Comments on: Is Freddie Ljungberg The Man To Raise Major League Soccer’s Profile? http://www.just-football.com/2008/10/is-freddie-ljungberg-man-to-raise-major/ Football news, views & analysis - Your world football blog Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:55:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Sounder at Heart http://www.just-football.com/2008/10/is-freddie-ljungberg-man-to-raise-major/comment-page-1/#comment-1191 Sounder at Heart Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:52:37 +0000 http://69.89.31.52/~justfoot/soccer-blog/2008/10/is-freddie-ljungberg-the-man-to-raise-major-league-soccers-profile.html#comment-1191 I am totally biased in this, for as a Puget Sound resident and Sounder fan I can only hope for the best, part of what gives me hope about it is that so many people have glossed over the situation in West Ham, it was much more than just a situation of Freddie no longer being good enough as stated here.<br /><br /><em>All this for a 31-year old former Swedish international who was released by West Ham United, no longer deemed good enough. </em><br /><br />But also had to do with the injury issues that plagued Freddie for his last two seasons, but injuries that had him still play a total of 72 matches for club and country. While that isn't a large amount, it is notable that with Seattle he will only play for the club, which will max out at 43 matches if they win the US Open Cup and the Playoffs. He will get rest here in Seattle that he couldn't get in the EPL with its two games a week (FA Cup, Carling Cup, League Cup), plus national team matches.<br /><br />Also people tend to lose sight of the fact that West Ham is in DIRE financial straights.<br />http://sounderatheart.com/2008/10/global-financial-crisis-may-have-a-soccer-impact/<br />The primary funding behind West Ham bankrupted the nation of Iceland, their kit sponsor is bankrupt and can not pay them for being on the jersey anymore, and the West Ham roster is enourmous with over 40 players on the senior side when Ljungberg was let go.<br /><br />Freddie has also recently let out that at the time of training with West Ham he found out some nasty crap concerning his family and wanted to take several weeks off to be at home in Sweden as he couldn't concentrate on the game.<br /><br />Over the summer he was courted by AS Roma, Newcastle and Portsmouth. In every case he had made it clear that he would need time to heal both mentally and physically.<br /><br />There are questions about Freddie playing in MLS and how healthy he is, I cover them at the following links<br /><br />http://sounderatheart.com/2008/10/ljungberg-potential-signing-critiqued-but-why/<br /><br />http://sounderatheart.com/2008/10/ljungberg-critiqued-this-time-the-age-old-question/<br /><br />But it should be notable that if healthy Freddie is likely to put up numbers that would have him as a serious contender for a league MVP. The finalists for MVP are Blanco, Schelotto, and Donovan. Those three averaged 11 goals and 13 assists. A healthy Freddie can do that in a league of this quality of that there shouldn't be any doubt and if SSFC is in the playoffs and Freddie has those numbers he will be a finalist for the '09 MVP. I am totally biased in this, for as a Puget Sound resident and Sounder fan I can only hope for the best, part of what gives me hope about it is that so many people have glossed over the situation in West Ham, it was much more than just a situation of Freddie no longer being good enough as stated here.

All this for a 31-year old former Swedish international who was released by West Ham United, no longer deemed good enough.

But also had to do with the injury issues that plagued Freddie for his last two seasons, but injuries that had him still play a total of 72 matches for club and country. While that isn’t a large amount, it is notable that with Seattle he will only play for the club, which will max out at 43 matches if they win the US Open Cup and the Playoffs. He will get rest here in Seattle that he couldn’t get in the EPL with its two games a week (FA Cup, Carling Cup, League Cup), plus national team matches.

Also people tend to lose sight of the fact that West Ham is in DIRE financial straights.
http://sounderatheart.com/2008/10/global-financial-crisis-may-have-a-soccer-impact/
The primary funding behind West Ham bankrupted the nation of Iceland, their kit sponsor is bankrupt and can not pay them for being on the jersey anymore, and the West Ham roster is enourmous with over 40 players on the senior side when Ljungberg was let go.

Freddie has also recently let out that at the time of training with West Ham he found out some nasty crap concerning his family and wanted to take several weeks off to be at home in Sweden as he couldn’t concentrate on the game.

Over the summer he was courted by AS Roma, Newcastle and Portsmouth. In every case he had made it clear that he would need time to heal both mentally and physically.

There are questions about Freddie playing in MLS and how healthy he is, I cover them at the following links

http://sounderatheart.com/2008/10/ljungberg-potential-signing-critiqued-but-why/

http://sounderatheart.com/2008/10/ljungberg-critiqued-this-time-the-age-old-question/

But it should be notable that if healthy Freddie is likely to put up numbers that would have him as a serious contender for a league MVP. The finalists for MVP are Blanco, Schelotto, and Donovan. Those three averaged 11 goals and 13 assists. A healthy Freddie can do that in a league of this quality of that there shouldn’t be any doubt and if SSFC is in the playoffs and Freddie has those numbers he will be a finalist for the ‘09 MVP.

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