These past few weeks for the Chicago Fire have been unpleasant. Not necessarily a roller-coaster, more like a constant sea-sickness. Performance-wise, July has been nothing but a headache. A draw in Houston was a positive but then a decisive loss to Los Angeles in Chicago erased any success, they team then bounced back with a win over Vancouver but a midweek loss in disgusting heat at New York just gave the team in the impression of wilting. Coming back home the Fire prepped for a friendly against the EPL’s Aston Villa. The match between England’s second city and the United States’ second city wasn’t a wild affair but was adequate entertainment nonetheless. This week while the rest of MLS was getting worked up over the non-consequential All-Star game, Chicago took the time to set its house in order. Two under-performing players were shipped out, a designated player was signed, and there are rumors of other moves to happen before the close of the transfer window.
To begin with, Federico Puppo has been loaned out to Uruguayan side Defensor S.C. It seemed clear from the very beginning of the season that Puppo wasn’t figuring in the team mixture. Having logged just over 200 minutes this season, Puppo was a non-factor. When supporters discovered that due to transfer fee Puppo was technically a Designated Player it became clear that he was also dead weight. Then the Fire re-signed Chris Rolfe and all of a sudden there was no reason to have Puppo on the team. Everything that Puppo was thought to be was already had in Rolfe and Rolfe has already shown his quality. It’s been a bit unfair of supporters to unload their frustrations on Puppo, he was never given a chance to show what he could do or get into form with the first team. However, the departure to Uruguay opens up an international spot on the roster and (one would hope) somehow mitigates the DP status.
A player who entirely does deserve the ire of supporters is Rafael Robayo. The midfielder has been complaining since day one—about not getting enough playing time, about the poor technical quality of the league, about not getting recognized, and on and on. The fact is, Robayo was given plenty of chances to prove he deserved to start or at the very least be the first-choice off the bench. He regularly failed not just to impress but to demonstrate competence (in a league which he claimed was beneath him skill-wise)—16 games, 439 minutes, no goals, no assists, he routinely surrendered possession, and never once contributed to a meaningful attacking sequence. Fortunately, Chicago looks to have sent him back to where they found him, to Columbian side Millionarios FC. According to the Millionarios website, Robayo will be back in their squad for the remainder of the season, if not permanently. There is no loss with Robayo’s departure. If anything the elimination of a pointless midfielder brings more stability to the team. Daniel Paladini has suffered the most because of Robayo, barely playing with only 168 minutes this season. Hopefully, with Robayo’s departure Paladini will be given back his place in the team because he has always been of better quality and keener determination.
The drama with these South Americans only makes the front office fiasco with Sebastian Grazzini sting more. Grazzini arrived in Chicago during the middle of last season and with him came a drastic change in the Fire’s fortunes. There were doubts when Grazzini signed, the main concern was the fact that Grazzini was a career tourist. Before arriving in Chicago in 2011, Grazzini had spent a season with All Boys, a season with Racing Club, a half season with Newell’s Old Boys, a season and a half at Sestrese, and on and on. Point being that it didn’t seem like Grazzini was a player that stayed at a club, he appeared to be a player always looking for a better fit. Were I cynical, I would say that I expected this sort of thing to happen. But though I am cynical, I didn’t expect it and it didn’t happen.
‘Family Issues’ is a sports cliché for a reason, it works. It’s an expression that covers a lot of ground and puts any would-be questioner, any journalistic inquisitor, in a disadvantageous position. If you keep asking for details you become the bullying, nosey journo who hounds a player trying to use the player’s personal issues for one’s own advantage. ‘Family issues’ is the buffer excuse because given the international demands of soccer, there are always genuine family issues. So Grazzini left for Argentina after a prolonged contract saga citing family issues. The Fire had the option to extend Grazzini’s contract, Grazzini wanted an extension and he wanted an extension that was an improvement over his current contract. Why? Because he deserved it. Over eleven matches in 2011 he had 5 goals and 4 assists, and over his shortened 2012 season he’s recorded two goals and five assists. This is ignoring all the fact that as the central attacking midfielder in Chicago’s system, it was Grazzini that orchestrated nearly every successful attacking movement.
So why then would the Chicago front office quibble with Grazzini over his contract extension? Was it perhaps because they felt that a new signing, Brazilian attacking mid Alex, was a younger, better choice? Was it that they were worried that Grazzini was on the decline because he routinely failed to last a full 90 minutes? Neither of these possibilities really seem to hold water. Perhaps the reason the front office dragged its feet was that they were conducting MLS business as usual. L.E. Eisenmenger tackled a similar drama in the case of Rajko Lekic and the New England Revolution earlier this year.
Lekic was really the only real goal scoring threat for the Revolution last season and it would have seemed to many that the Revs would reward him for it. But they didn’t. According to Eisenmenger, the Revs declined Lekic’s option and offered him a paltry extension at lower pay with no guarantee to not be waived. Quite frankly, that’s not how you treat a player. So Lekic left, he left because of ‘family issues.’ Specifically, he had a family he needed to provide for and his current employer was refusing to allow him to do that. One of the many, many out-dated, quixotic and cumbersome rules and procedures of MLS is the semi-guaranteed contract. It’s a system that leaves players in limbo, subject to the whims of not just the manager but also the front office (which seem increasingly to be rarely in sync). A player isn’t a delicate flower, but anxiety can build over one’s contract and then directly affect play. When you don’t know if you’ll be able to keep working and thus keep getting paid worry sets in. Lekic experienced it and decided that he didn’t need the hassle and disrespect, so he left New England and MLS behind. It’s not the first time MLS policy has negatively impacted a player. In the lead up to this season, we saw it in the way ‘discovery rights’ allowed the Montreal Impact to treat Etienne Barbara with contempt and how the allocation system repulsed Gale Agbossoumonde.
We can’t say for certain what went on between Sebastian Grazzini and the Chicago Fire front office. What we know is this—the contract option was exercised, Grazzini is still on paper a Chicago Fire player, Grazzini has left the United States for his native Argentina due to family issues, and his return date is unknown. Many supporters believe it is unlikely Grazzini will return to Chicago.
So how has the team satiated the concerns of supporters? They have trimmed the fat on the roster with the kind dismissal of Robayo and Puppo and have brought into the fold a new face. The arrival of a designated player is the current buzz. Dutchman Sherjill MacDonald comes to the Fire from Belgium side Germinal Beerschot. The Belgian Jupiler Pro League might not be well known here in the States even among the more football literate, but it is more than respectable in the European hierarchy at 13th behind Denmark’s Superligaen. MacDonald looks to be a number 9 type forward, the team will look to him to hold up the ball and feed Oduro/Rolfe while still being a goal scoring threat himself. A good way to imagine this—the Fire want MacDonald to be to Oduro what Newcastle’s Cisse was to Ba. This might not be a high-profile signing (like the New Jersey Red Bulls splashing the cash to trap Tim Cahill), it’s certainly not throw-away. It will be interesting to see how it turns out but as of right now we can only hope for the best. Most likely, MacDonald will be an option from the bench for this weekend’s match against San Jose. Other rumors are still circling about Peruvian forward Andy Pando and Dutch midfielder Gianluca Nijholt. We’ll see if anything comes of these, if Grazzini ever returns and what the fallout of that will be, and if the Fire can start settling down and put in the performances it needs to in order to secure a playoff spot. It shouldn’t be forgotten that even with all the roster drama, manager Frank Klopas has put out practically the same starting eleven every match. This means that it’s almost entirely on the shoulders of the players to focus and start playing a consistent game. It will be difficult to get a result this weekend against San Jose, the best team in MLS. But if Chicago can, they’ll set themselves on the right track towards the playoffs and putting all the drama behind them.
(image courtesy of Jeff Crandall)
