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.
Here is the series so far:
Club America’s Ventura Alvarado
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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:
David Moyes
Formerly of Real Sociedad, Manchester United, Everton and Preston North End
At one time, Moyes was considered to be one of the better managers in the Premier League because of his results with Everton, which he joined in 2002 and led to 218 wins in 518 games. He led the Toffees to the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, as well as an FA Cup final
His success led him to be tabbed by Sir Alex Ferguson as his replacement at Manchester United, a gigantic job for anyone, but especially when it became evident that the squad Moyes inherited had many, many issues.
Things quickly unraveled for Moyes. He inherited an old club that needed to be rebuilt, but clubs as big as United don’t have the patience for that. Despite posting 27 wins in 51 games, he was fired.
His lack of success may be more of a testament to the brilliance of Ferguson than anything Moyes didn’t do or wasn’t doing.
Moyes was eventually replaced by Louis van Gaal, whose lack of success at the club would seem to be his best defense.
After coaching in Spain, he is reportedly on the short list to take over at Southampton, another team in the Premier League.
Pros: Moyes has a talent for finding "buy low, sell high" players, an acumen he used very well at Everton, a club that didn't have the financial resources of some of the others in the Premier League. That skill would be very useful at Atlanta United and in MLS, where there is a very small margin of error when it comes to buying players. He also plays an indentifiable counter-attacking style that would probably work well for an expansion team trying to find its legs and earn points in any way possible.
He may be able to lure young talent from Europe to MLS and Atlanta United, also.
Cons: That defensive style may not be as attractive as some would like, particularly when president Darren Eales has said he would like to see an attacking style, preferring to lose 4-3 than 1-0, if they were to lose.
There’s also the fact that most European natives have had a torrid time trying to manage in MLS. Owen Coyle, who like Moyes is a Scotsman, recently resigned at Houston.
“It’s a league like no other,” Coyle told the Guardian in February. “Certainly the biggest eye-opener is the travel, the road games as they call them. They’re certainly not road games because every game is a flight. I think that was the olden days when they used to travel by bus. We’re scheduled to fly 63,000 miles this year to play our 17 away games.”
