Seattle Sounders Trade Mike Fucito, Lamar Neagle For Eddie Johnson

Just shockingly terrible.

Shocked. Absolutely.

I could see if this (but would still hate it) allowed us to sign a really solid third dp or another solid player, but eddie johnson?

How is this a thing? Our FO has been always been so sensible.

If we were sitting at 5th or 6th in the allocation and it would cost a supplemental draft pick and some cash. This is actually absurd. Im just dumbfounded

I don’t care if EJ is good or not, you can’t just trade Fucito AND Neagle!!

Did we just pick up a player whose salary is worth more than fucito/neagle combined ( I know, not very hard to do).

Soccer balls don’t have hilariously inflated salaries.

Sigi must think pretty highly of Sivebaek to trade Lamar away. I would have thought Neagle would be a starter for years to come.

Too early to judge, for me. FO clearly is banking on this being the year.

I’d like to know where Johnson is in his conditioning. 2.5 weeks to Mar 7…

and I too am speechless. I am trying to understand the logic behind he decision, but it’s simply not appearing…..

It doesn’t look like a great deal but that may be because I’m a homer — I like Fucito and Neagle — and Johnson seems historically to be a not-great bet. But this certainly does shake things up some more, and I believe Chris and Sigi et al. know what they’re doing and are making an educated call based on a lot more info than I have. I’m willing to roll with it.

Good luck to Lamar and Mike.

How does this move help Cato?

It feels like we lost a bit of our heart with someone from Fed Way and the Church closing. They represented a lot of what made the Sounders so great.

We’ve seen others leave in the last few years, but this by far is the hardest.

i’m kinda confused a the moment. Whey neagle and fucito for EJ?

Fucito and Neagle were 2 solid goal scorers, perfect to develop. That’s 2 players to help deal with the congestion of Open Cup and CCL. That’s 2 players who, combined, had enough goals (in all competitions) to be close to the running for last season’s golden boot. All traded away for one questionable player…

what to say right now. Well, so much for taking a break from drinking for a couple days…..

I am stunned and not in a good way. Appalled. What the heck is going on with our FO?!?

Let me tell you about Eddie Johnson. The man is a waste of air. A complete disappointment to everyone who has ever come into contact with him. He has squandered a career going from club to club (with the help of his agent, who has given up on him twice in the last five years) destroying whatever whisper of exceptional talent the man may have had at one time. The latest was his reporting, not just out of shape, but according to management at Puebla, the worst shape any athlete has ever reported in to their club. His career has been one long downward spiral.

We traded Fucito, who may or may not have become the player we all hoped he would and Lamar Neagle, who had future MLS star written all over him.

This smacks of desperation and utter stupidity and the fact that my beloved Sounders have pulled this is a knife in the back (and I’m NOT a church of Fucito guy!). It tells me that they have NOTHING in camp right now that they believe in and are unwilling to go out and spend the money it takes to bring a first-class (at least MLS-wise) forward in.

Don’t talk to me, Sounders…. right now, I hate you and you’re an embarrassment.

did we get anything else in return

at least Evan Williams and Coke will help me through this.

im so mad!

I think I’d be ok with trading both of these guys…but not for EJ.

Fucito and Neagle had a combined 13 goals across all competitions. For this to pan out, he’s got to product near All-Star numbers right? He’s got to be that second forward we’ve spent the last couple of year looking for right?

This feels like Portland with Kenny Cooper. He left the league to go on to better things only to realize he wasn’t good enough. So he came back and the league had improved substantially. Hopefully Eddie is everything the FO hopes he can be.

Perhaps the FO saw something in EJ that we passive observers are unaware of. I know it’s hard right now, but the FO has done well for us over the last 3 years in the MLS, and although this is a massive hit, perhaps a Montero/EJ front line will be great for us. Sivabaek may play well enough, as well as Estrada, where we don’t think of Lamar anymore……

Where’s the whiskey?

Man, that’s a crazy ass backwards headline to come see first thing…..My guess is that our Danish friend is better than we all dared hope….That’s the only thing that makes this deal make any sense…..In FO I trust.

Trading two younger players with promise for an older player, past his prime, who is out of condition, and hasn’t been a goal scoring machine for 5+ years. Absolutely wrong.

damn, well that’s the life of sports. I guess they see Johnson as the number 2 forward. They might have also thought that Neagle was going to end up number 3 on our roster at left mid, so maybe that was kind of a playing time decision for him, I have no doubt he’ll start in Montreal, along with Fucito.

Other then that those are two guys that I really liked and had the chance to play pool with Lamar during an American Scores event at Temple Billiards the week after he banged 3 goals against Columbus. Also had the chance to meet Fucito’s parents at the away trip in New England, the bright side is he is closer to home.

I’m going to take the optimistic wait and see approach, but damn, Eddie you have some fan favorites to replace.

on a story in a 24 hour period because we might have a winner. And now the cell is ringing full of my Sounders friends needing me to explain why they shouldn’t drink away the night, any suggestions…..

1. The front office must have believed the Fucito + Montero pairing wasn’t an answer. Given that they’ve scored no goals so far this pre-season, maybe they have a point.

2. Sivebaek is a faster, taller, and more skilled player than Neagle. With Zakuani returning to form this move frees up some serious congestion on the wing.

3. We’ve been hearing all pre-season that Estrada has impressed as a forward. Apparently so, apparently so.

4. EJ is 27. Not 35. Yes he flamed out in Europe, but no reason to believe a change in scenery won’t result in a return or improvement in previous form.

5. OBW is done.

Gonna take a bit to let this one sink in. Really hope EJ comes into camp in shape and ready to make a statement, if not… yikes.

…the best implications of the move are that Sivebaek, Estrada and Cato (or even Tetteh…) offer the Sounders enough confidence in their wing depth to make the deal. The worst implication is that they feel that Eddie Johnson can be relied upon to produce more than Neagle and Fucito could if they were simply devoted to the same role on the team…. and there isn’t a whole lot of evidence for that being the case.

MERDE!.

i loved the Sounders for the 2009, 2010, 2011 seasons… but for 2012, i decided to follow Galaxy. key reason is, Sounders owners/management are not able and willing to spend the big $$$ to bring in international superstars ala Robbie Keane, Thiery Henry and of course Beckham. all they have been doing is spend a few thousand dollars here and there to bring in falling stars or failed stars, hoping they would turn good. with this management philosophy, Sounders will NEVER win the MLS Cup. if your goal is to have a team truly winning the MLS Cup, go with Galaxy or may be Red Bulls. Sounders is a good team but definitely not an elite team worthy of MLS Cup.

…much like LeToux, I don’t think he was going to break out here, and will actually be better off moving.

I can’t understand Neagle though. Seems to really cut the threats we can have off the bench.

But after the shock of losing some of our favorites is over this might be all right.

Still wouldn’t have done it, but EJ only 100K. If he was taking up 250K I’d be irate.

Sucks to see neagle and Fucito go, but at the end of the day neither of them were going to start this season. The coaches have been watching them train for a month now, and came to that decision.

We’re rolling the dice on EJ, but I have a feeling Ochoa will start. Plus at only 100k, Sounders can still potentially pull the trigger on a top quality striker in July.

just broke me and my girlfriends hearts. Neagle was our favorite player. It just seems like EJ is going to have to be amazing for us to not hate him. I just bought her a Neagle jersey too.

There’s another trade that we just don’t know about yet? Johnson to Vancouver for Le Toux? Please?

Don’t know if this has been mentioned yet

Neagle might not have seen much time at Left Mid this year, considering that Fernandez is probably the starter there, then when Zakuani comes back there will probably be a move to make sure that he gets back into shape so all the sub appearances probably would have went to him.

Fucito was probably the forward they were willing to take so that explains that.

I’d hate to hear all these people say that Eddie Johnson is no good and what not. He was injured in Fullham and that didn’t help his chances. Also I remember another Mexican team saying that one of the players cut was out of shape…aka Rosales.

Other then that he crushed MLS, so whose to say he won’t crush MLS again. lets wait and see.

This doesn’t seem like their style. I hope it works out but I have strenous doubts.

My main worry is EJ in the lockerroom.

from Mayers’ twitter:

Johnson dismisses reports from Mexico that said he had failed a physical in Puebla. He said he never took a physical.

didn’t want to be in Montreal.

(on KJR with Gas)

He’s stronger and faster than he’s ever been. Says his health is good, fitness as well.

As for his Puebla fitness issues:

He didn’t have an agent, Beasley got him an interview with Puebla (he was worried about Mexico and payment). He trained for 3 days, and he showed up three days late (three days after Christmas). Owner went on business trip, wasn’t there to sign off on contract. Puebla calls deal off, Technical Director wanted Mexican player, so he messed deal up when coach was away. Said he never took a physical when he was down there. Says if he had an agent, he would never have had to train without sighing of contract.

DMB sold EJ on training with Puebla. Technical director wanted a Mexican striker, Coach wanted EJ, intra- club issue lied about him not being fit.

If the Sounders can continue to capitalize on the confusion and misinformation coming from a Mexican clubs, we could be in for a great ride.

how much of an impact does this trade have on those trying to earn a roster spot?

Got a candle burning for ya, Eddie, ’cause you got some big shoes to fill…

He could be the best value in MLS at 100k…maybe you think the odds of him scoring double digits in goals is zero…I disagree. I loved and miss Fucito and Neagle, but I dont think their prime will ever be what EJ’s prime was…so now who has the better future ? At this point I hope it is.