on loan, he probably would have had at least one start.

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  11. He is on a free transfer in January so I have a feeling MLS was not asking much. West Ham brought him in thinking they were losing one of their CB’s during the winter transfer period and that did not happen so he was not needed. I expect him to stay and finis out the season and go somewhere in January.

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  12. So terrible that he stayed in the top10 of the Castrol all year with the other scrubs with crappy form. He must have been using that big money he gets from Dallas to bribe them

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  13. Of course George John fans will pimp his qualities. I don’t think he’s necessarily poor on the ball, but Ream has objectively better ball-handling skills. They’re actually great complements should they ever find themselves in the line-up together for USMNT…

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  14. My guess is since West Ham look favorites to go up, they didn’t really need him for the price MLS was asking. They might already know his value but want to keep him off the radar until the summer when they come back for him after their promotion to the EPL.

    This way his price remains the same and not increased because he showed well during the loan period.

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  15. I watched him play half a dozen games and although he is solid at the CB spot with decent a passing game I just didn’t see anything special that europe teams would be interested. Welcome back and lets go back to work.

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  16. That’s all true, except the George John fan boys were consistently telling everyone that George John was a better distributor and had better on the ball skills. Apparently, and not all that surprisingly, they were wrong. I like John and think he’ll turn out to be a great player, but Ream always seemed to be better suited to make the move the the EPL.

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  17. You mean, like Dallas? The upset in his career progression right now is self-inflicted. Dallas was going to be sufficient for Greek or US international play, which might then have been sufficient for a free or paid transfer move, etc. But he’s undermined a chance at the US by blowing them off, had hard luck with WH, maybe messed up things with FCD, who knows.

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  18. It’s kind of silly to even compare them since they are different types of players, but it’s pretty clear that Ream is much more highly rated by managers in MLS, Europe, and with the USMNT.

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  19. I think they had to weign the value of shaking up a roster that has them on pace for the EPL. In a similar situation Xerez was indifferent to Altidore a few years back.

    I don’t know where they’d fit in the EPL but QPR, Swansea, and Norwich, the promoted sides for this year, are all above relegation, and Norwich is #8, right behind Liverpool and ahead of some steady EPL teams like Everton and Fulham. Can a hyperbole accusation be…..hyperbolic?

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  20. His form also really dropped off last year after the transfer drama. He’s still a fairly young guy, and perhaps his head is getting in his way. CB is such a cerebral position after all.

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  21. It’s a setback, sure, but it’s not like this is the end of the world for him. He’s still pretty young and he just needs to find a decent club to settle into for a year or two, work his butt off and develop his technical ability.

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  22. They play the “same” position, but they’re completely different players. Bolton needed a distributor after losing Cahill, which is why they grabbed Ream. John isn’t that type of center back, he’s best suited to play lock-down and defend through the air.

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  23. Maybe there was some West Ham connection he wanted to try after Blackburn didn’t work but trying to squeeze his way into a table-topping side was perhaps unwise. Even if he’s deemed up to spec they have to evaluate the risk of messing with the lineup while getting results. It’s also worth noting that I think WH commented that he lacked international experience — his own fault, since he’s straddled the fence and left camps to self-promote — and if that was a concern he could have been pretty good but then always lacked that credential. Since Greek citizenship would have gotten him in England without a work permit, the international concern would seem to have been a desire for a player with particular experience he was not going to have yet.

    I felt like the loan period was complicating for another reason. It was not for the full English season and it took him out of the winter window. Since he’s under contract I don’t think he could have transferred now, it could only have been a loan extension followed by a re-assessment in the summer. Since I doubt FCD was handing him over for free, WH maybe felt it was stuck in a mid-term situation like Everton with Landon, where a loan merely kicks the ball down the street, but they maybe didn’t want to pay the going rate.

    This also goes back to my concern with these loan deals, there isn’t much of a way they turn out 100% great for MLS. Malcontents, want-aways, injuries. If they play well, you start an unnecessary tug of war. I’ve come to believe we should give a standard 1-2 week trial on for-sale players, and nothing else. No more getting the milk for 2-3 months without buying the cow. Unless they’re sold I think we bear too much downside risk. What do we do with John now?

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  24. FWIW, West Ham could probably handle Blackburn this season…

    It’s tough cracking an English line-up. West Ham is no slouch. They’ve been mighty impressive this season and are a lock for promotion. Allardyce has them well prepared not only for a return to the Prem but to stay there.

    Nothing to be ashamed of for John, he received valuable training and experience with the club. I expect him to jump back to England when his contract runs out after this season. Might be a good candidate for the Olympic roster this summer too; it’d give him some valuable international experience.

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  25. His form was already awful the second half of last year following all the transfer drama. Hopefully it will improve once he settles in with a club.

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  26. George John is the best defender in MLS period. As a FCD fan, I am happy he is back. I think he can play and be a starter in any TOP league in Europe. England, Italy, Spain, Germany, etc. Anybody who thinks Tim Ream is a better defender needs to have they head checked.

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  27. I’m sure NYRB would give all their picks, prospects and allocations for John, but they don’t value those things, anyway. If they trade Agudelo for him, I will officially renounce my ties with the team.

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  28. Internet managers are notoriously fickle. It’s pretty clear that multiple ACTUAL managers have weighed in on this debate and found John wanting. They are different sorts of players, though, so the debate is not that relevant anyway.

    I hope John gets another chance. He’s got the passport and the size. He’s not too old to improve his technique and make his way into the USMNT picture and possibly a big league in 2-3 years if works his butt off.

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  29. Well this shoots down what I was saying in a previous entry, however I still think he could have found a place at West Ham. The length of the loan was really the killer.
    Despite being in the Championship League, West Ham is top of the table and is probably in better form than the bottom half of the Prem table.

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  30. I got a feeling his form is going to nosedive. That must’ve been very frustrating for a player who was so close to playing in Europe and now returns to MLS.

    What happened at West Ham that they didn’t even put him on a matchday roster?

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  31. wonder if FCD will consider a trade w/ SJ. we’re going to be thin at CB this year since Hernandez has been injured most of preseason, Bernardez picked up a knee injury in Portland last night, and Ike Opara looks set to make the Olympic team after captaining the US against Mexico. we’re going to need some depth there and have more midfielders than we need at this point- and are trying to sign another!

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  32. Good that FCD gets him back. Bad that they used draft picks and $$ trying to replace him.

    Unless he ends up being sold afterall.

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  33. West Ham have 3 CBs that are in very good form at the moment: James Tomkins (Former U-21 England international), Winston Reid (New Zealand international), and Abdoulaye Faye (Senegal international). They all happen to be playing well and healthy (although Reid just picked up an injury this week playing for the Kiwis).

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  34. what does 1 expect when you give a player 6-8weeks of loan time to a club at the top of their division? John is good enough for sure at the Championship. Maybe he will find better luck this summer with a newly promoted PL club. He still has the EU passport. Maybe a top Greek team will go for him.

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  35. How is a player Blackburn were willing to pay for not good enough to make the match-day roster of a Championship team? Did he just not impress during his loan or is West Ham just stacked in the back?

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