Chelsea close to signing Adu

[gosioux76]

London Times

Apparently Chelsea is on the verge of beating out Manchester United for the right to sign U.S. soccer prodigy Freddy Adu from D.C. United. The report says he could move to London after the World Cup. He would likely be sent on loan to gain first-team experience elsewhere before playing for the Blues.

[FiddySicks]

Wow. This is quite a suprise to me. Ive heard him on several occasions in interviews say he wants to stay in the USA and help make the MLS a competitive league. Big loss for the MLS if it does happen.

[gosioux76]

UPDATE: MLS now denies Adu will move to Europe

ESPN Soccernet

[officeglenn]

I thought I read somewhere after Arsenal signed Theo Walcott that players are not allowed to play in the English Premiership until the are 17 ? does anyone know if this is true? Or am I just on crack?

If that is true, I could see Chelsea or Man Utd or wherever he ends up loaning him back to an MLS club until that point, then bringing him back over. I believe Landon Donovan was technically on loan from a German club the whole time he played in San Jose. Then he went over there, didn't get much playing time, got out of his contract and came back to play for L.A.

[gosioux76]

Well, Walcott is 16 and he's been on the bench and eligible for Arsenal for at least their last game, if not last two.

I know one age issue, according to the Soccernet report, is the difficulty in getting a European work visa for anybody under 18.

[dwertman]

James Milner played for Leeds at 16,and Wayne Rooney played for Everton at 16 as well.They are not allowed to sign professional contracts until they are 17,but players on a youth contract can play for the senior team,however it is rare.

Also according to FIFA players under the age of 17 can only transfer twice in a calender year.

As far as him going to Chelsea,you gotta wonder if its in his own best intrest personally.I mean how many first team games is he gonna get in a side that features Drogba,Gudjohnson,Crespo,and Carlton Cole up front

[gordie_delini]

f-ing roman abramovich...that guy seriously pisses me off. as an ardent arsenal fan, i have to say i do not want to see adu go to chelski - as an american soccer fan, i don't want to see him leave the US so that he can help build the game up even more here.

and yes, landon donovan was on loan to san jose for a number of years from Bayer Leverkusen. He was then bought by LA last season outright.

[NJTank]

Adu needs to go to develop playing in the minors aka MLS wont help him develop.

[Phil]

...now try having this happen to the best 4 or 5 young players in the league every year, and you get an idea of how the CFL feels.

[CZzyzx41]

Big point is that in the MLS, Adu is considered a star and frankly he doesn't look like he's learning a thing. He's no better now than he was 3 years ago. Going to Europe gives him a chance to get out of the spotlight and into a situation where he either learns and improves, or heads back here to the States with his head between his legs. That's ok though. If he fails in England, he'll know that head between the legs feeling quite well.

[Mac the Knife]

...now try having this happen to the best 4 or 5 young players in the league every year, and you get an idea of how the CFL feels.

Except that in MLS' case at least, Americans don't care!

[CZzyzx41]

Really? Cause average game attendance for the MLS says otherwise. Average of about 14,842 a game last season. Last NHL season was 16591. The NBA is at 17,059 this season. Surely that puts the MLS at the 5th best attended sport in the USA, but I'd hardly say that America doesn't care about the sport. It's just the media fails to give it the attention that obviously it's fans say it deserves. In fact, the MLS is as successful at the gates as the Coca-Cola Championship League in England. That's one level below the Premier League (which averages over 33,000) which is considered by many as THE Premier League in the World.

So anyone telling you that American doesn't care about soccer, might not be as educated as you think they are. That or they hate soccer personally and just want to see it disappear.

[VitaminD]

Average of about 14,842 a game last season. Last NHL season was 16591. The NBA is at 17,059 this season. Surely that puts the MLS at the 5th best attended sport in the USA, but I'd hardly say that America doesn't care about the sport.

Technically, 6th. NASCAR touts itself as drawing more than 14,000 and change to their races. (However, I completely agree with your point, and I much prefer soccer to NASCAR. But facts are facts, disagreeable though they might be.)

[NJTank]

yeah but what are MLS stadiums capacitys.

Giants Stadium is huge if tehy wanted they could get 70,000 atleast but the Metros never ven come close to 70,000.

[paynomind]

Yes, it is the stadiums fault. Stupid stadiums!

If they played in a high schol gym, they'd sell out every game. Would that be more impressive? if they played in my backyard, I could sell out my home every game. Is that impressive?

Point being, if 14k go to games on average, they are doing well.

Most MLS teams play in football stadiums built way larger than most soccer crowds. The ones who play in soccer only stadiums sell out, because their capacity is more realistic.

Would the Nuggets/Hawks sell out the Georgia Dome's 70k? Not on your life. But they put some folks in Philips arena to the tune of 8-10k

Football is a whole different attendance standard.

[CZzyzx41]

yeah the Galaxy sell out a lot of games but they play in a 27,000 capacity soccer-only stadium. Funny thing though is that those who play in large football stadiums actually seem to have lower attendance draws than the others. I might not have that exactly right but...still 14,000+ is a lot for a sport no one supposedly cares about.

[gosioux76]

Funny thing though is that those who play in large football stadiums actually seem to have lower attendance draws than the others.

This makes perfect sense to me.

I've never been to an MLS game, but I'd guess that there wouldn't be much of an atmosphere in an NFL stadium that's only one-quarter filled. I'd rather go to a game in a lower capacity, soccer-specific stadium where it's hard to get a seat.

AT least the crowd noise won't get lost in the echo.

[dwertman]

My point being that,while training in the Chelsea system would be better for him,he wont play alot for a while.I mean Shawn Wright Phillips wasnt even on the bench for there game with Liverpool,and he cost them 20 some million.

Chelsea just buy players now to keep the Arsenals and the Man Utds from getting the,m

[CZzyzx41]

Unfortunately while it's good business for Chelsea (as long as they can really afford it) it's not good for the game. Look at Bayern Munich and Lyon. That's not fun football. At least for me.

Anyways back to the topic at hand, I don't think the MLS will lose a ton by letting Adu go. Those who are fans are still going to come. As for Freddie, I think he is much better off going to a top European squad who can coach him into the player he could be. As I said earlier, at the moment he hasn't shown that he's learned much while he's been in the MLS.

[Phil]

Funny thing though is that those who play in large football stadiums actually seem to have lower attendance draws than the others.

This makes perfect sense to me.

I've never been to an MLS game, but I'd guess that there wouldn't be much of an atmosphere in an NFL stadium that's only one-quarter filled. I'd rather go to a game in a lower capacity, soccer-specific stadium where it's hard to get a seat.

AT least the crowd noise won't get lost in the echo.

Beyond that, think of the business end of things.

The team that's got 27,000 fans per game obviously has a lot of support for soccer, which helps them get a soccer-only stadium built. It's a tougher sell to build a team that draws 10K their own yard. Of course, the soccer-only stadium then helps raise the sport's profile in the area, and things build on one another.

In many ways, its a chicken-egg type scenario.

As far as attendance per game being an appropriate statistic for the sport's popularity... that's pretty much bogus.

Somewhat more appropriate is total seasonal attendance (although even that's a bit skewed). If every NFL team played 82 games a season, you wouldn't see the same per game attendance you do now.

The fact that MLS teams draw 14,000 people per game is impressive, I'm not taking anything away from that, but if an NHL team draws 16-18K per game to a season that is more than twice as long, I think that puts it well ahead.