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Red Bulls GM Erik Soler talks Agudelo-Pearce swap

The Red Bulls traded popular young phenom Juan Agudelo to Chivas USA for defender Heath Pearce, allocation money, salary cap relief and a cut of any future transfer fee that Chivas USA commands for the 19-year-old forward.

Here is reaction from Red Bulls GM Erik Soler from today’s conference call with the media:

On the trade of Juan Agudelo to FC Dallas for Heath Pearce, allocation money and future considerations:

Well first and foremost I think it’s important to state that the initiative for this trade was not in our hands. We had conversations with Juan for a long period of time about his future and development. It had become clear that he thought that his chance to develop as a player would maybe get better chances if he played somewhere else. We still don’t think that’s the case, but sometimes when you work in this sport you have to put on larger glasses. We want to support Juan but he wants to try something new and we’ll give him that opportunity. We had numerous people calling us from the league about Juan, and we had turned everybody down for a long time. But in the end, when it became clear that he really wanted to try something else, and Hans and I discussed it, we don’t want to be anywhere close to giving him less opportunity than what he wants himself. And of course the fact that Kenny Cooper had proven to be such a huge success made the decision easier for us. We really like Juan, we think he’s a great prospect and he’s been with this club for many, many years. We took the chance when he came now and spoke to him a few days ago and he said he’d still like to have that opportunity. Then Chivas came to us and offered what they did. We thought it was right thing to do. All I can say is I really, really like and respect Juan and hope he will have tremendous success at Chivas, and we can state in the future when he hopefully becomes a big international player that we had a big part in his development.

On the compensation of Heath Pearce and allocation money:

We have been tracking Heath Pearce for a long time because we really appreciate the fact that he can play probably five or six different positions for us. He fits our way of playing, exactly what we thought when we got Kenny Cooper, Dax McCarty and a couple of other players. We think he fits our playing style very well. He’s very versatile. He can help us out all over the field. We’re in a position now to also finance someone for our attack, an attacking midfielder or attacker. That’s now our next priority and we hope to do that when the window opens.

On the club’s philosophy with young, American players:

I think if you look at it there is no other club in this country that (pays more attention to) academy and trying to develop young American players. We have to face reality. Tim Ream got an offer from the Premier League. He wanted to leave, we didn’t want to sell him. It’s like what Arsenal said to their young kid who came from Barcelona and Barcelona wanted him back. In the end you’ll lose, because the league is bigger, the money is bigger, and sometimes you just have to accept that. We’re still a small league in comparison to the big leagues. When it comes to Juan, he’s been with our franchise for seven or eight years. We have invested a lot of time and money into him, and we wanted him to stay, but he wants to try something else and we support that. It is what it is. He will stay in the league, that’s important to us. I hope he will stay in the league for many years and develop into a great player. We cannot only look at this from New York Red Bull eyes. We have to look upon this with eyes from U.S. Soccer, the U.S. National Team, and first and foremost Juan’s own eyes. He wanted it this way and we support him. We keep on building a young team; we have young Connor Lade coming up, young Ryan Meara coming up. You play these players, give them opportunities and hopefully have a bunch more academy kids coming up. There are many of them, down to the age of 12, 13, 14, that we know are good players. We invest in them, we invest money in them. Some players move on, especially if they are really good. We still are not at the top of the pyramid and we have to accept that.

On if the possibility of Agudelo going overseas prompted the trade:

We had offers from overseas for Juan for two and a half years and we didn’t want to sell him. We turned down every offer from abroad. We would have done the same now. In the end, he needs to play. We have a pair of strikers that are working fantastic at the moment. To be a backup player is not good enough for Juan and we understand that. So we made a decision to let him play in the preseason, he was a starter against FC Dallas. He would have been a starter in the games coming up after that, but then he left for the National Team, came back with an injury and in that time, Kenny Cooper did what he did. He turned out a great player for us. I am convinced that Juan at one time will go to Europe, and of course we are ultimately in apposition to financially have a gain if that should happen. But I think that should be in a few years time from now, but I really hope he does get the chance to go to the right club.

On the status of Rafa Marquez:

It’s always like this: We have to think about big picture. Sometimes we’re disappointed with a player, sometimes we’re happy. We’ve had no discussions with Rafa or anyone else about moving him. He did a great job in Philadelphia. He picked up Brandon Barklage for the first goal. He picked out Kenny Cooper for the (third) goal. He turned that game around for us. We hope he can continue to do it, at this moment especially with Teemu Tainio unfortunately being out at least a couple months. There’s no way we’re doing anything with Rafa. We’re going to stick with him and we still believe he will produce.

On Pearce’s place in the defense:

We have a situation with Wilman Conde where he’s been out injured for a long time. We don’t want to push him, so he (Pearce) can play as a left central defender. Roy Miller has an issue with his knee, so he can play there. And of course young Connor Lade had done fantastic. And he’s a left fullback that can also go further up the field, so it gives us another option. Heath Pearce can play right fullback, he can do that well. We think he can certainly play central midfield as a defensive holding guy if we want to put Rafa Marquez somewhere else, or play Dax McCarty higher up the pitch. Defensively I think already we will see how Hans chooses to play Heath Pearce. We will see very quickly that he will help us in that part of our game. And also, he’s a very good guy on the ball, so we also adds to the fact that he tries ot keep the ball and spread it around.

On if he feels pressure to win now:

In any league you have to look at all the history, and the present. If you go back a few months, you know that L.A. had some 15 shutouts. We know they scored less goals than us last season. They didn’t win the league because they scored a bunch of goals. They won the league because they played solid defense. You can see now when they take one central midfielder out of their team and they’re struggling. In this league you have to be strong at the defense. We’ve understood that and we’ve taken action.

I feel pressure every day, that’s why I’m in sports. I’ve been 35 years in professional soccer. Every day I feel threatened by something, by myself or by an opponent or someone else. It is what it is, that’s why I’m in sports. I like to be challenged, I like to have pressure, and I certainly have pressure in this job. If I didn’t, I would be back in Norway riding my mountain bike without any pressure. We try to do our best. We can live with that pressure, that’s why we’re here in sports.

I’m here to win, that’s why I have this job. I don’t feel any pressure form anybody except for the fact that we need to win to build the franchise. We have goals and targets within Red Bull and within this franchise to win. Whoever makes decisions on whether the job is good enough or not good enough, that’s not up to me. I’m totally relaxed about that. I’m here, I believe in what I can do. Hans feels the same, and every player and everyone at the club are under the same pressure. If you don’t like that pressure, then find another job. I’m here and I like it, so that’s what I believe.

On if Rafa Marquez has requested a move:

I speak to Rafa like I do to most other players nearly ever day about diff things. We don’t look for anything, he doesn’t look for anything else. For me Rafa is a Red Bull player and will be so, until the end of his contract. At that time we will decide if we should prolong it or not. But until that time, he’s here and that’s it.

On Agudelo requesting a move:

I’ve been speaking to Juan over long period of time. We had this conversation some days ago. He came up with the thought of maybe having a start somewhere else, where he felt that being in a competition with Kenny and Thierry and the way they have been playing maybe was not the best setting for him. And we respected that opportunity. We turned down offer after offer form the league, from other leagues for two years. So in the end, at the respect of Juan we decided to give him this chance. The only thing I can say is, I really hope in his career he scores (250?) goals for Chivas. They only meet us once a year if they don’t come through to the final. I hope he doesn’t score too many against us anyway, but that’s all you can do. He’s a young, lovely kid that I really like, and I really wish all the best for him, and I’m sure he’ll do fine.