Eylander announced - Rumors abound

Its a notes column! Ok, Not quite, but there was some activity from Sounders FC today.

1st, as we all suspected from back on the 22nd of December, Chris Eylander is the second keeper. The Examiner has the story. This is the man who at one point held the record for most shutouts of MLS squads in a US Open Cup competition. I can't think of a better back-up keeper, and as a starter he wouldn't have been a bad choice either. The squad now sits at 14, or 15 if you count the as yet signed Jeff Parke.

Who else might be out there? Well, there are rumors. No movement on Freddy Montero, yet. But, it looks probable that Seattle Sounders FC will add a young Costa Rican national to central defense - Roy Miller. GoSounders and the Examiner have write-ups. You will notice that both mention aging Spanish star Fernando Morientes.

But how would he fit in the relatively tight cap?

Allocation dollars might be in order for a one year deal for a 32 year old who has 15 years of pro footie on his legs. Sure, a second DP would be hard to acquire, but that isn't the only reason that Seattle should avoid that route. They should avoid it due to the 325k hit on the salary cap that DP #2 requires. After the close of the last Transfer window Tottenham was interested in Morientes, but a loan deal wasn't completed. Valencia has tried to offload him in transfers past. There has been little interest, for though he's maintained his touch he misses games.

Back in Nov, Morientes was linked with a move to MLS, so this may have some legs.

There are two routes to acquiring more allocation dollars right now. Losing Parke to Europe is one of them, and not one I support. The other route would be to deal away 3rd and 4th round picks to a team that wants them, maybe that wouldn't acquire much, but at this point any non-cap dollars that Sounders FC can use on a player of this quality would be solid.

Lastly, it looks like he might be working on a 6 month contract in Valencia as his old Liverpool contract was up last July, which is why he'd be able to leave. A Free for that level of talent would be a bonus. He's only been used in 35% of available minutes in Valencia's last 10 matches earning 1 goal and 1 assist, most of those minutes have been in the UEFA Cup, not in league play. In fact Morientes has a strong history in Cup play, this season he has 6 starts and 5 goals in Cups, but no goals in 7 appearances in the league. Is this in line with Sounders FC trying to make an Open Cup run?

Lastly, I have the following pieces in mind for the week, part 3 in my series that started with Mapping International Scouting Deficiency and continued with Bringing 'Em Back Home, there will be long in the running advocacy for a solid supporters group culture, and lastly I'm going to do a draft preview focusing on what we can expect in year one from a top four pick.