Beyond the Lens - Rumours Everywhere

Much like in any professional league, the off-season provides rumours of all shape and size to fly through the stratosphere for fans of various ilk to process and determine whether they want to believe it or not.

As previously reported by this site, the latest rumours involving the Whitecaps involve former Sounder Fredy Montero, who is subject to MLS’ allocation order because he was sold by Seattle.

When translated, it says that Montero’s father has confirmed that Fredy has signed a year long loan deal with MLS from Tianjin Teda of the Chinese Super League, landing either in Vancouver or Orlando. Minnesota Utd, who holds the top spot in the Allocation Order has stated that they won’t be signing any Designated Players for their first season. It would seem that they are holding up the finalization of the Montero move, whether it be Orlando or Vancouver.

The other rumour involving a known commodity, which seems a bit more farfetched, is USMNT striker Aron Jóhannsson, currently of Werder Bremen. MLS Soccer Italia is reporting that NYRB, Colorado and Vancouver would be willing to battle it out for the American striker’s services. The drawbacks are that Werder Bremen paid a reported 5 million Euros (5.2 million US/6.9 million Canadian, at today’s rates) for the player from AZ Alkmaar in 2015, who signed a new 4 year contract only a year earlier. That would be an amazing get for the club, however, as Mallett and Nash said as recently as last Monday, they will not be spending the big bucks on a Designated Player. With Bremen fighting to avoid relegation, his services may be needed until the end of the season, which in Germany, is in late May, meaning any move to MLS won’t happen until the secondary window, which opens in early July.

Don’t get me wrong, it would be an amazing coup for the team, but that would pretty much mean totally invalidating the club philosophy for the past 5 years.

Every fan and supporter has a player in the world that they’d love to see in their team’s colours....for me, it’s Shinji Kagawa or Javier Hernandez......both are never gonna happen, but hey, it’s fun to dream, right?