Ives Galarcep and Robbie Rogers's contract status
2009-12-17 21:49:00
So Ives Galarcep came up off-blog a couple times yesterday. First someone e-mailed to ask me what my beef was. I responded that I think Ives plays fast and loose with the facts sometimes. He has good contacts in New York City and with the National Team, and he's built his traffic off of that and covering European soccer. As a result, a lot of people take what he says as straight truth and don't examine things any further.However, get into the primeval darkness of midwest MLS and things start to break down. A prime example is what Galarcep reported regarding Robbie Rogers's contract situation. About a month ago, Galarcep stated more or less definitively that the Crew were going to lose Rogers because he was out of contract:
The Crew boasted some impressive depth, but stand to lose Robbie Rogers this off-season because he is out of contract, and will likely lose one solid player to the MLS expansion draft.
Ok then. Since that time, literally nothing confirming Galarcep's assertion has come out of Columbus. Just yesterday in fact, dirty hippie turned filthy soccer beat writer (just click on the youtube link in the article, ok?) Sean Michelle alluded that the only players out of contract in Crewland were Jed Zayner, Schelotto, and Jason Garey. Granted, he added the qualifyer "at the end of the month" but one would think that if Rogers was also out of contract at some other temporally close time he would have mentioned that tiny detail.
Now, it's not like I have any kind of airtight sources on this, but I'll just say that most of what's percolating through the Crew's grapevine is the exact opposite of what Galarcep said - that Robbie is indeed under contract. There's been speculation that he was unhappy about his playing time in the RSL series, but nothing apart from a cryptic tweet that could refer to anything has come from Rogers himself on the topic.
I'd been waiting to comment until something solid came out one way or another, but it looks like Michelle's short blurb is the best we're going to get at the moment. After I responded to that e-mail, someone else specifically asked me what was up with Galarcep's piece, and the best I can say is his report is still hanging out there with no confirmation, clarification or corroboration. The Crew haven't issued a straight denial of Ives's assertion, but Rogers name just hasn't come up in any relevant conversations.
At this point I think it's more than fair to put Galarcep on the spot and ask what his statement was based on and if he still stands behind it. If he does, then the Crew have some major explaining to do. If he doesn't, then why did he let such a statement sit out there for so long without a retraction or explanation?
It's things like this that get my goat with Galarcep, and quite frankly it's something we shouldn't even have to be talking about.
Fake Sigi out.
Go to the homepage, browse the archive by month, topic, league, international and college competition, or explore relevant keywords: