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February 29, 2008
Press covers the O'Brien deal
As various media outlets cover San Jose's signing of Ronnie O'Brien, there are some more details emerging. Grahame Jones of the L.A. Times has the scoop, saying that the Quakes paid "$300,000 in allocation money," in addition to their first pick in the 2009 SuperDraft, for the Irishman.
Speaking Ireland, Eleven-a-Side.com, billed as "The Irish Soccer Web Site," got this quote about the cash-and-a-draft-pick deal from Toronto GM Mo Johnston for their story:
“Obviously, it frees up some salary cap space. It gives us an opportunity for next year to go into the draft with a couple of first-round picks.”
Uh, yeah. Obviously.
Fortunately, the Canadian press is providing better analysis of the trade than Johnston is. The Toronto Star breaks down the deal from Toronto's perspective, which entails painting O'Brien as being one bad tackle away from lifelong disability and hoping the Quakes are as bad an expansion team as Toronto was, neither of which seem very likely to us. The Toronto Globe & Mail strikes a similar tone, with Johnston adding that O'Brien's April, 2007 knee injury "was a major factor in the deal." Canadian sports site Goal.com quotes Johnston as saying, "I think we were on the brink of maybe something happening to him. It's a big, big gamble."
Either it's a miracle O'Brien passed his physical or Johnston is doing his best to justify the sale of one of his team's best players — our guess is it's the latter.
Finally, we just wanted to remind everyone that the SSV Annual Meeting is taking place on Saturday from noon to 2:00 at the Britannia Arms Downtown in San Jose. There will be a Q and A with the SSV board as well as plenty of information about the new SSV Community Foundation. We're also auctioning off 14 tickets to a suite at the Oakland McAfee Coliseum for Sunday's match between the Mexico and Australia Olympic teams, with opening bids starting at just $25, less than half their normal price. The match is officially sold out, so bid early and often!
Finally, Quakes goalkeeper Joe Cannon has updated his blog on the Quakes' web site with stories about the team's trip to San Luis Obispo.
Posted by Jay at February 29, 2008 08:24 AM