Red Bulls GM Erik Soler spoke with a handful of media members today, hitting a number of topics. And while I’ll still be churning out stories _ between my St. John’s duties tonight in Milwaukee and returning home tomorrow for NFL playoff responsibilities _ here are some excerpts from what he had to say.
On the status of Tim Ream:
I would say that it’s more likely that he could end up abroad than it was before Christmas. So that means that we are in the process of discussions and it’s getting closer.
On Thierry Henry’s loan to Arsenal:
It’s simply that it was Arsenal. It’s not about the loan, this is about everything else. This is about, from our side, to respect the fact that the guy has scored (226) goals, (he’s a) living legend, he just had a statue outside the arena, and he wanted to go if it was okay with us. We have a very good relationship with Arsenal after our Emirates Cup participation. I spoke to Ivan Gazidis a few times about it. As long as he comes back well ahead of our season, we felt it was a good thing to do on the sporting side, on the marketing side, for Thierry, for us, for Arsenal; so the whole kind of package had to do with many aspects, of course including the fact that he will be very fit when he comes back.
On if the team will receive any compensation from Arsenal:
We have reached an agreement with Arsenal that we are happy with. I can’t comment any more on that. Our main motivation was not to make money, because the motivation for us first and foremost to respect the fact that this is a very special thing for Thierry and an occasion that’s going to last six to eight weeks. For the next two week s we’re going to be (training) inside or outside somewhere in New Jersey, so we thought the thing was a good idea in the end and that’s simply why we did it.
Concern about physical impact on Henry
The first thing is, the way I believe the Arsenal stay will work out – and I’m not working for Arsenal so I can’t say that – but I think what you saw against Leeds was a typical scenario where he comes on and plays for a half an hour or a half. Maybe he could start a game or two, I don’t know, but its not like he’s going to play three games a week and be tired. The whole thing will give him a lot of energy.
On if there is a contingency plan at the forward position:
We are continuously looking at options in all different positions if there is anything coming up, and we also have to respect the fact that Juan (Agudelo) is now with the first (United States) National Team. I’m quite certain he will be called into the Olympic team. They have qualifiers in March, the (tournament) in the summer, so there’s going to be a lot of issues with Thierry not playing all the games, and Juan with traveling, and then of course Luke (Rodgers) hopefully is fitter than last year. We’ll work through all those scenarios and see what pops up.
On the team’s defense:
Markus Holgersson is a player that we hope we can announce shortly. He’s a central defender. That’s his best position. He played for Helsingborg who won the league and Cup in Sweden last year. He was their main man in their defense, meaning he was the boss back there. They were the best defensive team in the league. He’s been picked for the Swedish National Team now so he’s traveling with them, actually tomorrow. I’m very confident that he will do well for us. He’s a big physical string defender. In addition to that, we’re working on another very exciting option should Tim end up somewhere else and we feel that we need to add another defender, we have someone in the pocket should that happen.
We have (John) Borrajo now who we believe can be a vey good right fullback. He can really push (Jan Gunnar) Solli on that side. I(f) we need to push Solli somewhere else, he can play there. Borrajo can also play left fullback. We’re still looking for a real cover up on the left fullback side. We’re also close to signing a young American goalkeeper that we have great belief in. So we’re looking to finalize that also hopefully within a week.
On the goalkeeper position and Frank Rost’s future:
Frank’s status will be more known within a week from now. We want to keep Frank in a position where he should be playing but also working with us on the business side. He’s a very smart guy, we used him for various things this season and it worked out very well. Given his age, one idea could be to have him for the coming season and then add this young American so he can work off of Frank. But that’s not decided a hundred percent yet. We believe that this goalkeeper that comes in will have a definite potential to be our future number one goalkeeper.
On the SuperDraft:
We’ve been working very hard on the draft. We came in the first year and we were very, very lucky to be the ones that actually saw the quality that Tim Ream had. The draft this year, there are quite a number of decent players. And we have of course prepared ourselves with a list of about 14 names that we can pick from. We are in the understanding that most of those names will be gone before we come to the table. But we feel we still have a good chance to make a good pick. I’m sure it’s possible to make a good pick at 31, of course it’s not highly likely that you find someone that can strengthen your team, at least in the first season. There was good quality at the combine this year. That’s my impression after watching all the games. There’s a number of players that we like.
It’s just as unlikely as a month ago that someone will come out and do what Tim (Ream) did, you know, go straight into the team and play and strengthen us. But if you look a year ahead, maybe someone can come in and develop. And the quality was better this year, in my opinion, than in the other two years when I watched it.