Loading ...Aug 16 2008
Rangers Confirm Edu to Replace Cuéllar
Rangers, less than a week after having Carlos Cuéllar move on to Aston Villa, have swooped for Toronto FC’s Maurice Edu, seemingly intent on moving him to center back full-time. The 22-year-old moves to Glasgow for £2.5 million, or roughly 1/3 of the Cuéllar money. If you buy into the theory that Rangers need to recoup some of the money they loss because of their early Europe exit, this may be their one move with Villa’s fee. Rangers did acquire Pedro Mendes from Portsmouth for a modest fee, but Edu’s capture could prove more influential.
For TFC, Edu has been playing as a holding mid, but in Beijing for Peter Nowak’s U.S. U23 squad, Edu played well in the middle of the back line. Now moving to the Scottish Premier League, the timing seems to hint Walter Smith plans on him becoming a full time defender.
This is a very risky move for Rangers, who are replacing their best player with a role of the dice. Edu is a very good player who has been slightly overlooked for over a year in both the U.S. national team and MLS, a curious statement given he has broken through with country and was gaining notoriety with club. But Edu deserved more, because he has played at a very high level during that time. With Toronto being a somewhat obscure team last season (bottom of the league standings, in Canada as opposed to the U.S.), Edu was often forgotten, and with Bob Bradley intent on playing his son in a holding role for the national team, he was somewhat unfairly overshadowed internationally. Moving to Glasgow, he will no longer be overshadowed.
Rangers are a huge club, and if he can break the lineup, Maurice Edu becomes the highest profile American playing abroad. He will have to adjust to a new role and do so for a club that will be expect to compete for league and cup titles. If he can make the adjustment, not only will he have made a club move that only DeMarcus Beasley’s can parallel, but he will have also solved a problem for the national team. With the pairing of Oguchi Onyewu and Carlos Bocanegra starting to look like a vulnerability, Edu at center back could be a solution for South Africa.
There is, however, the possibility that Edu stays in the midfield, becoming a holder for Rangers. If he does not change position, I have no doubt he will succeed and become a major part of the club before the end of the season. Edu is too smart, too athletic, and too competitive to fail under those circumstances. Even without that position switch which might help bother club, career, and country, it is an extremely exciting move for Edu and the US-MNT.
On the Major League Soccer side of the coin, a team like Toronto can never truly afford to lose quality players, and in a league where midfielders can dominate, it seems like a big loss on paper. With Toronto on the edge of the playoffs, it could be the difference between postseason play and an early offseason. TFC, however, has a reasonable amount of depth in midfield, and the punch acquired when the club dealt the rights to Brain McBride for Chad Barrett might offset Edu’s loss.
Links
Smith Confirms Maurice Edu Link
Rangers on verge of USA star Edu
Gers confirm Edu arrival
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