Sometimes you step away from your desk for lunch and return to find Twitter abuzz with news that one of your favorite players is in London finalizing a deal to move overseas.
The player is homegrown defender DeAndre Yedlin, and in typical fashion Sounders co-owner and general manager Adrian Hanauer was more than a little obtuse in an SoundersFC.com interview about the forthcoming move, though a Goal.com piece helps flesh out the story a bit more.
Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version:
• Yedlin went to London for his physical with a “big club,” as Hanauer described it.
• That big club is almost certainly Tottenham Hotspur, which has plenty of time to scout Yedlin between the World Cup and recent friendly visit to CenturyLink Field.
• Spurs might then loan Yedlin out to a smaller club in 2015.
• The transfer fee looks to be in the neighborhood of $3.2 to $3.5 million.
• Yedlin would finish up the season in MLS, giving the Sounders a chance to stay at full strength through the playoffs.
• Hanauer noted that it’s possible Yedlin could stay “potentially longer” than the rest of this season.
• Though in London late in the week, he should be back in time for the Houston match on Sunday.
To sum up: It’s all but a lock that Yedlin is leaving, which has been about the worst kept secret since the World Cup. You can only read so many interviews in which Yedlin talks about “focusing on Seattle” while letting his agents sort out his future.
I’m going to look on the bright side: It’s incredible that Seattle produced a homegrown player that, at age 21, is set to move to one of the biggest stages in world soccer.
Watching Yedlin’s journey unfold over the last season and a half has been a stunner, from making Adam Johansson expendable, to last year’s all-star game, to his unlikely selection to the World Cup roster … and now this.
Let’s just be glad he’s staying through the rest of the season. Would losing him straight away been crippling? Probably not. Brad Evans has more than a little experience at right back. But the Sounders have looked vulnerable of late, and they need the team at full strength to get back on track.
It’s been a privilege to witness the growth of a player like Yedlin firsthand. Let’s appreciate it. We get to keep watching him during the stretch run to the playoffs and hopefully through to the MLS cup.
That would be the perfect ending, wouldn’t it?
(image courtesy of mlssoccer.com)
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