Building Atlanta United: Pros and cons of Alex

This is another in a series in which AJC reporter Doug Roberson will begin to look at Atlanta United’s possible player signings ahead of their 2017 inaugural season in MLS. Some potential signings, like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, may be considered fanciful, and rightfully so. Some may be so practical as to be obvious.

You can follow Roberson for news about Atlanta United on twitter @DougRobersonAJC, and bookmark the paper's Atlanta United page.

The second: Kolo Toure.

A few months ago, Goal.com compiled a list of players whose contracts will expire at the end of this European soccer season, which is just about done.

That means those players are available on free transfers, a much cheaper way of filling key spots on a team, and a possibly great way for Atlanta United to start to fill out its roster.

However, buyer beware.

There are usually pretty good reasons why some players haven’t had contracts extended or renegotiated.

Other players, such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, simply wanted their contracts to run out.

These are players who I think may fit the criteria that Atlanta United president Darren Eales and technical director Carlos Bocanegra have laid out:

• They want a team strong up the middle;
• They want Designated Players who want to be in Atlanta and MLS and understand the responsibility of being the first players signed. It is incredibly difficult to build and maintain a culture in a company, it is more difficult to fix a poisoned culture;

Some may be players who probably fall into the level below the Designated Player level and into the Targeted Allocation Money group.

I’m not going to differentiate between those two groups in this series.

I again remind you this reflects my opinions only. Atlanta United’s front office personnel won’t discuss any players that aren’t under contract with them:

Alex, central defender

formerly of A.C. Milan

The central defender, known as “The Tank,” has played for some of the best teams in Europe, including Chelsea, PSV Eindhoven, Paris Saint-Germain and A.C. Milan.

Pros: Good in the air and at reading the game. Also a free-kick specialist with 43 goals scored overall.That skill would be invaluable for an expansion team that will likely be trying to figure out from where its goals will come. A free-kick specialist is a weapon.