Hell Freezes Over: Revs to Pursue Designated Player

Stunned.

But in a good way.  A very good way.

Check out what Brian Bilello told Frank Dell’Apa in today’s Globe:

“In talking with ownership, their priority was not just getting better but they want to get better quickly,’’ Bilello said before Real Salt Lake defeated the Revolution, 2-1. “While they understand there are some things that may take a little bit of time to do, they want us to think about ways that we can get better very quickly.

“What we’ve decided on is we’ll be looking to bring in a designated player this offseason. Our goal would be to find a designated player before the 2011 season kicks off, but it’s hard to guarantee it because we don’t have players lined up or signed or anything like that.’’

Wait… it gets better.

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Would you take Taylor Twellman back?

Pure hypothetical with zero inside information… let’s say Taylor Twellman comes back to the Revs and says he’ll play the next two seasons for $150,000/year.  Would you take that deal if you’re the Revs?  What if it’s $100,000?  Or is it just time for the organization to move on, no matter how much he’s willing to play for?

On the plus side, if he ever does regain even 80% of his prior form, he’s well worth the money.  On the down side, there’s a decent chance you’ll just be throwing away $150,000/year.

Personally, I think about $135,000/year is what I’d feel comfortable bringing him back at.

Badilla Waived… and Nothing Else is Happening

Per FDA’s blog, the Revs have waived monumental disappointment Gabriel Badilla:

Defender Gabriel Badilla has been waived by the Revolution, a team source confirmed Wednesday night. The move opens a roster spot which is expected to be filled by…

If I pretend the next line in this story doesn’t exist, I think that increases the chance it won’t actually happen.

Kudos to the Revs for cutting their losses and moving on.

Revs Notebook: Barnes Signed, Perovic Next?

Kudos to the Revs for getting 2nd year defender Darrius Barnes signed to a multi-year contract.  It’ll be interesting to see the numbers and cap hit on that, though.

I Really Like Marko Perovic

It’s not quite a DVD Player in terms of scouting, but after watching a few You Tube clips of Serbian midfielder Mark Perovic, I really hope the Revs sign him.  Take a look:

Big kid… quick feet… skilled… good in traffic… and yes, I realize it was pretty poor defending.

Revs Sign Midfielder No One Has Ever Heard Of

Welcome to Foxboro(ugh), Niouky Desire…

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution announced today that Senegalese central midfielder Niouky Desire has signed a contract with Major League Soccer to play for the Revolution. He will occupy one of the team’s eight international roster spots. Per MLS and club policy, terms of the deal were not released. He will join the team pending receipt of his U.S. P-1 Visa.

Desire, 23, has played Dakar-based Port Autonome for the past four seasons. Before joining Port Autonome, he featured for ASC Diaraf, another club based in Dakar, for four seasons.

“We’re pleased that we were able to bring Niouky to the Revolution,” Revolution Vice President of Player Personnel Michael Burns said. “He’s a traditional center midfielder who is comfortable in different formations, and he will give us depth in the middle of the field.”

I want to like this signing, I really do.  But bringing a guy no one has ever heard of, and then saying he’ll add depth to the midfield sounds like a Stephane Assengue-style “we found this guy nobody knows about in Africa and we think he’s decent, and we only have to pay him $48,000/year” move.

God, I hope I’m wrong.  But I would feel a lot better if Burnsie or Nicol came out and said something like, “Niouky will be a big part of the team this year and we have high hopes for his future with the club.”

Revs Hand Reinaldo Navia a Three Day Trial

According to numerous sources, including the team’s official blog, the Revs will fly in 31-year old free agent Chilean forward Reinaldo Navia into town next week for a three day trial.  A bronze medalist from the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Navia is a veteran of the Mexican League, who has played sparingly the last several seasons.  In fact, FC Dallas tried to sign him two years ago, but were unsuccessful.

In this video, he certainly looks the part:

Mike Burns: Professional Liar

I realize that you can never take snippets of information from coaches and General Managers as absolute gospel.  If the Revs really are in the market for an attacking midfielder, it doesn’t do them any good to announce it to the world, because most player agents have internet access these days.

But honest to God, Mike Burns… who ya crappin’?

New England will have fill the significant hole created by Larentowicz’s departure. Larentowicz and Shalrie Joseph formed one of the top central midfield tandems in the league over the past couple of seasons, forging a bond that saw Joseph lobby publicly for a new deal for his partner several times during the course of the 2009 season and prompted Larentowicz to say he was “indebted to Shalrie for being able to play next to him” after the deal went down. There are choices in-house – Pat Phelan would make the most sense as a like-for-like replacement – but no one player currently on the books can replace Larentowicz’s contribution.

“If (the deal) means we have to go out and try to replace Jeff, then we’ll do that, but we feel like we have guys on our roster that can fill that void,” Burns said.

My Head Might Actually Explode

Honest to God, I really think Steve Nicol is trying to kill me:

“We’ve just taken the best striker in the country in the draft,” said Nicol. “[Edgaras] Jankauskas is coming back, Taylor [Twellman] is coming back, and we also have Kheli Dube, so we have four good strikers at the moment.”

I’m going to be optimistic and suggest that the over/under on the number of combined games Twellman and Jankauskas will play next year is 25.

Gibbs Trade Awaiting League Approval

According to multiple sources, it appears the Revolution and Colorado Rapids are awaiting final approval on a trade that will send the rights to Jeff Larentowicz and midfielder Wells Thompson to the Mile High City in exchange for veteran defender Cory Gibbs, backup goalkeeper Preston Burpo, a 2011 draft pick and cash.

Gibbs is was a pretty good player when healthy.  The problem is that he hasn’t been terribly healthy since he left FC Dallas for Feyenoord in 2004.

My next question is, where is he going to play?  Is he going to play in the center of defense in place of either Darrius Barnes or Emmanuel Osei?  Does Osei push forward into the midfield to replace Larentowicz?  Could they even be thinking about playing Gibbs at left back, where he’s spent some time in the past?

Still, given Gibbs’ salary and injury history, it’s a pretty big gamble.  And it’ll be an even bigger gamble if Larentowicz ends up signing with the Rapids.