Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Rapids Make An Announcement...But Its Not The Coach


Its our first offseason player signing! Swedish attacking midfielder Johan Blomberg joins the Rapids on a free transfer from Swedish side AIK.  Blomberg is 30 years old and until now has played his whole career in Sweden.  Blomberg can play centrally or on either wing though reports are he favors the right side.  Blomberg has had 6 assists and 3 goals which isn't outstanding but its something.  AIK has been the runner-up in the top Swedish league the last two seasons and they've played in Europa League qualifying regularly, usually getting knocked out in the 3rd qualification round

I'm neither enthused nor disappointed in this signing.  Blomberg has the makings of a solid signing that can play a lot of minutes in midfield and keep the likes of Gatt and Ramirez from getting more playing time than they deserve.  Based on what I've seen today a team full of Blomberg's could probably make the playoffs but wouldn't make a deep run.

It is interesting that the Rapids are making a player signing without a managerial announcement.  This leads us to two likely scenarios, one good and one bad.  The good scenario is that the future coach (almost certainly Hudson in this scenario) has already agreed to a contract, maybe even signed it, and the Rapids are just waiting for the appropriate time to make the announcement.  In that case he's probably giving input on this signing and is in full agreement.  The bad scenario is that whatever plan the Rapids had for their manager has fallen apart, they're no announcement planned in the near future, and Smith is making the moves that need to be made for next season and hopefully whomever we hire will be able to work with the decisions.

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