New England Takes Benny Feilhaber, But Are Open For A Trade

There was little effort made on the part of the Houston Dynamo to hide the fact that they were interested in Benny Feilhaber. Throughout the allocation process, the Dynamo were prominently mentioned as a possible destination for the versatile midfielder. For whatever reason, though, they were never able to work out a trade. Now, Dynamo Theory, SB Nation's Houston Dynamo blog, seems perfectly fine with moving on:

There is no doubt Houston could have benefited from a player like Feilhaber but not being able to work out a trade to bring him to town is not the end of the world. We know Canetti was looking to offer some kind of trade package with player(s) unknown in order to get Benny's rights and the team now sits third in the allocation list and hasn't had to part with anyone of their roster. More importantly, the team retains cap space that can be used in the summer transfer window.

Despite rampant speculation that the would turn around and trade Benny Feilhaber, the New England Revolution appear content to hold onto the midfielder. The Revolution have issued a press release announcing the addition of Feilhaber to their roster and have also called a press conference where Feilhaber will talk about his new team. Both moves would seem to be clear signals that Steve Nicol and the Revolution brass have seen the clear value in adding a player of Feilhaber's caliber, despite his significant price tag.

"We’re very pleased that Benny was available to us through the Allocation Process," Vice President of Player Personnel Michael Burns said in a team release. "Benny is a talented, versatile player who instantly will make our team better. We’re looking forward to getting him into a Revolution uniform as soon as possible."

While nothing precludes the Revolution from turning around and dealing Feilhaber if the right deal was found, it now looks likely that Feilhaber will get a chance to join forces with the likes of Shalrie Joseph and Ousmane Dabo. If Nicol goes with a 4-3-3 formation, the trio would be among the most decorated and talented in the league. Dabo, who has yet to play for the Revolution this year, has played for such teams as Lazio of Serie A and Manchester City. Joseph, when available, has been among the best central midfielders in the league. Feilhaber was on the most recent United States World Cup team and just finished a stint in the Danish first division with AGF Aarhus.

Well, the Benny Feilhaber saga has at least come ... well ... somewhere. He has been claimed by the New England Revolution, but they are supposedly trying to trade him and the Houston Dynamo look to be the team most interested in acquiring his services.

In the meantime, though, let's at least assume he's going to play for the Revolution. The Bent Musket, SB Nation's New England Revolution blog, certainly would like that to be the case and is already imagining a three-man midfield that features Feilhaber playing in front of Ousmane Dabo and Shalrie Joseph:

Doesn't that look nice? Shalrie Joseph finally won't have the burden of ball-winner AND creator heaped on his shoulders; he and Dabo can focus on plugging passing lanes, winning the ball and spraying passes from a deeper position, and can pick and choose their spots to make late runs forward and score.

But even if Steve Nicol doesn't stick with his preferred 4-3-3, it seems like Feilhaber could fit in nicely as a wide midfielder in a 4-4-2. Is it much excitement too soon? We'll see.

The long day of wondering where Benny Feilhaber is going to end up in Major League Soccer is nearly over. After Chivas USA decided to pass on Feilhaber, the Philadelphia Union followed suit, and New England decided to end the waiting...for now at least.

The Revs have taken Feilhaber via the allocation order but are currently looking for trade offers. 

The likely candidate for a trade partner is the Houston Dynamo. Dominic Kinnear's club has been very interested in Feilhaber since he signed with the league last week. We'll know soon enough if Feilhaber is a Rev or if he has been shipped elsewhere. 

We still don't know where Benny Feilhaber will end up playing, but we now know that it won't be with Chivas USA. The team has released a statement from coach Robin Fraser explaining the decision:

"This was a really difficult decision because we had to look at a number of factors, first and foremost being if we take him and accommodate his salary within our salary cap, how much is that going to limit us going forward. Certainly we’re looking to address some needs on the team, and having Benny would’ve been great in our midfield, because he’s a very, very good player, but the fact of the matter is his salary would’ve been so high that we wouldn’t have been able to make any adjustments going forward. The summer window coming up is an important time for us and we’d like to position ourselves to make some moves that we think are going to further improve our team."

"It was a difficult decision to pass on Benny, but we just feel that we have more needs than the one person could’ve addressed, and his salary would have inhibited our ability to make improvements that we think we need. Benny’s salary, given where we are, was not something that we were going to be able to take on, and so we then felt like it was important that we retain this number one allocation because as players come back through this mechanism, we will have first choice at getting them."

Various reports have suggested that Feilhaber signed for about $400,000 a year, meaning his salary cap hit is essentially equivalent to a Designated Player's. Considering Chivas USA added significant salary during the offseason in the form of defenders Jimmy Conrad and Heath Pearce, as well as several other players signed from foreign leagues, it should not be surprising that they did not have a ton of cap space.

Rumors were flying around for most of the day that Chivas USA was trying to trade out of the top allocation spot. The one upside to skipping the pick is that they retain the top spot the next time a United States National Team player signs with the league.

Feilhaber's agent, Lyle Yorks, was apparently taken off guard by the decision. A tweet he made implied that Feilhaber may have been expecting to play there.

With Benny Feilhaber returning to America to play in Major League Soccer, the question as always has to be asked, who is next? Who is the next Jay DeMerit, Charlie Davies or Kenny Cooper that went to Europe to play and decided it was time to come back home and play in MLS. 

The question really got brought up Tuesday because there was talk that Chivas USA could pass on Feilhaber  and retain their top spot in the allocation order, the system used to place USMNT players like Feilhaber with a MLS club. Passing would mean they have their eye set on someone listed below that could be returning to MLS this summer. 

The pool of possible players returning isn't that big and it includes the usual names. I've thrown a couple out there that could happen down the road too, and a couple just for fun.

Contracts expiring soon

Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton; contract expires summer of 2011)

It has been no secret that Hahnemann wants to come back to MLS and play in one of the Pacific Northwest clubs. Most believe he'd like to end up with the Seattle Sounders FC to replace the retiring Kasey Keller. But can he wait until the end of the season to do that? I doubt it. Plus, I doubt Seattle will be able to snag him this summer should he decide to come home unless they make a move up the allocation order to get him.

Eddie Johnson (Preston North End via Fulham; contract expires summer of 2011)

The "Grown-Ass Man" has bounced around since leaving Kansas City a couple years ago. He falls in that Kenny Cooper class of players that just never banned out in Europe for various reasons. We know he can be a quality striker in MLS, it is just a matter of finding a coach willing to put up with him and a system that fits his style of play properly. He will finish his contract with Fulham without scoring a single goal for the Cottagers, while scoring just seven total during loan stints with Cardiff, Aris, and Preston.

His time in Greece with Aris may have been his best while in Europe. He could still have some interest from teams in Greece or from other smaller leagues across the pond. But I'd imagine there are a couple MLS clubs that would be willing to put up with him in hopes that he cashes in for them on the pitch.

Demarcus Beasley (Hannover 96; contract expires summer of 2012)

His contract may have a little more time than others listed here but DMB has hinted numerous times that he'd return to MLS before long. With the number of injuries he's picked up over the years and the fact that he hasn't been getting any quality playing time at Hannover. Like Feilhaber, he'll likely have to take a considerable pay cut to return here but he may be up for it if he really wants to play. 

Long shots for August but could be possible

Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Étienne)

A couple folks out there believe that should Chivas pass it is because they believe they can bring in Bocanegra this summer. Crazy thought but its a "ya-never-know" kind of one. Bocanegra would certainly be a big signing for any MLS club, especially one like Chivas that still need some defensive work. Fraser knows how to build a defense as we saw during his time in Salt Lake. A backline of Bocaengra, Jimmy Conrad, Zarek Valentin, and Heath Pearce seems nice to me. 

Freddy Adu (Rizespor via Benfica)

You can't tell me that playing in a second division in Turkey is better than playing in MLS. Adu may be finally getting some decent playing time there but at some point he has to just suck it up and face the facts that he is no longer the prodigy son to American soccer. Benfica hasn't had him in the cards for their first team pretty much since the day they bought him. He probably needs to return to MLS the most of any American abroad at the moment, just in terms of getting his career back on track. He may be a headache to deal with in terms of coaching too but there are plenty of quality coaches in MLS that would be good enough to put up with him. 

Herculez Gomez (Pachuca) 

He'll be back in MLS, he's even said so but it won't be for a couple years at least at this point. I put him here in this list just because you never know what will happen with him or his club between now and the next transfer window. He could get home sick, his playing time may decrease too much to his liking or Pachuca could find someone else that better plays his position leaving him out of their plans for the next season. 

Zak Whitebread (Norwich City, contract runs out next winter)

He signed with Norwich last year on a two and a half year deal. So far he's played in 22 games since signing with them but has also been hit by the injury bug too. He's finally worked himself into fitness and has even done well recently. He's a long shot for plenty of reasons being he's a quality defender that plenty of clubs in Europe could be interested in; he's still relatively young at the age of 27; and he'd likely be too pricy at the moment for a MLS club. But he is a name to consider down the road just like Jay DeMerit was. 

Not anytime soon but why not for fun?

Edson Buddle - He'll be back one day, make no mistake about it he will. 

Tim Howard - Yeah, ol' Timmy will one day return home, just as all the other past keepers have done before him. 

Jonathan Spector - I nearly put him in the long shot list but he's a decent bet for the "some day" list I suppose.

Clarence Goodson - He's on a new deal with Brondby but down the road in a couple years it wouldn't shock me to see him leading a MLS defense again.

Jose Torres - He says he'd be open to playing in MLS, just not too soon. 

Chivas USA has officially been on the clock since Friday when news first surfaced that United States National Team midfielder Benny Feilhaber has signed with MLS. With the contract already agreed upon and the Goats sitting atop the Allocation Order, they essentially hold all of the cards and have let it be known that they intend to use as much time as necessary to decide what to do.

Obviously, if they were dying to have Feilhaber and considered adding his salary -- probably close to Designated Player level, but not quite hitting that threshold -- Chivas USA would have already claimed him. But as with all things MLS, it's never quite as simple as that. Chivas USA is essentially faced with three choices:

1. Claim him, add him to the roster and start enjoying the Benny Feilhaber era. Upside: Feilhaber is the kind of player around whom a team can be built. He's dynamic and fun to watch. Add him to an attack that already has some interesting pieces and you could have something special on your hands. He might not be a huge box-office draw right now, but he could develop into one. Downside: He'd likely become the most expensive player on the Goats roster and as more of an attack-minded central midfielder doesn't seamlessly fit Robin Fraser's system.
2. Trade the spot. Upside: Almost every team in the league can probably envision Feilhaber helping their team, and more than a few would probably absolutely love to have him. If Fraser would rather have more of a classic box-to-box midfielder, someone like Brad Evans or Jeff Larentowicz would cost about two-thirds of Feilhaber. Geoff Cameron would cost even less than that. In fact, if Cameron is on the table, I think that's almost exactly what Chivas would be looking for. Downside: A move like this would almost certainly be step down in talent and would hardly excite the fanbase.
3. Skip the turn. Upside: You retain your spot in the Allocation Order and Chivas USA has their eye on another USMNT player who they think will be available in June. Downside: That's a big gamble since there's no guarantee that even if you know which player you want that they'll actually be available.

Of these options, it's hard to argue against simply picking Feilhaber. There was a lot written over the offseason about how this seemed to be a new era of Chivas USA, but skipping a chance to acquire a talent like Feilhaber just reeks of the previous era when the bottom line took precedent over everything else. If Chivas USA doesn't end up selecting him, I hope for the sake of their fanbase that they are able to explain themselves adequately.