Two things happened in the past few days that made me warrant this thread, so lets start.

Adrian Hanauer was retained as GM per the fan vote.

Fredy Montero has been loaned to Millonarios of Colombia for the 2013 season, with a potential option to buy. This is rumored to have opened up a DP slot that could be used on Joan Verdu of La Liga.

The Sounders also signed DeAndre Yedlin to a homegrown player contract. The 19 year old right back plays for Akron.

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As always, thanks for the updates Smurf!

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Millionairos? Not exactly Europe... Monteros chances of playing meaningful football overseas took a massive blow there.

Watch out for Eric Miller in the next few years. Woodbury, MN product playing right back for Creighton and a member of the Timbers Reserves (and US U-21s)..... if he's not starting at Portland by 2014 he is playing in England or Holland. He's that good

Three possibilities with this move.

He will either blow up that league and be transferred to a bigger club in europe (less likely)

He will stay the year there, and return as a DP in 2014 after Mauro Rosales departs (fairly likely)

He will be bought and stay in Colombia (also fairly likely).


We made this move to free up the DP slot so we can bring in another big name player. Same reason we tried to loan out Fernandez last season before eventually trading him to Chicago.

Joan Verdu would be my guess.

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Everything I've read makes it sound like Montero isn't looking back to Seattle. He left a goodbye and thank you tweet to Sounders fans. And his agent to Colombian press spoke of him moving on from the MLS.

I don't follow this stuff nearly as close as you guys do. But I also read some rumors about some foreign team being interested in Rosales now. Hanauer spoke of the team making big changes after getting bounced from the playoffs. Two new DP's would def be that.

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what are the views of those selected in the draft?

Really interested to see how our draft picks work out.

Eriq Zavaleta really interests me. He's a forward/defender. The club sees him more as a CB at this point, but from what I've seen he has some talent in front of goal.

DeAndre Yedlin (our first home grown signing) is a player who can make a difference on this team. He is a outside back and could push for time. He's only 19 and seems ready for the big time.

Dylan Remick is an interesting pick up, another outside back who could see some time potentially in the center of defense too. I doubt we will see much from him this season.


and big news today is that the Sounders have traded for home town hero Lamar Neagle. So the Federal Way native is coming home. They only gave up an international roster spot to get him...so essentially we got Eddie Johnson for an international roster spot, Mike Fucito, and a year long loan of Neagle. Stoked to have him back.

Very curious to see how this team shapes up. Here is the roster as it stands right now:



Forwards:
Eddie Johnson
David Estrada
Sammy Ochoa
Cordell Cato
Babayele Sodade
Eriq Savaleta

Outside mid:
Steve Zakuani
Mauro Rosales
Mario Martinez
Lamar Neagle
Brad Evans
Christian Tiffert
Cordell Cato
Alex Caskey

Central mid:
Osvaldo Alonso
Brad Evans
Christian Tiffert
Andy Rose
Alex Caskey
Servando Carrasco

Outside backs:
Adam Johansson
Leo Gonzales
Marc Burch
DeAndre Yedlin
Zach Scott
Dylan Remick

Center backs:
Jhon Kennedy Hurtado
Patrick Ianni
Zach Scott
Andrew Duran
Dylan Remick
Eriq Zavaleta


Keepers:
Michael Gspurning
Marcus Hahnemann
Josh Ford

I'd like to see us add another striker and at least another quality center back. Midfield is really tight for space...Could we see more 4-5-1's? or a 4-3-3?

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Pretty worried about the Sounders this year. With the current squad I think we'll scrape the playoffs at best.

I was happy to let Montero go if we brought in a decent replacement. We haven't signed anyone up front though. Johnson is the only proven striker we have at the moment and if he gets injured, suspended or loses form there could be trouble. Estrada can be injury prone and hasn't really been consistent. In defence we haven't really replaced Parke. I never thought he was a great player but better than Hurtado who is a liability and Scott who is a squad player but not a starter. Ianni is fine when he plays but injury prone. Zavaleta is completely unproven. I'm assuming the Sounders FO are waiting until the summer to get a better deal on players but it is completely risky, especially as players from Europe at that point will not be up to speed. Especially as Portland and Vancouver might actually be good this year and LA are bound to get a replacement for Beckham, my bets on Lampard.

At the end of last season the Sounders needed a dominant center half, a consistent striker to partner Johnson (or a formula that stopped Montero being so streaky and disappearing in the play offs), a back up left back to cover for Gonzalez and quite honestly a new coach after the LA game debacle.

We've signed an untested defender striker in Zavaleta, Yedlin looks promising but again untested. I like Neagle but I don't think we necessarily needed him considering our midfield is arguably the strongest part of the team. Djimi Traore on trial is an absolute facepalm, arguably the worst player to ever win the Champions League and that was a long time ago.

We need a CB for sure. We have been linked to a couple guys thus far. Nothing really to report.


As for needing another striker, I'm not sure we really need one. Estrada can do the job, so can Ochoa. With the depth we have in the midfield I could see us using a 4-5-1 more often, or 4-3-3.

Also don't forget we are getting Zakuani back healthy at the start of the year. It's much like a brand new signing.


I could see us going with something like this:


Zakuani-------Johnson---------Rosales


Evans-------------------------Tiffert
-------------Alonso-----------------


Burch---Ianni------Hurtado---Johansson
------------Gspurning----------------


Then obviously you have Martinez and Neagle who are both talented and will get time.

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I worry about Ochoa's fitness. He looked pretty chunky against Portland and has struggled with fitness in the past. Estrada is good at chipping in the odd goal but I don't think he can do it consistently.

I expect a great season from Zakuani, especially with a pre season under his belt. Lots of competition for places in midfield with Neagle, Evans, Zakuani and Martinez for the left hand side. As disappointing as he was last year, I would like to see Tiffert play in the middle beside Alonso instead of Evans.

The middle of defence worries me. Apparently Ianni's injury is worse than expected and Hurtado really does give me the fear.

Any other rumors of what DP Sounders are likely to bring in?

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Probably none until the summer but no one really knows. I wouldn't expect a big name though.

The rumors are we are looking at CB's right now. We were linked to Metzelder for a bit and we had a bid for Valencia's Nelson Valdez rejected.

We were also linked to a U-20 Brazilian Centerback. Nothing has really stuck as of yet, but it sounds like they are out there working on some names.


The MLS transfer window is NOT closed like the big leagues. We can still pay for talent, and European clubs can still sell to us.

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http://seattletimes.com/html/soundersfc ... green.html

New Sounders top leaked. I really really like it. Hate the bra strap looking things on last seasons top.

And another name enters the DP Rumor Mill for Seattle.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2 ... ers-summer

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You are absolutely entitled to state your opinion whenever you wish, and I am absolutely entitled to point out the stupidity of that opinion with the same frequency.

Sounders today acquired mid fielder Shalrie Joseph from chivas USA. Joseph will occupy a DP spot.

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Why another mid?

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Don't they see Joseph more as a defensive back rather than midfield? I thought he was auditioning for the defensive centerback position. I could be wrong on that. Also, I thought they released him after his tryout stating that he wasn't in shape or fit....something along those lines. I guess that was just coachspeak to lower the price for him.

Sigi said today he sees him more of a midfielder. There is strong rumors that Tiffert will be leaving. Otherwise a completely pointless signing and waste of a DP spot.

Yikes. Losing Tiffert is not good.