Change over Time

One year ago today, the news broke that Freddy Adu and Nick Rimando had been traded to Real Salt Lake. Four days later, Brandon Prideaux was gone to Colorado. On December 20, Piotr Nowak left and Tom Soehn was promoted. Two days later, Esky was gone. Within a span of two weeks, United saw five significant changes to its roster.

Why do I mention this now? Because we're about to enter the same time period, and while things may vary in the precise timing, I think we'll have answers from Christmas. Yes, we're hearing a bunch of rumors on things, but right now we don't have anything verified. Yes, I know that a date for the Veron signing has shown up on various message boards. December 18 was one. We've gotten an email that said December 19 and provided various specifics. Yes, we saw the rumor in the comments about Moreno leaving for Qatar, but then again Moreno has also been seen in town by certain writers of this blog, and so it's all up in the air. It's all confusion and mish-mash... for now. But things will settle down in the next few weeks. This is the time period when all sorts of things are whispered, shouted, denied, refuted, resurface, and finally appear. And here's the thing: We'll know soon. One way or the other, we'll know about Veron, and Gomez, and Moreno, and we'll probably know about some folks we haven't heard about. Patience, my friends.

Now, the more interesting question is this: Do you really want Veron? I think there's some concern from knowledgeable people that he could be that worst kind of acquisition - The supposed superstar who doesn't really have it anymore, or is injury prone, or whatever, so he lollygags around the midfield and things never click. I can understand that fear. Look at what Dallas (or, to a lesser degree, New York) got in their designated player signings. And while I understand the fear, I don't share it yet. I can say it is something that, if Veron is signed, people will be looking for signs of it, but we'll see. Right now Payne and company are doing pretty well in their recent acquisitions, having added a league MVP, quality midfielder, and sleeper left back last year. So right now they have credit to burn, and earned the "trust their judgement" tag for the time being. But this is, to be quite simple, the biggest acquisition move D.C. United has tried to make since 2004, so quite a bit of political capital has been invested in getting this player. And if things don't go well, you wonder how far the collateral damage could go.