Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Pulido Coming, Maybe?

Two articles about Pulido today point to him joining the Rapids but the deal isn't done yet.

This, from a Mexican news site, says (assuming Google Translate didn't fail me) that Pulido is interested in MLS and the Rapids but he might also be interested in a Turkish team.

Then ESPN FC reported on the issues around Pulido's ITC and the on-going saga with Tigres.  The tl;dr version is that Pulido and Tigres disagree that Pulido's contract expired before he moved to Greece and while provisionally FIFA has backed Pulido there's a chance that Tigres may win the case.  If that happens the loan of Pulido to the Rapids would be immediately cancelled, though the Rapids would not be on the hook for any wrongdoing.

The article also says that MLS's lawyers met with FIFA yesterday about Puldio's status so that's a pretty good sign that a deal is done as long as this ITC status issue gets resolved.

I think bringing in Pulido on loan with (presumably given MLS's standard policy) an option to buy is the right move for acquiring him.  The question mark around his status means we don't want to invest in a asset that may be taken away from us at a moment's notice.  Also given some reports about Pulido's attitude this gives us a chance to see if he's going to work out ehre before being on the hook.

Overall though I'm concerned that we are going for the high-risk/high-reward move over finding a more solid target that we can build around.  If Pulido works out its probably the best non-draft move since we got Casey from Toronto.  If he doesn't work out though we'll be right back here next year trying to figure out who we're going to build our team around in 2017.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Agree that Pulido is "high risk, high reward." Given his skills I think he could be a big time difference maker who could significantly improve the Rapids' attack. I hope that Bravo will do what it takes to get him here by mid-February so he's ready to go when the season begins in March.